War injuries and France's industrial recovery

Deaths reduced the population, while surviving veterans also needed support and adaptations to employment. Physical injury could prevent a return to a former occupation. Psychological trauma created different obstacles, including an inability to tolerate factory noise after years of artillery bombardment. The comparison with Britain considers how imperial connections offered some veterans opportunities in farming and brought other workers into British industry. France is described as having fewer comparable ways to redistribute labour and production. Verdun illustrates the severity of the fighting, with heavy German losses as well as French losses. Reconstruction involved supporting people and rebuilding productive capacity alongside replacing what the war had destroyed.