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All the major combatant countries experienced horendous casualties. The defective tactics was made clear to the British at the Somme in 1916. After the professional British Army was desimated in 1914-15, Lord Kitchner called on the British to volunteer for the Army. The Somme was the testing ground for this new volunteer Army. It was nothing short of a castastophe. The first day of the Somme was the bloodiest day in the history of the British Army. More than 20,000 British soldiers were killed outright and 60,000 injured in a single day. Incrediably about 60 per cent of British Army officers were killed that day. The Somme offensive was conducted from July 1 to November 18, 1916. It was planned as the decisive breakthrough for the Allies. Instead it turned into a slow battle of attrition resulting in more than a million casualties. Consider the impact of 70,000 American deahs in Vietnam and the impact on American society. Than you begin to appreciate the impact of World War I on Europe. The Somme was just one battle. The French-German struggle over Verdun was an even more bloody struggle. The German commnder designed the Verdun campaign to bleed the French Army. He was successful in doing just that. After Verdun the French Army was near mutiny and no longer capable of offensive opperations. The Germans were generally better situated on the Western Front than the Allies, but German casualties at Verdun and other offensives were also sizeable. The Germans had to fight on two fronts and carry the bulk of the fightening against the much larger number of men mobilized by the Allies. Losses by the Russians on the Eastern Front were even more horrendous. This was due to both the incompetence of Russian commanders and the fact that Russia did not have the industrial capacity to arm and equip the number of men mobilized. Thus Russian armies compared to the Germans were poorly armed and supported. Russian soldiers, for example, were never issued gas masks. The terrible losses eventually led to the abdication of the Tsar and eventually to the Bloshevick Revolution.
The defective tactics was made clear to the British at the Somme in 1916. After the professional British Army was desimated in 1914-15, Lord Kitchner called on the British to volunteer for the Army. The Somme was the testing ground for this new volunteer Army. It was nothing short of a castastophe. The first day of the Somme was the bloodiest day in the history of the British Army. More than 20,000 British soldiers were killed outright and 60,000 injured in a single day. Incrediably about 60 per cent of British Army officers were killed that day. The Somme offensive was conducted from July 1 to November 18, 1916. It was planned as the decisive breakthrough for the Allies. Instead it turned into a slow battle of attrition resulting in more than a million casualties. Consider the impact of 70,000 American deahs in Vietnam and the impact on American society. Than you begin to appreciate the impact of World War I on Europe. The Somme was just one battle.
The French population only minimally changed after the Franco-Prussin War (1870-71). The Germn population was nuch larger and industrial oroduction outpaced France as well. The difference in World War I was that France this time had powerful allies, largely thnks to Kaiser Wilhelm II disaterous fireign policy. The French-German struggle over Verdun was the most bloody struggle on the Western Front. The German commnder designed the Verdun campaign to break the French Army. He was largely successful in doing just that. After Verdun the French Army was near mutiny and no longer capable of major offensive opperations. France mobilized 8.4 million men to fight the War out of a popultion of 40 million. That was about 40 percent of the male population. Other than Russia, France paid the highest price among the Allies in terms of casualties. Nearly 1.4 million Frenchmen were killed in the War and 4.3 million wounded. Nearly a third were permanently handicapped. About 0.5 million were captured. [Shirer] Some 15 percent of the male population was lost or handicpoed as a result of the War. Even worse about 60 percent of the male population between the ages of 18 and 28 years were lost or permanently handicapped. As so often phrased--France essentially lost an enitire generation. This does not include the civilan casulties. They were afraction of the military casualties, but were not negligible. And in recennt years modern research has revised the numbers up. The Western front was largely fought in northern France with only a small portion south western Belgium. Some 40,000 civilans were killed in the War. [Pedroncini] and this is still probably a low westimate. They were killed as a result of the fighting, although the French Government evacuted civilians from the front-line areas. There were also German shelling of Paris and other cities. The Pris gun was one of the lrgest artillery pieces ever used and it wa aure terror weapon. Other caualties resulted from German forced labior and food shortages. The forced lbor campsere not as bad as Word War II NAZI camps but they were bad enough.
Following the Napoleonic Wars in thw19th century it became clear that Germany was moving toward unification. The question became whether it would be under the aegis of Prussia or Austria. After the faulue of the liberal Revolution of 1848 there was no possibility of a liberal German union. Under Chancellor Bismarck's astute diplomacy, militaristic Prussia emerged as the unifying force. A unified German Empire was built around the Prussian Kingdom with its deep military tradition. It was achieved with three short wars with Denmark, Austria, and then France that did little damage and shed only mininal blood. Unification created the most powerful country in Europe. Germany (the Holy Roman Empire) throughout the long medieval era and early modern period was by far potentially the most powerful force in Europe, but because of disunity was not dominant. Finally with unification the Germans had the most powerful state in Europe. And tragically the German people became acustomed in the 19th century to thinking of war as a low-cost tool of national policy. And the Army became the country's most pretigious national institution. And Kaiser Wilhelm rembering the excitement of the Franco-Prussian War from his boyhhod and the accolades it brought to his grandfather and Chncelor Bismarck. He was desired to leave his mark on German history. Largely due to Kaiser Wilhelm's diplomacy, World War I proved not to be a short war and Germany was forced to fight a two-front war of attrition. And while Germany had the most powerful army in Europe which gave it an advantage in a shirt war. Germany's smaller population, lack of raw materials, and need to import food meant that it was poorly equipped for an extended war of attrition. While not prepared for a lengthy war of attrition which after the French Miracle on the Marne Germany was forced to fight. The Germans achieved one advantage on the Western Front. As the trench lines were began to form in a march to the sea, the Germans got much of the high-ground and as a result their soldiers generally had better conditions (1914). And as they occupied most of Belgium and norther France, they despite being the aggresor, benefitted from the advantage of the defense. The machinegun in paricilar was especially effective as a defensive weapon. To win back the lost territory, it would be the Allies who would have to attack. And the belligerants on the Western Front found this could be terribly costly. Unfortunately the generals at the front did not learn this as quickly as the men a at the front. The trenches created, as the British found on the Somme, a curtain of death for any attacking force. The Germans were generally better situated on the Western Front than the Allies and for the bost part took a defensive position. Falkenhayn set out to destroy the French Army at Verdun (1916). He nearly suceeded, but the casulties also seriously weakened the German Army. The Germans had to fight on two fronts and carry the bulk of the fighting against the much larger number of men mobilized by the Allies. Finally the Germans because the leadership saw the war of attrition was not only weakening the Army, but undermining the Home Front. This meant that to stave off defeat, Germany had to take the offensive. Their great 1918 offensive, however, not only failed, but the resumption of unrestructed submarine warfare, had brought America ino the War. America had virtually no army when it entered the War, but set in motion plans to build a 4 million man American Expoditiinary Force (AEF) and commit it to the Western front (1917). The Siegfried line cracked and the Germans asked for an armitice (1918). Germany and Austria-Hungary even with a fraction of the AEF committed suffered massive casuaties--over 7 million men each. Only Russia suffered greater casualties. Even if not killed, the casualties with the new gas weapons sufferd terribly debilitating wounds. Nearly 1.8 million Germans were killed--virtully an entire generation of young men were killed or wounded. France suffered fewer caualties, but a higher portion compared to its smaller population. The British and Americans suffered far fewer casulaties. The German people were staggered. Nothing in their modern history had prepared them for casualties of such magnitude. And they did not understand how with their powerful Army and the sacrifices they made, how they could have lost the War -- especially after winning on the Eastern Front. The public in general felt passionately that there must never again be another War. And it was the casualties that were most in their mind. Af first only a minority of right-wing zealots wanted another War to redeem Germany's honor. Memorials to the fallen as in the Allied countries appeared all over Germany.
Losses by the Russians on the Eastern Front were even more horrendous. This was due to both the incompetence of Russian commanders and the fact that Russia did not have the industrial capacity to arm and equip the number of men mobilized. Thus Russian armies compared to the Germans were poorly armed and supported. Russian soldies, for example, were never issued gas masks. The terrible losses eventually led to the abdication of the Tsar and eventually to the Bloshevick Revolution..
The United States entered World War I after the major combatants had been fighting for 3 years (April 1917). There was no large army to deploy. The United States did not have a substantial standing army. The Army had to be recruited, equipped, and trained. The American Expeditionary Force (AEF) was transported to France before they were trained. The lead elemdnts were traned in France. This there were no substabntial American casualties in 1917. Amerivan units did not enter combat until the German Spring Offensive (1918). And then only a part of the AEF was deployed to prevent a German break through. The AEF was not deployed in force until the Allied Hundered Day Offensive (August-November 1918). The offensive was conduted lsargely by the British and Commonwealth countries and the American AEF. The French Army were no longe capable of extensive offensive operations. Thus the AEF was involved in extensive combat for only 3 months. but it was 3 months oif heavy fighting that broke through the German lines and forced the Germans to ask for an armitice. Overall the United Stayes suffered 53,402 combat deaths. There were 63,114 other dearhs, most from disease. These occured both in Frnce and in U.S. training camps. Total deaths amounted to 116,516. There were also 204,002 men wounded. An additional 3,350 men were missing. Most of these men were killed, but their bodies not recovered or identified. One of the unidentified bodies was of course interned at Arlington Cemetary as the Unknown Soldier. American losses were relatively limited compared to the other major combatant countries. Given that most of the combat deaths occurred in a 3-month period is testimony to the aggressive deployment of the AEF during the Hundered Days Campaign.
Pedroncini, Guy.
Public Brocasting Service. "WW I casualty and death tables." Precise data on World War I casualties and deaths do not exist. And thre are disputes over the available data. The various belligerant countries had various statistical systems of uneven strength and accuracy. Also in the chaos of the war, records were lost and destroyed. This means that there are differences between various data bases. We have used an effort by PBS to assess the various data bases. There are other estimates, but this seems to be a reasonable neutral effort to assess the casualties and deaths.
Shirer, William. The Collapse of the Third Republic.
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