Results and statistics about 15 battles of World War One.
Beginning with the Battles of the Frontiers from August 14-23, 1914 and ending with the Meuse-Argonnes campaign from September 26-November 11, 1918.
The following tables provide highly aggregated approximate figures for 15 battles of World War One with German participation; ten on the Western Front, and five on the Eastern Front against Russia. Of the ten battles in the West were mainly four against Frenchmen, five mainly against British and one battle fought against the Americans.
For all these battles, the date, its well-known names, the duration, the main units involved and the operational objective – i.e. attack or the three variants of the defense (rapid, preparing and defense of field fortifications) – are indicated.
The next series of numbers indicates the approximate strength of the opposing forces. The fourth row shows rounded the generally accepted losses of the opponents. The four battles on the Eastern Front brought the Germans an unusually high number of POW’s. Therefore, in square brackets, the values without POW’s are given.
The fifth row shows the casualty figures per day.
The sixth row shows the losses per day in per cent, based on the already specified strength at the beginning of the battle.
The next row is called score, which is a score or grade based on the evaluation of the previous figures. This value indicates the losses per day as a percentage of the forces that caused these losses; it is determined by setting the losses of one side to the total personnel strength of the other side. Thus, the value shows losses per day per 100 men.
In brackets the score effectiveness modifies the score value to the adjusted approximately determined defenders advantage. Here, a factor is applied, which resulted from extensive research of WW2, which have not yet been thoroughly examined with regard to World War One.
The defender advantage is in rapidly equipped defense adopted by 1.3, 1.5 for prepared defense and 1.6 for defense with field fortifications.
In some early battles of the war, as both sides attacked and therefore also partly defended rapidly, this factor is estimated at 1.2. The so devoted score effectiveness therefore reflects the normalized ability of both sides to inflict losses in the battles concerned.
The low value for long battles clearly shows what reflects all detailed examine about WW2: The Battle value index of all troops decreases constantly in long battles.
Battles of the Frontiers August 14-23, 1914 (10 days):
Forces | Result | Strength | Losses | Losses per day | Losses % per day | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
German Western Forces | attack successfully | 1,200.000 | 200,000 | 20,000 | 1.67% | 2.50 (2.08) |
French Forces | attack failed | 1,390,000 | 300,000 | 30,000 | 2.16% | 1.44 (1.20) |
Tannenberg August 26-29, 1914 (4 days):
Forces | Result | Strength | Losses | Losses per day | Losses % per day | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
German 8th Army | attack successfully | 187,000 | 13,212 | 3,303 | 1.77% | 16.04 (13.37) [4.68 bzw 3.90] |
Russian 2nd Army | attack failed | 160,000 | 120,000 [35,000] | 30,000 [8,750] | 18.75% [5.47%] | 2.06 (1.72) |
Marne Sep 5-10, 1914 (6 days):
Forces | Result | Strength | Losses | Losses per day | Losses % per day | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
German Western Forces | attack failed | 900,000 | 300,000 | 50,000 | 5.56% | 4.63 (3.86) |
French Forces | attack successfully | 1,200,000 | 250,000 | 41,666 | 3.47% | 4.17 (3.48) |
Masurian Lakes Sep 9-14, 1914 (5 days):
Forces | Result | Strength | Losses | Losses per day | Losses % per day | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
German 8th Army | attack successfully | 288,600 | 40,000 | 8,000 | 2.77% | 8.66 (7.22) [3.47 / 2.89] |
Russian 1st Army | attack failed | 273,000 | 125,000 [50,000] | 25,000 [10,000] | 9.16% [3.66%] | 2.93 (2.44) |
Lodz Nov 11-25, 1914 (15 days):
Forces | Result | Strength | Losses | Losses per day | Losses % per day | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
German 9th Army | attack draw | 260,000 | 60,000 | 4,000 | 1.54% | 2.44 (2.03) |
Russian Army Group NW | attack draw | 400,000 | 95,000 | 6,333 | 1.58% | 1.00 (0.83) |
Winter Battle of Masuria February 7-21, 1915 (15 days):
Forces | Result | Strength | Losses | Losses per day | Losses % per day | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
German 8th + 10th Armies | attack successfully | 250,000 | 40,000 | 2,667 | 1.67% | 5.60 (5.60) [2.67 / 2.67] |
Russian 10th Army | defense failed | 300,000 | 210,000 [100,000] | 14,000 [6,667] | 4.67% [2.22%] | 0.89 (0.89) |
Gorlice-Tarnow May 2-4, 1915 (3 days):
Forces | Result | Strength | Losses | Losses per day | Losses % per day | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
German 11th Army | attack successfully | 175,000 | 25,000 | 8,333 | 4.67% | 38.10 (38.10) [11.43 bzw 11.43] |
Russian 3rd Army | prepared defense failed | 300,000 | 200,000 [60,000] | 66,667 [20,000] | 22.22% [6.67%] | 2.78 (1.85) |
Second Champagne, Sep 25-Nov 8, 1915 (45 days):
Forces | Result | Strength | Losses | Losses per day | Losses % per day | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
German 3rd Army | fortified defense successfully | 190,000 | 60,000 | 1,333 | 0.70% | 1.70 (1.06) |
French 2nd Army reinforced | attack failed | 500,000 | 145,000 | 3,222 | 0.64% | 0.27 (0.27) |
First Somme, July 1-October 31, 1916 (123 days):
Forces | Result | Strength | Losses | Losses per day | Losses % per day | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
German 2nd Army | fortified defense successfully | 250,000 | 500,000 | 4,065 | 1.63% | 2.18 (1.63) |
British 4th + French 6th Armies | attack failed | 600,000 | 670,000 | 5,447 | 0.91% | 0.68 (0.68) |
Arras April 9-24, 1917 (15 days):
Forces | Result | Strength | Losses | Losses per day | Losses % per day | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
German 6th Army | fortified defense successfully | 120,000 | 75,000 | 5,000 | 4.17% | 4.67 (2.92) |
British 3rd Army | attack failed | 276,000 | 84,000 | 5,600 | 2.03% | 1.81 (1.81) |
Nivelle Offensive at the Aisne, April 16-30, 1917 (15 days):
Forces | Result | Strength | Losses | Losses per day | Losses % per day | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
German 7th Army reinforced | fortified defense successfully | 480,000 | 40,000 | 2,667 | 0.56% | 1.64 (1.03) |
French 5th + 6th Armies reinforced | attack failed | 1,000,000 | 118,000 | 7,867 | 0.79% | 0.27 (0.27) |
Flanders July 31-Nov 6, 1917 (98 days):
Forces | Result | Strength | Losses | Losses per day | Losses % per day | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
German 4th Army | fortified defense successfully | 200,000 | 200,000 | 2,041 | 1.02% | 1.53 (0.96) |
British 5th + 2nd Armies | attack failed | 380,000 | 300,000 | 3,061 | 0.81% | 0.54 (0,54) |
Second Somme, March 21-April 9, 1918 (20 days):
Forces | Result | Strength | Losses | Losses per day | Losses % per day | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Army-Group Prince Ruprecht | attack draw | 870,000 | 190,000 | 9,500 | 1.09% | 1.15 (1.15) |
British 5th + 3rd + 4th Armies | fortified defense draw | 550,000 | 200,000 | 10,000 | 1.82% | 1.73 (1.08) |
Lys April 9-30, 1918 (22 days):
Forces | Result | Strength | Losses | Losses per day | Losses % per day | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
German 6th + 4th Armies | attack draw | 500,000 | 175,000 | 7,955 | 1.59% | 1.39 (1.39) |
British 1st Army | fortified defense draw | 400,000 | 152,500 | 6,932 | 1.73% | 1.99 (1,24) |
Meuse-Argonnes Sep 26-Nov 11, 1918 (47 days):
Forces | Result | Strength | Losses | Losses per day | Losses % per day | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Army-Group Gallwitz | fortified defense failed | 380,000 | 126,000 | 2,681 | 0.71% | 0.73 (0.46) |
US 1st + 2nd Armies | attack successfully | 600,000 | 130,000 | 2,766 | 0.46% | 0.45 (0.45) |
See also: German Fighting Power
See also: Batte results in World War Two
References and literature
The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Weapons of World War I (Chris Bishop)
Illustrierte Geschichte des Ersten Weltkriegs (Christian Zentner)
History of World War I (AJP Taylos, S.L. Mayer)
Der Genius des Krieges (Trevor N. Dupuy)
