Forum Post #6 - Casualties of the 'Great War'

3/9/2015

Choose one of the countries below (must be a European country and can NOT do the same country as somebody else) and explain the following things:
- What things factored in to the number of Soldiers killed, wounded, or captured for your country
+ Take into consideration did they win or lose the war
+ How might the geographical area they were fighting in have contributed to their casualty country.
+ Who were they fighting (ex. an industrialized nation or highly nationalistic nation) and how might that have caused more of less casualties.
- What does their "Casualties as % of Forces" tell us about this countries fighting capabilities, training, and technological development of that country's armed forces?
- Compare your country to the most modern (most Industrialized and Liberalized) country in the world (The United States) and come up with a possible explanation for why your country's statistics (especially Casualties as % of Forces) are higher or lower.

6 Comments

Grace

3/8/2015 06:57:55 am

While the French didn't have the highest number of casualties of the Allied Powers in WWI, they did have 6.1 million, which is a very substantial number and 73.3% of their armed forces (similar to the percentage for Russia, who had 9.1 million casualties). One reason for all these casualties is that, at least at the beginning of the war, France's military strategy was far inferior to the Germans' and they got caught off guard when Germany tried to capture Paris instead of Alsace-Lorraine, which they had taken measures to protect. Another reason for the high number of casualties is that trench warfare was much more dangerous than the classic military theory used in Europe in past wars. What's more, when Germany began to carry out their "Bleed White" strategy (kill so many French that they are forced to surrender), thousands and thousands of French were killed in just a few days. For example, during the first day of the battle of the Somme, there were 50,000 combined French and British casualties. Although they did eventually win the war, the French were facing Germany, a highly industrialized country with advanced weapon technology, such as machine guns and artillery. While French had these as well, the Germans were more than a match for them.

French casualties made up 73.3% of their armed forces during the war, and that proportion is pretty similar to that of the British, who had 3.2 million casualties that made up 35.8% of their armed forces. These numbers can tell us that the capabilities of both the forces combined were pretty equal, and although the war started out with giant French losses, the tide eventually turned and the Allied Powers won the war.

The amount of casualties for the United States was about 323,000 and only 7.1% of their armed forces. This difference between French and U.S. casualties is probably because the U.S. only joined the war at the very end, were highly industrialized and maybe had more advanced technology than the French. Plus, the years at the beginning of the war were especially bloody for the Allied Powers, and trench warfare took its toll on French soldiers much more than on the Americans.

Vlad

3/8/2015 01:41:24 pm

Russia was the largest country that was included in the war. However the largest doesn't mean the most developed and industrialized. According to the data from the table above, Russia had the biggest number od cassualties during thw war. This can be easily explained by russian confidence in that they are the strongest country in the world with the highest population and the most developed technologies. They didn't care about style of fighting, thay had people and a lot of them who were going straight forward to the enemy and dying from different kinds of weapon. Russian people were killed in the plain area, where it was not difficult to shoot people, especially when they are in huge groups. Everybody was having developed weapon what cause russian people to die a lot, and they didn't have any good strategies.

"Casualties as % of Forces" tells us that Russia wasn't trained enough and didn't rely on any strategies, but the amount of people they used to have. Weapon they were fighting with was the same as other coutries had, and even partially worse. People were fighting bravely but died fast.

US was better developed country than Russia, because they got enough power to finish the war. Thanks to their high quality weapons, well designed strategies and trained soldiers, US was finally able to force countries to stop the war. Unlike US, Russia didn't have that power and was disorganised in everything that cause unbelievable casualties during the war.

Rachell Maxfield

3/9/2015 02:57:46 am

In 1882, Italy joined central powers Germany and Austria to make triple Alliance. But then in 1915, they saw the Central Powers as weaker, and joined the Allies after they were promised certain territory. So basically, Italy just joins whoever they think is on the winning side and they can be easily bribed into switching sides.

The problems they had in Italy were that they weren’t well organized, and they didn’t have strong economies at all. They also didn’t have enough materials and they had problems with the minorities where they were nationalistic, but not to the empire. But overall, they weren’t very enthusiastic or motivated to the war.

The US only had 323,018 casualties out of their 4,355,000 mobilized soldiers, but this is mainly because they didn’t join until towards the end of the war and they were a very industrialized country at the time with a solid army that was well trained and could strategize well. But Italy wasn’t very enthusiastic about the war in general, so that can lead to them not truly giving their all and they aren't well prepared so in result, they get killed off easily.

Maria Socha

3/9/2015 04:14:44 am

The British Empire was one of the most modern countries of the time, and they were on the winning side of the War. This I think factored into the percentage of casualties, which was relatively low when compared to other main competitors, such as France, Russia, Germany, and Austria-Hungary. Britain also mostly fought in the trenches, which would result in fewer casualties than Russia would have had fighting in the open. Germany was however an industrialized and nationalistic nation, which would explain the high number of casualties for both nations as, they were very much on a similar level. In comparison to the more modern USA, Britain had a lot more causalities, but I believe that is due to the fact that the US joined in pretty late in the war.

Sarah Oh

3/9/2015 04:42:55 am

In the early 20th century, the British Empire had the largest empire in the world, covering 11,400,000 square miles of territory. The empire included India, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, Rhodesia, Hong Kong, Gibraltar, several islands in the West Indies and various colonies on the African coast. Thanks to this advantage, even though the British Empire did not have enough "native" armed forces, they could get supported from the Dominions which included Canada, New Zealand, Australia, etc. Since the self-governing Dominos could decide whether they wanted to send the troops to the war or not, volunteers were more likely to fight for their roots against the Central Powers. Moreover since the British Empire owned one of the most advanced technology among the allies and opponent countries, such as pilotless drones, aircraft carrier, hydrophones, and poison gas, she could avoid the fatal casualty like Russia and France, by showing 35.8% of total casualty. As Grace mentioned earlier, the reason that the US had the least casualty would have been the fact that they joined the Great War at the end, while the Triple Entente allies had to fight the fiercest war of all time.

Ipek Atalay

3/9/2015 01:15:08 pm

There were many factors that contributed to Germany’s immense loss of WW1. The fact that after Russia it is the German Empire that has had the most casualties definitely says something about their involvement with this war. As Germany was the main country or in other words the most powerful country of the Triple Alliance the fact that they lost the war didn't only mean they were going to suffer majorly but also the fact that even their huge industrial power that at the time was stronger than any other nation couldn't stand against countries like the UK, France or even the US. The fact that the war was mostly fought within Germany’s land was also a major reason why they have had such casualties, with the fact that as the strongest nation in the Triple Alliance they had to fight with nearly everyone at the same time and with a lot of military force. Which needless to say weakened their industrial and military power which was the main quality of theirs that they were relying on. The fact that war profitization, which was basically businesses wanting to benefit from the war that was going on and getting into the weapon industry and increasing prices in order to make more profit which as a result caused the German army to not be able to afford most weaponry.

The fact that even though the biggest loser or at least the country that suffered the biggest setback is the third in comparison in the category of casualties as % of forces, clearly shows that Germany’s high skilled army, equipped by at the time one of the worlds best weaponry and in general that constituted of the most talented individuals of the nation was in full effect. But nevertheless it is still a huge percentage and the biggest reason why was because of Germany’s role as a country in charge of one side and the fact that they were against so many nations at once.

Well I believe the main factor was that America only was in war for a year and they were the only country that actually had a better sort of weaponry or in general an able to compete economy and industry. Thus Germany’s casualties in comparison to the US look like a massacre. Another reason why we have one of the highest killings, wounded soldiers and so on is because this war was fought in our land and furthermore we were the country that had to battle with the best armies in the world and at the same time in different battles. This mere fact proves the fact that the biggest reason why Germany performed so bad in comparison to America is because this whole war even though other nations also lost had been burdened on Germany’s shoulders and even before the war was actually concluded it was inevitable for Germany to avoid such numbers as they carries the responsibilities of the other countries fighting with them like Austria-Hungary and Turkey, which was also a hard burden.

Forum Post #6 - Casualties of the 'Great War'

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