Luke -Casualties- Missing and dead

Missing and Dead

October 19, 1914

Luke Warren

In the Battle of Ypres, the deaths, wounded, missing soldiers were immense (Duffy).  Imagine if your country was losing hundreds of soldiers and missing soldiers every minute (Duffy).  Accurate death records were not always kept in WWI (Duffy).  The comparison between the casualties in the war versus the soldiers in the war were unbelievable (Duffy).  The missing soldier ratio was just as much or more than the deaths, sometimes as much as 2,000 some soldiers in one battle (Britannica).  In the battles of Ypres there were at least 2,500 missing each battle (Wikipedia).  In the Battle Of Ypres the British and the French particularly suffered almost 2-3,000 soldiers an hour (Duffy).  The numbers of missing soldiers and the soldiers fighting were close if not the same (Wikipedia). The most common cause of this was body on top of body or a “body stack” (Duffy).  Most of the time one soldier had to dig under bodies to even make an attempt at finding his fellow soldiers’ dog tags (Britannica).  The chances of finding any missing soldiers in the mud or snow were next to impossible. The missing soldier ratio was high and the chance of even finding their remains or dog tags were terribly low. It’s hard to believe that so many soldiers in the battle of Ypres were lost  and missing in one battle.

Bibliography

Duffy, Michael. "Firstworldwar.com." First World War.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Feb. 2015.

"Battles of Ypres | World War I." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 17 Feb. 2015.

Duffy, Michael. "Firstworldwar.com." First World War.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Feb. 2015