[History by Numbers] Somme statistics
Counting the cost of the largest battle of WW1 on the Western Front
(This article was originally written to mark the centenary of the Battle of the Somme in 2016.)
If ever there were a military campaign dominated by numbers, it is the 141 days of the Battle of the Somme in 1916. The first day of the battle, 1 July, was the single worst in British army history for casualties. (To be clear, ‘casualties’ in this article means those killed or wounded, and ‘losses’ only those killed – these distinctions have been confused in some accounts of the battle.)
On that first day, around 100,000 British men went ‘over the top’ in the start of the Allies’ sustained attempt to break through the German lines along 15 miles of front and deplete German manpower. By the end of that one day, 19,240 British troops had been killed, and 38,230 injured – so nearly two-fifths of the men who were sent out became casualties almost immediately. By comparison, the Germans suffered 8000 casualties on that day, with a further 4200 taken prisoner, and 7000 French men were killed or wounded. All of this was for the capture of a mere three square miles of territory.
