World War 2
Counting the Cost of War
It is estimated that up to 80 million people died as a result of the Second World War, roughly 30 million soldiers and 50 million civilians lost their lives in what was the deadliest war the planet has ever seen, wiping out around 3% of the world population at the time.
The Soviet Union suffered the most grievous losses, with an estimated 22-28 million casualties. With around 10-12 million soldiers dead or missing and roughly 10-16 million civilians killed. While a lot of the Russian civilians were caught up in the savagery and brutality of the German Army's onslaught early on in the war, a lot of the Soviet civilians; the majority of them Ukrainians and White Russians, died as a result of deprivation, reprisal and forced labour.
In relative terms, Poland suffered worst of all the combatant countries. Roughly eight million people; one in four of the population, had died. Most were civilian victims of war crimes and crimes against humanity during the occupation by Nazi Germany. The death toll in the Polish capital, Warsaw, was greater than the combined wartime casualties of Britain and the United States.
In Yugoslavia civil and guerrilla war killed at least a million people. The number of casualties, military and civilian, in Eastern Europe was swollen by the ferocity of the war and the German racial oppression of Jews and Slavs. Nevertheless, casualties were high enough in France, Italy and the Netherlands. Before June 1940 and after November 1942 the French Army lost 200'000 men, and 400'000 civilians died in air raids or sent to concentration camps. Italian losses amounted to 330'000, half of which were civilians. In the Netherlands there were 200'000 deaths, all but 10'000 of which were civilians; died as a result of bombing or deportation. Their oppressor, Germany lost five and a half million military personnel dead or missing and three million civilians.
The Western Allies did not suffer such horrific losses, but the price of victory was high. The British armed forces lost 380'000 men, while the British civilian death count was around 80'000, most as a result of bombing by the Luftwaffe and the German use of their V-weapons. In the United States there were no civilian casualties of war. American military losses racked up at nearly 420'000 dead or missing. In contrast, the Japanese lost around two million men in battle and nearly a million Japanese civilians perished during the war.