Editing Battle of the Somme (section)

=== Casualties ===
{{main|World War I casualties}}

{|class="wikitable" align=left style="margin:0 0 1em 1em"
|+<small>British, French and German casualties<br />July–November 1916</small>{{sfn|Wendt|1931|p=246}}
|-
! Month
! British
! French
! Sub-<br />total
! German
! (% of<br />Allied<br />total)
|-
|July||align=right|158,786||align=right|49,859||align=right|208,645||align=right|103,000||align=right|49.4
|-
|August||align=right|58,085||align=right|18,806||align=right|76,891||align=right|68,000||align=right|88.4
|-
|September||align="right"|101,313||align="right"|76,147||align="right"|177,460||align="right"|140,000||align="right"|78.9
|-
|October||align="right"|57,722||align="right"|37,626||align="right"|95,348||align="right"|78,500||align="right"|82.3
|-
|November||align="right"|39,784||align="right"|20,129||align="right"|59,913||align="right"|45,000||align="right"|75.0
|-
|Total||align="right"|415,690||align="right"|202,567||align="right"|618,257||align="right"|434,500||align="right"|70.3
|-
|}
{| class="wikitable"  align=right style="margin:0 0 1em 1em"
|+Somme<br>casualties
! Nationality
! No.
! Killed &<br />missing
! POW
|-
|United Kingdom||align="right"|350,000+||-||-
|-
|Canada||align="right"|24,029&nbsp;&nbsp;||-||-
|-
|Australia
|align="right"|23,000&nbsp;&nbsp;||align="right"|&nbsp;||align="left"|< 200
|-
|New Zealand||align="right"|7,408&nbsp;&nbsp;||-||-
|-
|South Africa||align="right"|3,000+||-||-
|-
|Newfoundland||align="right"|2,000+||-||-
|-
|style="border-top:2pt solid black"|Total Commonwealth
|style="border-top:2pt solid black" align="right"|419,654{{sfn|Miles|1992|p=xv}}
|style="border-top:2pt solid black" align="right"|95,675
|style="border-top:2pt solid black" align="left"|-
|-
|French||align="right"|204,253{{sfn|Miles|1992|p = xv}}||align="right"|50,729||-
|- style="background:#eeeeee"
|style="border-top:2pt solid black"|'''Allied'''
|style="border-top:2pt solid black" align="right"|623,907
|style="border-top:2pt solid black" align="right"|146,404
|style="border-top:2pt solid black" align="left"|-
|-
|colspan="4"|
|-
|'''German'''
|align="right"|465,000–<br>600,000{{sfnm|1a1=Miles|1y=1992|1p=xv|2a1=Sheffield|2y=2011|2pp=194, 197|3a1=Harris|3y=2009|3p=271|4a1=Philpott|4y=2009|4pp=602–603}}||align="right"|164,055|| align="right" |72,901{{sfnm|1a1=Philpott|1y=2009|1p=438|2a1=Clodfelter|2y=2017|2pp=398}}
|}
{{clear}}
The Battle of the Somme was one of the costliest battles of World War I. The original Allied estimate of casualties on the Somme, made at the Chantilly Conference on 15 November 1916, was that the Germans suffered 630,000 casualties, exceeding the 485,000 suffered by the British and French. As one German officer wrote,

{{blockquote|Somme. The whole history of the world cannot contain a
more ghastly word.|Friedrich Steinbrecher<ref>Lewis, Jon E. [https://books.google.com/books?id=-iieBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT154&lpg=PT154 ''A Brief History of the First World War: Eyewitness Accounts of the War to End All Wars'']. 1914–18, Hachette UK, 2014. P. 154</ref>}}

However, Churchill wrote that Allied casualties had exceeded German losses. In ''[[The World Crisis]]'' (first published in the early 1920s, reprinted in 1938), he quoted the German ''Reichsarchiv'' data, showing that on the Western Front between February and June 1916, the Germans had suffered {{nowrap|270,000 casualties}} against the French and {{nowrap|390,000 between}} July and the end of the year (Appendix J); he wrote that the Germans suffered {{nowrap|278,000 casualties}} at Verdun and that around one eighth of their casualties were suffered on "quiet" sectors.{{sfn|Churchill|1938|pp=1,427, 1,004}} According to the tables, between July and October 1916, German forces on the Western Front suffered {{nowrap|537,919 casualties,}} {{nowrap|288,011 inflicted}} by the French and {{nowrap|249,908 }}by the British; German forces inflicted {{nowrap|794,238 casualties}} on the Entente.{{sfn|Churchill|1938|pp=1,427, 1,004}}

In 1931, Hermann Wendt published a comparison of German and British–French casualties which showed an average of 30 per cent more Allied casualties than German losses on the Somme.{{sfn|Wendt|1931|p=246}} In the first 1916 volume of the British Official History (1932), J. E. Edmonds wrote that comparisons of casualties were inexact, because of different methods of calculation by the belligerents but that British casualties were {{nowrap|419,654, from}} total British casualties in France in the period of {{nowrap|498,054.}} French Somme casualties were {{nowrap|194,451 and}} German casualties were {{circa|445,322,}} to which should be added {{nowrap|27 per cent}} for woundings, which would have been counted as casualties using British criteria; Anglo-French casualties on the Somme were over {{nowrap|600,000 and}} German casualties were {{nowrap|under 600,000.}}{{sfn|Edmonds|1993|pp = 496–497}} In the second 1916 volume of the British Official History (1938), Wilfrid Miles wrote that German casualties were {{nowrap|660,000–680,000}} and Anglo-French casualties were just under {{nowrap|630,000, using}} "fresh data" from the French and German official accounts.{{sfn|Miles|1992|p = 553}}

The addition by Edmonds of {{circa|30 per cent}} to German figures, supposedly to make them comparable to British criteria, was criticised as "spurious" by M. J. Williams in 1964. McRandle and Quirk in 2006 cast doubt on the Edmonds calculations but counted {{nowrap|729,000 German}} casualties on the Western Front from July to December against {{nowrap|631,000 by}} Churchill, concluding that there had been fewer German losses than Anglo-French casualties but that the ability of the German army to inflict disproportionate losses had been eroded by attrition.{{sfn|Philpott|2009|pp = 601–602}} In 2003 British historian Gary Sheffield wrote that the calculation by Edmonds of Anglo-French casualties was correct but the one for German casualties was ''discredited'', quoting the official German figure of {{nowrap|500,000 casualties.}}{{sfn|Sheffield|2003|p = 151}}

{|class="wikitable"  align=right style="margin:0 0 1em 1em"
|+<small>Western Front casualties<br />July–December 1916</small>{{sfn|Churchill|1938|p=1427}}{{sfn|Philpott|2009|pp=600–602}}
|-
! Month
! No.
|-
| July||align="right"|196,081
|-
| August||align="right"|75,249
|-
| September||align="right"|115,056
|-
| October||align="right"|66,852
|-
| November||align="right"|46,238
|-
| December||align="right"|13,803
|-
| Total<br />British||align="right"|513,289
|-
| French||align="right"|{{circa|434,000}}
|-
| Total:<br />Anglo-French||align="right"|{{circa|947,289}}
|-
| German||align="right"|{{circa|719,000}}
|-
|'''Grand total'''||align="right"|{{circa|1,666,289}}
|}
[[File:The Battle of the Somme, July-november 1916 Q4218.jpg|thumb|left|Dead German soldiers in a captured German trench near Ginchy, August 1916]]
Doughty wrote that French losses on the Somme were "surprisingly high" at {{nowrap|202,567 men,}} {{nowrap|54 per cent}} of the {{nowrap|377,231 casualties}} at Verdun.{{sfn|Doughty|2005|p = 309}} Prior and Wilson used Churchill's research and wrote that the British suffered {{nowrap|420,000 casualties}} from 1 July to mid-November ({{circa|3,600 per}} day) in inflicting {{circa|280,000 German}} casualties and offer no figures for French casualties or the losses they inflicted on the Germans.{{sfn|Prior|Wilson|2005|pp = 300–301}} Sheldon wrote that the British lost "over {{nowrap|400,000" casualties.}}{{sfn|Sheldon|2006|p = 398}} Harris wrote that British losses were {{circa|420,000, French}} casualties were over {{nowrap|200,000 men}} and German losses were {{circa|500,000, according}} to the "best" German sources.{{sfn|Harris|2009|p = 271}} Sheffield wrote that the losses were "appalling", with {{nowrap|419,000 British}} casualties, {{circa|204,000 French}} and ''perhaps'' {{nowrap|600,000 German}} casualties.{{sfn|Sheffield|2011|pp = 194, 197}}

In a commentary on the debate about Somme casualties, Philpott used Miles's figures of {{nowrap|419,654 British}} casualties and the French official figures of {{nowrap|154,446 Sixth}} Army losses and {{nowrap|48,131 Tenth}} Army casualties. Philpott described German losses as "disputed", with estimates ranging from {{nowrap|400,000 to 680,000.}} The high Allied casualties of July 1916 are not representative of the way attrition turned in the Allies' favour in September, although this was not sustained as the weather deteriorated.{{efn|Philpott writes of Churchill's "snapshot of July 1916". It is not entirely clear what he means by this. He may be referring to the paper which Churchill distributed in August 1916, rather than the fuller numbers later presented in ''The World Crisis''.}} Philpott quoted Robin Prior (in ''Churchill's World Crisis As History'' [1983]) that the "blood test" is a crude measure compared to manpower reserves, industrial capacity, farm productivity and financial resources and that intangible factors were more influential on the course of the war, which the Allies won despite "losing" the purely quantitative test.{{sfn|Philpott|2009|pp = 602–603}}