11 Facts About World War One Casualties | History Hit

11 Facts About World War One Casualties

Alex Browne

02 Aug 2018

Here are 11 facts that try to covey a sense of the massive, unprecedented slaughter of World War One. This section makes grim reading and viewing – but the war was extremely grim.

Although in terms of the scale of the slaughter World War One was surpassed by World War Two, the sense of pointless and wasteful loss of life that the meeting of antiquated tactics with industrial weaponry created, remains unparalleled.

1. Total casualties caused directly by the war are estimated at 37.5 million

105 years ago the battle of the Somme raged on into its second day. 60,000 British casualties we recorded on its first day and by its close in November 1916 over a million men had been killed or wounded. It is the bloodiest battle in British military history and in Germany, the battle was described as the bloody field grave of the German army. It has become a byword for futile slaughter; but is that reputation deserved? In this archive episode, Paul Reed a military historian, author and battlefield guide joins the podcast. Paul has immense knowledge of both the First and Second World Wars and guides Dan through the opening day of the battle on the 1 July and the following bloody weeks and months of conflict.
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2. Approximately 7 million combatants were maimed for life

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3. Germany lost the most men, with 2,037,000 killed and missing in total

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4. On average 230 soldiers perished for every hour of fighting

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5. 979,498 British and Empire soldiers died

Remembering the history of one the most feared regiments of World War One the Harlem Hellfighters.
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See a Commonwealth War Dead: First World War Visualised – based on figures from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

6. 80,000 British soldiers suffered shell shock (roughly 2% of all that were called up)

Shell shock was an incapacitating mental illness believed to be brought on by intense sustained artillery shelling.

7. 57.6% of all combatants became casualties

8. It cost the Allies $36,485.48 to kill an opposing serviceman – significantly more than it cost the Central Powers

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Niall Ferguson makes these estimations in The Pity of War.

9. At nearly 65% the Australian casualty rate was the highest of the war

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10. 11% of France’s entire population was killed or wounded

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11. On the Western Front total casualties were 3,528,610 dead and 7,745,920 wounded

Top up your knowledge of the key events of World War One with this audio guide series on HistoryHit.TV. Listen Now

The Allies lost 2,032,410 dead and 5,156,920 wounded, The Central Powers 1,496,200 dead and 2,589,000 wounded.

Alex Browne