[vkou]

The combined civilian and military deaths in Germany, France, and Britain in both wars (~6 million in the first war, ~9 million in the second, we can even throw in ~2.5 million people who starved to death thanks to British colonial policy in India) pale in comparison to the casualties suffered by the Soviet Union (24 million dead out of 200 million people), and more depressingly, Poland (5.6 million dead out of 35 million people).

The Soviet Union, of course, inherited Imperial Russia's participation in WWI (~3 million dead), as well as the Russian Civil War that immediately followed (Another ~8 million dead).

If you're ever wondering why Russia is so paranoid about maintaining buffer states, and foreign encirclement, look no further than those numbers.

[WalterBright]

I'm not saying you're wrong, but you give an "out of 200 million" for the Soviet Union, but not for the case of Germany, Britain, and France. The denominator is a crucial figure.

Another difference is the death rate in terms of the proportion of men 18-60. Losing that population is more catastrophic than if the deaths are more evenly distributed.

For example, in France after WW1 it became normal for women to marry old men and crippled men. Men who survived WW1 and later WW2 in Germany had their pick of wives, and women tended to not marry at all (WW1) and married foreigners (WW2).

I.e. both rate of deaths and the demographics of the deaths matter a great deal.

[vkou]

The British Empire ruled over more than half a billion souls in 1939. 100 million lived in France and its colonies (Which were heavily drawn on for manpower.) 86 million in Germany.

It's true that the demographic impact of the death toll was more skewed, depending on whether or not the war was happening right on your doorstep, and on whether or not the Nazis were actively trying to liquidate people of your ethnicity.

[WalterBright]

That doesn't mean the British could send a boat halfway around the world and bring back a half billion soldiers to throw into the front, or anything remotely resembling that. So what I'm asking for is stats on British/French/German casualties among their native men. Without such stats, comparisons are not really possible.