At 11 a.m. in France on November 11, 1918 -- the eleventh hour of the day of the eleventh month -- the guns of World War I fell silent. After more than four years of brutal warfare and over 16 million military and civilian deaths, the terms of a general armistice took effect. The war changed maps, introduced horrific methods of warfare, and altered the geopolitical balance of power, with the end of empires and the creation of independent democratic republics in Europe. These photos capture the human toll of what was once called "the war to end all wars."
World War I: Scenes Of Life And Death
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Italian "Arditi" or shock troops wearing gas masks.
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An undated photo shows French soldiers moving a 95 mm cannon at an unknown location in France. A viscount in the Armored Cavalry Branch of the French Army left behind a collection of hundreds of glass plates by an unknown photographer that have only recently been published.
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An undated photo shows French soldiers posing in a trench at Suippes on the Champagne front in eastern France. From the viscount's collection.
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The retreat of King Peter I of Serbia (left, on cart) and his country's troops, following an invasion of Serbia by forces led by Germany, November 1915.