Stephen's Study Room:
British Military & Criminal History in the period 1900 to 1999.
Introduction
Although only lasting the four years from August 1914 to November 1918, the Great War (later called the First World War) claimed an extremely high number of casualties. The UK lost far more personnel in the First World War, than in any conflict since including the 2nd World War.
The UK's National War Memorial - The Cenotaph in Whitehall (Stephen Stratford 2002)
I also include background information about several war grave cemeteries and other memorials, which contain the details of several service personnel referenced by this site. This information could not have been provided without the assistance of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's excellent web site. Any serious research can't be conducted without visiting this site.
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
The Imperial War Graves Commission was formed in 1917. It was the only organisation to be charged with the commemoration of all the war dead from its member countries. Following the establishment of the Commonwealth, the commission was renamed to its present title. The The Commonwealth War Graves Commission has an extremely useful web site.
The cost of the Commission is shared between by its member countries, in proportion to the number of that country's graves and memorials. The member governments and their ratio of contribution is show in the following table.
| Country | Percentage
of costs |
| Australia | 5.91% |
| Canada | 9.88% |
| India | 2.23% |
| New Zealand | 2.10% |
| South Africa | 2.07% |
| United Kingdom | 77.81% |
World War One Losses
The table below contains the figures for losses during World War One (source: Microsoft Encarta 2002)
| Country | Mobilised | Killed | Wounded | POW/Missing | Total | % of Mobilised |
| Russia | 12,000,000 | 1,700,000 | 4,950,000 | 2,500,000 | 9,150,000 | 76.3% |
| France | 8,410,000 | 1,357,800 | 4,266,000 | 537,000 | 6,160,800 | 73.3% |
| British Empire | 8,904,467 | 908,371 | 2,090,212 | 191,652 | 3,190,235 | 35.8% |
| Italy | 5,615,000 | 650,000 | 947,000 | 600,000 | 2,197,000 | 39.1% |
| USA | 4,355,000 | 126,000 | 234,300 | 4,500 | 364,800 | 8.4% |
| Japan | 800,000 | 300 | 907 | 3 | 1,210 | 0.2% |
| Romania | 750,000 | 335,706 | 120,000 | 80,000 | 535,706 | 71.4% |
| Serbia | 707,343 | 45,000 | 133,148 | 152,958 | 331,106 | 46.8% |
| Belgium | 267,000 | 13,716 | 44,686 | 34,659 | 93,061 | 34.9% |
| Greece | 230,000 | 5,000 | 21,000 | 1,000 | 27,000 | 11.7% |
| Portugal | 100,000 | 7,222 | 13,751 | 12,318 | 33,291 | 33.3% |
| Montenegro | 50,000 | 3,000 | 10,000 | 7,000 | 20,000 | 40.0% |
| Allied Total | 42,188,810 | 5,152,115 | 12,831,004 | 4,121,090 | 22,104,209 | 52.4% |
| Germany | 11,000,000 | 1,773,700 | 4,216,058 | 1,152,800 | 7,142,558 | 64.9% |
| Austria-Hungary | 7,800,000 | 1,200,000 | 3,620,000 | 2,200,000 | 7,020,000 | 90.0% |
| Turkey | 2,850,000 | 325,000 | 400,000 | 250,000 | 975,000 | 34.2% |
| Bulgaria | 1,200,000 | 87,500 | 152,390 | 27,029 | 266,919 | 22.2% |
| Central Powers Total | 22,850,000 | 3,386,200 | 8,388,448 | 3,629,829 | 15,404,477 | 67.4% |
| All Total | 65,038,810 | 8,538,315 | 21,219,452 | 7,750,919 | 37,508,686 | 57.7% |
The term "British Empire" encompasses the UK, dominions and other dependent countries.
World War Two Losses
The following table lists the approximate casualty figures for the Second World War. The graph that follows the table illustrates the extent of the war dead from the former USSR, China, Germany and Poland. The figures for the USSR and China have very high civilian casualties due to the atrocities committed in those countries by Germany and Japan respectively.
The International Military Tribunal (IMT) dealt with major crimes committed by German personnel.
The International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE) dealt with major crimes committed by Japanese personnel.
Memorial to USSR war dead of WWII located by the Imperial War Museum (Stephen Stratford 2005).
Memorial to Australian War Dead of both world wars near Hyde Park (Stephen Stratford 2006).
| Country | Military Deaths | Civilian Deaths | Total |
| USSR | 10,000,000 | 10,000,000 | 20,000,000 |
| China | 3,500,000 | 10,000,000 | 13,500,000 |
| Germany | 3,500,000 | 3,800,000 | 7,300,000 |
| Poland | 120,000 | 5,300,000 | 5,420,000 |
| Japan | 1,700,000 | 380,000 | 2,080,000 |
| Yugoslavia | 300,000 | 1,300,000 | 1,600,000 |
| Romania | 200,000 | 465,000 | 665,000 |
| France | 250,000 | 360,000 | 610,000 |
| British Empire | 452,000 | 60,000 | 512,000 |
| Italy | 330,000 | 80,000 | 410,000 |
| USA | 400,000 | 0 | 400,000 |
| Hungary | 120,000 | 280,000 | 400,000 |
| Czechoslovakia | 10,000 | 330,000 | 340,000 |
| TOTALS | 20,882,000 | 32,355,000 | 53,237,000 |
The Differences between both World Wars
For the UK the Second World War lasted from September 1939 until May 1945. Yet in this period 382, 677 personnel were killed. Compare this with the 887,282 personnel killed in the period August 1914 to November 1918. For every 10 UK persons killed in the 1939-45 war, 23 were killed in the 1914-8 war. This can be explained by the mass slaughter that occurred at the major battles in the 1914-18 war. There were numerous battle in the 1914-18 war which claimed almost as many empire casualties as the total war dead for the 1939-45 war.
India was the only country in the 1914-18 war who have more people with unknown graves than with actual graves.
For the UK during the 1914-18 war, almost the same number of personnel have a known and unknown grave. Compare this with the UK figures for the 1939-45 war. The huge use of shelling in the 1914-18 war meant that many soldiers were never found, or were buried with a grave stone titled "A Soldier of the Great War".
Unknown Soldiers
Due to the massive loss of live during the First World War (called the Great War at the time), it was felt necessary to commemorate the loss of live and the huge number of service personnel who have no known grave. For example, the UK has more WWI service personnel with no known grave (409,774) than the total UK WWII service personnel killed (known and unknown graves: 244,467 and 138,201 respectively giving a total of 382,677).
Consequently, several countries established the commemoration of a grave containing the remains of an unknown service person. Some countries such as the USA have an Unknown Soldier from several wars. Other countries, such as the UK and France, have one Unknown Warrior who represents those service personnel killed during World War One and subsequent conflicts.
With the advances made in DNA analysis and other scientific techniques, it is extremely unlikely that new graves containing unidentified service personnel will be possible.