First World War Casualties

When World War One began, no one could have predicted not only the duration of the war but also the number of men who would lose their lives. In fact, when the war was declared in August 1914 there were celebrations in the streets across Europe’s capital cities.

Even those who envisaged a longer war than others could not have know the horrors soldiers would experience as they endured trench warfare, or how Ypres would go from a fine example of a medieval city to a city of rubble. By 1918, Ypres lay in ruins and the lands that surrounded it had been the site of tens of thousands of deaths. The battles of the Somme and Verdun were particularly bloody, taking the lives of thousands each day as the military struggled to juggle well-practiced but outdated tactics with modern but unreliable weaponry.

Below is a table highlighting the number of people who lost their lives across each of the main countries that took part in World War One. Please note that these figures are rounded up and the total per section (i.e. killed, wounded etc.) will not necessarily equal the total figure.