Title: The human cost of World War I
Headings: The human cost of World War I
The human cost of World War I
Contents
The death toll
Grief and commemoration
War cemeteries
The wounded and disabled
Prosthetic limbs
‘Shell shock’
Neurological treatments
Anti-war sentiment
A Farewell to Arms
War films

Content: The human cost of World War I
The human cost of World War I
World War I took a profound toll on all its participants, whether servicemen and civilians. The human cost of World War I is difficult to quantify but
Contents
1 The death toll
2 Grief and commemoration
3 War cemeteries
4 The wounded and disabled
5 Prosthetic limbs
6 ‘Shell shock’
7 Neurological treatments
8 Anti-war sentiment
9 A Farewell to Arms
10 War films
The death toll
Conservative estimates tally World War I casualties at 12 million dead and 20 million severely wounded. In reality, both figures are probably much higher. Including deaths from combat, disease and missing soldiers, each of the major powers had losses in the millions. Germany and Russia lost by far the most personnel, though Russian record-keeping was so inept that its losses will never be accurately known, even to the nearest 100,000. Italy, which entered the war in mid-1915 and was not significantly involved on the Western Front, lost an enormous number of men, particularly in 1917. The losses incurred by British dominions like Canada, Australia and New Zealand were much smaller in total but more profound, given their small populations. Grief and commemoration
These alarming death tolls prompted a wave of grief and introspection across Europe, as governments looked for ways to commemorate the dead and families sought to mourn them. Years of sadness fell on European society after the armistice. As historian Jay Winter put it, the people of Europe imagined themselves “as survivors, perched on a mountain of corpses”.