It was one of the bloodiest conflicts in history. Positional warfare, lethal modern technology and tactical experiments by desperate officers proved to be extremely costly. Diseases decimated the soldiers who stayed in the trench hell. How many World War I casualties were there?
The researchers of the Great War often emphasize that the twentieth-century technology collided with the tactics of the previous century. The conflict was expected to end quickly thanks to a daring offensive like in Napoleon's time.
According to many, the new killing tools could even help and… save the lives of soldiers! Couldn't have been more wrong.
It turned out that inventions such as a machine gun, war gases, tanks and planes radically changed the way of warfare. The huge amounts of money allocated by the countries involved in the conflict on the implementation of military projects were not able to break the deadly deadlock in the positional war.
The new situation forced the officers to look for unprecedented ways to gain an advantage. Experimenting with tactics, however, often took place at the cost of human lives. The result was a slaughter that lasted several years, the victims of which should be counted in the millions . How many exactly were there?
The positional warfare was taking huge losses on both sides.
Bloody Positional War
How bloody the trench warfare turned out is best shown by the two great offensives of 1916, at Verdun and on the Somme. They perfectly reveal the helplessness of the command and the lack of an idea to break the enemy's defense. The gigantic commitment on both sides, manifested, inter alia, in the unprecedented mobilization of recruits, did not bring any benefits, but only hundreds of thousands of deaths.
The aim of the Germans, who attacked Verdun in February 1916, was an instant victory thanks to the overwhelming force of artillery. They wanted to literally bleed the French defending the fortress. On the very first day, as many as one million missiles fell on buildings located in an area of approximately 31 square kilometers !
The city, however, defended itself bravely. Seeing this, Erich von Falkenhayn, the commander-in-chief of the German army, threw more and more troops to the front. To no avail - the attackers failed to capture Verdun. After 10 months of fighting, their troops were pushed back to their starting positions.
The balance of the attempt to conquer one of the most fortified places in the world turned out to be disastrous for both sides. The losses on the French side amounted to 400,000 people, including 160,000 killed. The Germans lost 350,000 soldiers. 100,000 of them died.
Murderous Fire
Equally murderous was the great offensive on the Somme River, launched by the British on June 24, 1916. It was expected that the hurricane fire of artillery, firing 3,500 rounds per minute, would almost wipe out the enemy's defenses. Therefore, on July 1, when the infantry launched an assault, several soldiers ... even kicked a ball in front of them.
What was their surprise when it turned out that the fire did not bring the desired effect! Andy Wiest in his book "The History of World War I" cites an account of a British soldier, a witness to the events:
We started the attack from the trenches at 7.30 (...) Suddenly a hail of machine gun bullets rained down towards us and my men started to fall to the ground. (...) I jumped into the funnel (...) the bullets whistled near my head, so that exposing it meant certain death . I didn't see any of our people, but I heard terrible groans and screams from all sides ...
Modern technology changed the face of war for good.
The losses on both sides were gigantic, and the gains - almost none. Five months of fighting allowed the Entente countries to move only 11 km forward. For such a "victory" the British lost as much as 420,000, and the French - 200,000 soldiers. The losses of the Germans reached 450,000 people.
The most tragic day for the attackers was July 14. The acquisition of 5 square kilometers of land cost 80,000 soldiers!
Death Cloud
The deadly toll was taken not only by artillery fire. War gases were used for the first time during World War I. Both the Triple Alliance and the Entente countries used various types of chemical weapons.
The participants of the struggle did not avoid experiments. During the conflict, 63 different substances were used. They were irritants like chlorine, numbing ones like hydrocyanic acid, and stinging ones like mustard gas. The new weapon was designed to intimidate the opponent and exhaust him mentally and physically.
War gases were used for the first time during World War I.
It is estimated that as many as 1.2 million people were victims of combat gases. 91,000 of them died immediately. How many soldiers died later as a result of their injuries, it is impossible to judge. One thing is known - the hope that the use of a terrible weapon would tip the tide of victory to one side soon turned out to be in vain.
Daily life in the trenches
As if that were not enough, the dangers awaited the combatants even during breaks from intense hostilities. The situation in the trenches was extremely difficult. Not only because of the ubiquitous lice. Somehow these were dealt with, for example by placing clothes in an anthill for a few minutes or using a special disinfection station,
The rats were the real plague. Aggressive rodents were literally everywhere. Sometimes they wandered around sleeping soldiers! They were constantly stealing food. They also ate the bodies of the dead, and even attacked the wounded who were unable to defend themselves.
The losses were intensified by sometimes difficult weather conditions. In winter, and in mountainous regions all year round, frostbite, pneumonia and snow blindness were the order of the day. Deaths due to freezing were also not uncommon.
One cannot forget the huge number of victims of infectious diseases. The ubiquitous mud and the prevailing hygienic conditions were conducive to the spread of typhus, dysentery and cholera. To illustrate the scale of the phenomenon, it is enough to mention that in Thessaloniki British losses as a result of diseases, especially malaria, 20 times greater than combat losses! In 1915, the typhus epidemic that affected Serbian and Austrian forces caused ... fighting to be suspended for six months.
An enemy that should not be underestimated was also the so-called "trench foot." This ailment appeared as a result of prolonged, uninterrupted pressure on the feet of the shoes. If the soldier was exposed to moisture at the same time or stayed in low temperature for a long time, he was at risk of infections and even necrosis of the feet. The losses in people because of this were significant. For the French, it was over twenty percent.
Final Balance
The barbaric nature of the first "modern" world conflict has resulted in unimaginable losses. Of the more than 66 million recruits called up for service by the Entente and Triple Alliance states, over 8.5 million lost their lives in total.
The war claimed millions of lives. Is it possible to accurately count the number of victims?
Approximately 30 million people returned home with wounds. Of these, as many as 7 million suffered permanent health damage. Even those who remained physically fit were often mentally crippled. The war was over, but they continued to live it, sometimes for the rest of their lives. At that time, no one had diagnosed or treated posttraumatic neurosis yet.
One more fact should be noted. World War I was the first conflict in which civilians suffered on such a scale. As a result of hunger, disease and warfare in Europe, lost their lives as many as 5 million people who did not wear uniform.
Does this exhaust the balance of losses caused by the apocalypse unleashed by European powers? Not at all. The literature often mentions those who died as a result of the influenza epidemic in 1918-1919 and during post-war border conflicts as victims of the Great War. Depending on the study, their number then reaches up to 60 million people.
Inspiration
World War I through the eyes of a little boy. Will he be able to find and heal his missing father? We recommend John Boyne's book "Stay, then fight" published by the Replika publishing house, which inspired me to write this article.