At a conservative estimate...one sailor, soldier or airman was killed for every 10 seconds the war lasted; and it continued in the end for fifty-one months.
Wow.
A sobering statistic
Was browsing through A Military Atlas of the First World War by Arthur Banks today and came across this passage on page 13:
Wow.
Wow.
"We don't stop playing games because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing games." - Anon
For reasons I don't know the Scots suffered far more than other nations in the UK. If every Scottish person that died in WW1 was to walk past my house, one every 10 seconds, it would take them 18 days to walk past (and that is just the ones that died not the injured). A different way of understanding the number of people that died.
Of the Scots who marched away, 26.4% did not come home: the percentage for the rest of the UK and Ireland was 11.8% and for France 16.8%.
Only the Serbs and Turks had a higher proportion of participant deaths than Scotland.
Of the Scots who marched away, 26.4% did not come home: the percentage for the rest of the UK and Ireland was 11.8% and for France 16.8%.
Only the Serbs and Turks had a higher proportion of participant deaths than Scotland.
Due to the prevalence of dawn attacks on the trenches, the Scottish Highland regiments developed procedures that are still followed today. When a Highland soldier gets dressed in the morning, the feet are dressed first, ie socks and boots. At this point, he is able to defend his trench. The advantage with wearing kilts is that you can put it on while wearing footwear. You cannot get trousers on while wearing boots.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
'Nous voilà, Lafayette'
Colonel C.E. Stanton, aide to A.E.F. commander John 'Black Jack' Pershing, upon the landing of the first US troops in France 1917
'Nous voilà, Lafayette'
Colonel C.E. Stanton, aide to A.E.F. commander John 'Black Jack' Pershing, upon the landing of the first US troops in France 1917
Having done some reading around this subject, it seems that unfortunately, the 26.4% number was a huge error in statistics by the historian Niall Ferguson, which other people have repeated and passed around until it became a meme.Hobbes wrote:For reasons I don't know the Scots suffered far more than other nations in the UK. (...) Of the Scots who marched away, 26.4% did not come home: the percentage for the rest of the UK and Ireland was 11.8% and for France 16.8%. Only the Serbs and Turks had a higher proportion of participant deaths than Scotland.
690,000 people from Scotland served in the British Army in the First World War. For that 26.4% figure to be correct, 182,000 of them should have died. However, according t o the official War Office figures published after the war, the actual number was 74,000, or 10.7%.
How do we get to 182,000 from there? Well, the Scottish National War Memorial commemorates 'Scottish' soldiers who died in the First World War, and claims there were 148,000 of them. However, this number includes all of the following:
- Scottish soldiers
- English (and other) soldiers who fought in Scottish regiments.
- English, Canadian, Australian, South African, etc soldiers with at least one Scottish parent who fought in their own country's armies.
The impulse of the War Memorial is a generous one; they want to honour anybody with the slightest connection to Scotland who died in the war. Good for them; but it means that you certainly can't just take their figures and divide it by the population of Scotland in 1914 to get a measure of the casualty rate.
In every country with the prevalent scenario of 1914, there were some parts which were disproportionately represented in the armed forces, maybe it was due to education, poverty or maybe the prevalent doctrine of martial races etc-
In Ottoman Empire, the Anatolian Peasants vis-a-vis the Arabs; who though a minority constituted a very large % of population.
Similarly, in Austria - The Austrians and Hungarians.
In UK- it was the Scots.
In Germany- it was the Junkers and Prussians. (Here, it is mostly old Prussia- East & West Prussia + Brandenburg)
In British India - The Punjab (Hindu, Muslim & Sikh).
In Ottoman Empire, the Anatolian Peasants vis-a-vis the Arabs; who though a minority constituted a very large % of population.
Similarly, in Austria - The Austrians and Hungarians.
In UK- it was the Scots.
In Germany- it was the Junkers and Prussians. (Here, it is mostly old Prussia- East & West Prussia + Brandenburg)
In British India - The Punjab (Hindu, Muslim & Sikh).
I just read about an ill-fated cavalry charge in 1914 that not only probably puts the charge of the Light Brigade into shame, but also a symbol of the ineptitude present in many leaderships in the war.
It happened on 17th of August 1914, during the initial battles between Austria-Hungary and Russia, at a place called Gorodok, when the Hungarian hussars were ordered to charge a well prepared fortified line of Russian machine gun emplacements. Needless to say, it ended in bloodbath. Here is the summary of the account of a Russian lieutenant who observed it:
"During the events of Gorodok-Satanow, I was observing Austrian troop movements. It was a rather easy task, as we had phone stations in every important village, and could report on the disposition and movements of enemy troops with good accuracy. It was almost shocking to see how the Monarchy's army did almost no reconnaissance. Just as an example: in most villages entered by the enemy we had soldiers in civilian clothing hiding, but they didn't really have to hide, as the Austro-Hungarians made no effort to look for spies. Funniest episode was the monastery of Satanowskaja, where we evacuated all monks and had our troops take up their robes. They played a leading role in setting up the eventual ambush on the hussars. A patrol eventually checked out the monastery but was happy to conclude that it only contains peaceful monks. Cossacks in civilian clothing even offered food for the Hungarian hussars, who were quite grateful, and thus had no idea that a considerable Russian force remained deep behind their lines.
As for the actual death charge at Gorodok, I was partly watching it from a vantage point, partly learned about details via telephone.
It is worth noting that it took place on a [Russian] military training ground, so the machine guns were zeroed in perfectly. The enemy command had to be well aware of this fact.
When I saw the mass of light cavalry charging toward the barbed wire and machine guns, I -as a cavalry officer- was startled. Initially we didn't understand, and we thought it was some kind of new and bold tactic, that they would charge in toward close cover, then dismount. But that is not what happened.
They kept up their furious charge, like wild devils. It was horrifying...
All our machine gun emplacements were commanded by officers. They had orders to wait with firing until the charge got just in front of the barbed wire and only fire when they can destroy the enemy units.
They obeyed. Seeing the result, me, an enemy soldiers, went into shock. The charge collapsed in a matter of minutes. The glamorous team of hussars became a mess of death, dying, and screams.
Nobody, not even battle-hardened veterans had seen such a display of bravery and hair-raising irresponsibility. Everyone was down. Some of the officers commanding the machine guns broke out in tears.
When the remnants of the cavalry retreated, we hurried to the barbed wire to give first aid to the injured. But they could not be approached, because they kept firing at us. The poor bastards had to be put down one by one.
Most dramatic was the case of a handsome young hussar officer, who was hiding behind his dead horse, and kept firing at us from there. When he fell silent, we thought he was out of ammunition, and a Cossack lieutenant volunteered to go out and convince him to surrender, since he was moved by the heroism of the Hungarian.
The hussar officer let him close to himself, and then drew his revolver and shot the Cossack in the head from point blank range. We buried this hussar into a separate grave".
It happened on 17th of August 1914, during the initial battles between Austria-Hungary and Russia, at a place called Gorodok, when the Hungarian hussars were ordered to charge a well prepared fortified line of Russian machine gun emplacements. Needless to say, it ended in bloodbath. Here is the summary of the account of a Russian lieutenant who observed it:
"During the events of Gorodok-Satanow, I was observing Austrian troop movements. It was a rather easy task, as we had phone stations in every important village, and could report on the disposition and movements of enemy troops with good accuracy. It was almost shocking to see how the Monarchy's army did almost no reconnaissance. Just as an example: in most villages entered by the enemy we had soldiers in civilian clothing hiding, but they didn't really have to hide, as the Austro-Hungarians made no effort to look for spies. Funniest episode was the monastery of Satanowskaja, where we evacuated all monks and had our troops take up their robes. They played a leading role in setting up the eventual ambush on the hussars. A patrol eventually checked out the monastery but was happy to conclude that it only contains peaceful monks. Cossacks in civilian clothing even offered food for the Hungarian hussars, who were quite grateful, and thus had no idea that a considerable Russian force remained deep behind their lines.
As for the actual death charge at Gorodok, I was partly watching it from a vantage point, partly learned about details via telephone.
It is worth noting that it took place on a [Russian] military training ground, so the machine guns were zeroed in perfectly. The enemy command had to be well aware of this fact.
When I saw the mass of light cavalry charging toward the barbed wire and machine guns, I -as a cavalry officer- was startled. Initially we didn't understand, and we thought it was some kind of new and bold tactic, that they would charge in toward close cover, then dismount. But that is not what happened.
They kept up their furious charge, like wild devils. It was horrifying...
All our machine gun emplacements were commanded by officers. They had orders to wait with firing until the charge got just in front of the barbed wire and only fire when they can destroy the enemy units.
They obeyed. Seeing the result, me, an enemy soldiers, went into shock. The charge collapsed in a matter of minutes. The glamorous team of hussars became a mess of death, dying, and screams.
Nobody, not even battle-hardened veterans had seen such a display of bravery and hair-raising irresponsibility. Everyone was down. Some of the officers commanding the machine guns broke out in tears.
When the remnants of the cavalry retreated, we hurried to the barbed wire to give first aid to the injured. But they could not be approached, because they kept firing at us. The poor bastards had to be put down one by one.
Most dramatic was the case of a handsome young hussar officer, who was hiding behind his dead horse, and kept firing at us from there. When he fell silent, we thought he was out of ammunition, and a Cossack lieutenant volunteered to go out and convince him to surrender, since he was moved by the heroism of the Hungarian.
The hussar officer let him close to himself, and then drew his revolver and shot the Cossack in the head from point blank range. We buried this hussar into a separate grave".
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Taillebois
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