The First World War brought with it death on a scale never before seen in Europe. Precise casualty figures are difficult to arrive at due to the incompleteness of records and the passage of time; however, a reasonable estimate of the number of soldiers killed is 8.5 million in total. Russia and Germany each had over 1.7 million soldiers killed. Nearly 1.4 million French soldiers were killed and one million soldiers from the British Empire. In addition to these, over 20 million soldiers were wounded. Civilian deaths are very difficult to estimate, but civilian deaths from causes such as war-related starvation and the massacres of various ethnic populations are estimated at around 6.5 million, bringing the total number dead to around 15 million. Even after the Armistice of Compiègne on November 11, 1918, the Allies continued the blockade of Germany, resulting in an additional 100,000 or so civilian deaths in 1919.