Editing Lost Generation (section)

====Military service in the First World War====
The Lost Generation is best known as being the cohort that primarily fought in World War I.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Simpson |first=Trevor |date=17 January 2014 |title=WW1: Can we really know the Lost Generation? |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/24526419 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201024123740/https://www.bbc.com/news/24526419 |archive-date=24 October 2020 |access-date=21 May 2021 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}}</ref> More than 70 million people were mobilized during the First World War, around 8.5&nbsp;million of whom were killed and 21&nbsp;million wounded in the conflict. About 2&nbsp;million soldiers are believed to have been killed by disease, while individual battles sometimes caused hundreds of thousands of deaths.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Herbert |first=Tom |date=11 November 2018 |title=World War 1 in numbers: The mind-blowing scale of WW1 |url=https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/ww1-soldiers-in-numbers-how-many-died-world-war-one-facts-for-armistice-day-a3986761.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210521110112/https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/ww1-soldiers-in-numbers-how-many-died-world-war-one-facts-for-armistice-day-a3986761.html |archive-date=21 May 2021 |access-date=21 May 2021 |website=www.standard.co.uk |language=en}}</ref>

[[File:French trench battle.jpg|thumb|French [[poilu]]s on a battlefield during the First World War]]

Around 60 million of the enlisted originated from the European continent,<ref name=":1" /> which saw its younger men mobilized on a mass scale. Most of Europe's great powers operated peacetime conscription systems where men were expected to do a brief period of military training in their youth before spending the rest of their lives in the army reserve. Nations with this system saw a huge portion of their manpower directly invested in the conflict: 55% of male Italians and Bulgarians aged 18 to 50 were called to military service. Elsewhere the proportions were even higher: 63% of military-aged men in Serbia, 78% in Austro-Hungary, and 81% of military-aged men in France and Germany served. Britain, which traditionally relied primarily on the Royal Navy for its security, was a notable exception to this rule and did not introduce conscription until 1916.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Recruitment: conscripts and volunteers during World War One |url=https://www.bl.uk/world-war-one/articles/recruitment-conscripts-and-volunteers |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210517104804/https://www.bl.uk/world-war-one/articles/recruitment-conscripts-and-volunteers |archive-date=17 May 2021 |access-date=21 May 2021 |website=The British Library}}</ref> Around 5 million British men fought in the First World War out of a total United Kingdom population of 46&nbsp;million including women, children, and men too old to bear arms.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland – British Empire {{!}} NZHistory, New Zealand history online |url=https://nzhistory.govt.nz/war/united-kingdom-facts |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210521110112/https://nzhistory.govt.nz/war/united-kingdom-facts |archive-date=21 May 2021 |access-date=21 May 2021 |website=nzhistory.govt.nz}}</ref>

Additionally, nations recruited heavily from their colonial empires. Three million men from around the British Empire outside the United Kingdom served in the British Army as soldiers and laborers,<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Commonwealth and the First World War |url=https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/commonwealth-and-first-world-war |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210727022235/https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/commonwealth-and-first-world-war |archive-date=27 July 2021 |access-date=21 May 2021 |website=www.nam.ac.uk |language=en}}</ref> while France recruited 475,000 soldiers from its colonies.<ref>{{Cite web |title=French Army and the First World War |url=https://spartacus-educational.com/FWWfrenchA.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210323211505/https://spartacus-educational.com/FWWfrenchA.htm |archive-date=23 March 2021 |access-date=21 May 2021 |website=Spartacus Educational}}</ref> Other nations involved include the United States which enlisted 4 million men during the conflict and the Ottoman Empire which mobilized 2,850,000 soldiers.<ref>{{Cite web |title=War Losses (Ottoman Empire/Middle East) |url=https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/war_losses_ottoman_empiremiddle_east |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210521163750/https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/war_losses_ottoman_empiremiddle_east |archive-date=21 May 2021 |access-date=21 May 2021 |website=encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net}}</ref>

Beyond the extent of the deaths, the war had a profound effect on many of its survivors, giving many young men severe mental health problems and crippling physical disabilities.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Alexander |first=Caroline |title=The Shock of War |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-shock-of-war-55376701/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210418065816/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-shock-of-war-55376701/ |archive-date=18 April 2021 |access-date=21 May 2021 |website=Smithsonian Magazine |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=14 August 2020 |title=What happened to the 8 million people who were disabled during WW1? |url=https://www.historyextra.com/period/first-world-war/world-war-one-first-disabled-disability-history-plastic-surgery/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210304131605/https://www.historyextra.com/period/first-world-war/world-war-one-first-disabled-disability-history-plastic-surgery/ |archive-date=4 March 2021 |access-date=21 May 2021 |website=HistoryExtra |language=en}}</ref> The war also unsettled many soldiers' sense of reality, who had gone into the conflict with a belief that battle and hardship was a path to redemption and greatness. When years of pain, suffering, and loss seemed to bring about little in the way of a better future, many were left with a profound sense of disillusionment.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Scott |first=A. O. |date=20 June 2014 |title=A War to End All Innocence |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/22/arts/the-enduring-impact-of-world-war-i.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210521162246/https://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/22/arts/the-enduring-impact-of-world-war-i.html |archive-date=21 May 2021 |access-date=21 May 2021 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=7 April 2020 |title=The Lost Generation: Who They Are and Where The Name Came From |url=https://www.familysearch.org/blog/en/who-is-the-lost-generation/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200830204820/https://www.familysearch.org/blog/en/who-is-the-lost-generation/ |archive-date=30 August 2020 |access-date=21 May 2021 |website=FamilySearch Blog |language=en-US}}</ref>