The Impact of the War 923

German Republic in Berlin. William II blamed socialists and Jews for the
overthrow of the empire and then fled across the Dutch border. On
November 11, 1918, a representative of the provisional German govern­
ment and General Foch signed an armistice in a railroad car in the
middle of the forest near Compiegne, north of Paris. Celebrations in
London, Paris, and New York lasted for days. The mother of the poet Wil­
fred Owen received news that he had been killed as the church bells of

her village were ringing for victory. A French veteran, tiring of the street
festivities in his town, went at dusk to a cemetery. There he came upon a
woman crying next to the tomb of her husband. Their small boy was with
her, playing with a tricolor flag. Suddenly the boy cried out, “Papa, we’ve

won!”

The Impact of the War

There had been nothing like the Great War in history. About 6,000 people
had been killed each day for more than 1,500 days. On average, more than
900 French and 1,300 German soldiers were killed each day during the
more than four years of war. Nearly 74 million soldiers were mobilized. Of
the 48 million men who served in the Allied armies, at least 18 million were
casualties, not including the hundreds of thousands listed as missing. The
Central Powers mobilized 25.5 million men and had 12.4 million casual­
ties, again not counting the missing. In all, approximately 9.4 million men
were killed or “disappeared,” 21.2 million wounded (of whom an estimated
7 million may have been left permanently disabled), and 7.6 million pris­
oners of war. Many—perhaps millions—of civilians died from war-related
causes, principally related to not having enough to eat. As Table 22.1
shows, the Austro-Hungarian, Russian, and French armies suffered pro­
portionally more than the other major combatants. Of all French troops
mobilized during the war, 16.8 percent were killed (compared to 15.4 per­
cent of German soldiers). Furthermore, about 50 million people died in a
worldwide influenza epidemic in 1918—1919 that killed more people in
Europe than did the war.
But sheer numbers, however daunting, do not tell the whole story. Of
the wounded who survived, many were condemned to spend the rest of
their lives—shortened lives, in many cases—in veterans’ hospitals. Soldiers
who had lost limbs or who were mutilated in other ways became a common
sight in European cities, towns, and villages after the war. Europe seemed
a continent of widows and spinsters; so many men were killed in the prime
of life that the birthrate fell markedly after the war. Support for families of
the dead soldiers and invalids unable to work strained national budgets.
War cemeteries stretched across northern France and Belgium. Warfare
had changed. The Battle of Verdun had lasted ten months, that of Gallipoli
more than eight months, and the Battle of Somme in 1916 more than five