Miscellaneous

  • Hindu and Sikh soldiers who died were cremated according to their religious traditions; their names are listed on the memorials to those with no known grave. In one or two places a Cremation Memorial has been created such as the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Memorial at Patcham Down in Sussex.
  • The total number of men (military and civilian) in France and Flanders, providing labour (logistics including transport maintenance and roads) for the British Army, numbered some 700,000 by the end of the war.
  • By the end of the war, a total of approximately 300,000 such civilian workers had been engaged, of which 193,500 were in France and Flanders. By August 1918 there were 96,000 Chinese workers in France (with another 30,000 working for the French). 100,000 Egyptians were working in France and the Middle East, alongside 21,000 Indians and 20,000 South Africans, who were also in East Africa
  • In 1914 the UK had a small professional army (there was no conscription) whereas all the other major combatants had large standing armies based on conscription. At the start of the war, for the Allies the UK had an army of 733,000 men, the French 3,781,000, the Russians 5,000,000.  For the Central Powers Germany had 4,500,000, Austria-Hungary 3,250,000.
  • Those who served. The chances of choosing or having serve varied between the combatants.  The following are the percentages of the population who served.
    France 21.9%
    Germany 20%
    Italy 16.9%
    Austria-Hungary 15.6%
    UK 12.3% (Tutbury about 17%)
    Russia 7.2%
    Turkey 4.6%
  • The Fallen.
    Germany lost 2,037,000 military personnel and 700,000 civilian dead
    Russia circa 1,800,000 military and circa 2,000,000 civilians
    France 1,385,300 military and circa 40,000 civilians
    Austria-Hungary 1,016,200 military
    UK 702,410 military and 1,386 civilians (air raids)
    Italy 462,400 military
    Turkey 236,000 military and 2,000,000 civilian (mainly Armenian)
    Romania 219,800 military and between 265,000-500,000 civilian.
  • The chance of dying. If you served, what was the chance of dying – the following percentages of the military died.
    Turkey 23.8%
    France 16.0%
    Germany 15.2%
    Russia 15%
    Austria-Hungary 13%
    UK 12.3% – Tutbury about 13%
    Italy 7.8%
  • The chance of being wounded. If you served, what was the chance of getting wounded – the following percentages of the military were wounded.
    Turkey 77.8%
    France 50.0%
    Germany 42.4%
    Russia 41.3%
    UK 29.2%
    Austria-Hungary 24.9%
    Italy 16.2%
  • The build-up – by the beginning of September, the BEF (British Expeditionary Force) in France consisted of 6 Infantry Divisions and 1 Cavalry Division (by contrast, the French had 72 Infantry Divisions and 10 Cavalry Divisions). By the middle of December, the BEF had 8 Infantry Divisions and 3 Cavalry Divisions plus 2 Indian Infantry Divisions and 2 Indian Cavalry Divisions.