First World War British Casualties

[carpetowl]

Does anybody know of a breakdown of WW1 British battlefield casualty figures by class of weaponry used? I'd be really interested in finding out what percentages were caused by: rifle/machine gun/sniper fire; gas; artillery fire; aerial bombardment; mines; grenades; other (e.g. disease, cause unknown etc). Thanks in advance for any help.

[dotty.]

not sure what you mean by British battlefield really, do you just want to know about British casualties? British Military casualties seem to have been put at 3,050,000. that's KIA and injured together. have you tried the Imperial war museum site or the national archive?

[Davethedog]

I really don't think casualtys could be that specific even if you wanted. I think if your in a battle all of the above are in use. Don't forget that many thousands were never found and are still under the poppies.

[heathfield]

It seems disease accounted for about one third of deaths amongst the military.

[bert_h]

I don't think the information exists. My impression from contemporary accounts is that the relatives of casualties were only told either "killed in action", "died of wounds", or "missing, presumed killed/dead", and that the official records said no more than that.

[carolegif]

A few years ago, a man researching in Geneva for a book about Australian casualties in WW1 came across some record cards in a cabinet. Turned out it was a record of every casualty (on either side) during WW1. They said it would take about 5 years to be put online, so we will just have to wait a couple more years for it.

[paddywak]

On the Menin Gate Ypres, the names of nearly 55,000 British and Commonwealth soldiers who just disappeared into the mud of the Ypres Salient which was in itself just a relatively small part of the Western Front. Just what was the cause of these death of these men is impossible to say, their bodies just disappeared. Incidentally if you're ever in the area of Ypres every night at 19.00 hrs they close the the road through the gate and the men of the fire brigade bands play the Last Post a very emotive piece at any time but in that place in the presence of the names of all those lost men even the hardest person would be moved.

[santhan]

I am not sure about but i remember a bit. Class of weaponry used might be rifle, gun fire mines and aerial bombardment. I gave this list because WW1 period (years) did not have much advanced weapons when compared to WW2.
I just tried to answer you. Please ignore mistakes if i gave anything wrong.

[andy1512]

There are no figures recorded as to the cause of death for the individual or ranks of men who died in the 1st war. However all sides do agree that most of the battle casualties were killed or injured by machine guns and artillery.

Just a note on WW1 after the war ended more people were killed by the flu epidemic which struck in 1918 than in the whole war.

[carpetowl]

Thanks to everybody that responded. I realise that such statistics are extremely difficult to create and that many men died, as pojnted out by bert_h and paddywack for reasons the precise nature of which will always be unknown. 'Killed in action' was considered an appropriate 'catch-all' description. The reason for my question might interest you all. I'm researching the content of public school OTC training during the years leading up to the Great War. One school's newly formed OTC group, was addressed by a retired general in 1909. He told them that: 'In the Franco-German war [1870-71] the proportion of casualties due to rifle fire was 94 per cent. The remaining six percent being divided between the artillery, the sword and the lance. The proportion was not so high now, but it could be taken at 75% or 80% so that the values of careful instruction in rifle shooting was obvious'. So that many thousands of youngsters were instructed in rifle shooting which, when it came to it, was somewhat obsolete (as pointed out by Andy1512) most casualties (presumably on both sides) were caused through machine-gun or artillery fire. Although single-shot snipers would have counted for many deaths (especially among officers) as a proportion of the total, this figure was probably low. Anyway - thanks again to all