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The cost of World War I
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The human cost of World War I was massive. A total of 65 million men fought in the war. Of these, atleast 8.5 million died and more than 21 million were seriously injured. More than 6 million civilians (people not in the military forces) also died as a result of the war. Among the countries involved in the war, Russia and Germany suffered the most loss of life in battle. Many of the dead were never identified, and thousands more just disappeared. Thousands of surviving soldiers were disabled and disfigured, and most were left with emotional scars for the rest of their lives. Entire towns and villages were wiped out and the economies of Europe were ruined. At the end of 1918, people hoped they would never again have to experience the death and destruction they had lived through for those four years. In Germany, one in three men who had been aged 19 to 22 when the war started had died by November 1918.