The American Civil War is the conflict with the largest number of American military fatalities in history. In fact, the Civil War's death toll is comparable to all other major wars combined, the deadliest of which were the World Wars, which have a combined death toll of more than 520,000 American fatalities. The ongoing series of conflicts and interventions in the Middle East and North Africa, collectively referred to as the War on Terror in the west, has a combined death toll of more than 7,000 for the U.S. military since 2001. Other records In terms of the number of deaths per day, the American Civil War is still at the top, with an average of 425 deaths per day, while the First and Second World Wars have averages of roughly 100 and 200 fatalities per day respectively. Technically, the costliest battle in U.S. military history was the Battle of Elsenborn Ridge, which was a part of the Battle of the Bulge in the Second World War, and saw upwards of 5,000 deaths over 10 days. However, the Battle of Gettysburg had more military fatalities of American soldiers, with almost 3,200 Union deaths and over 3,900 Confederate deaths, giving a combined total of more than 7,000. The Battle of Antietam is viewed as the bloodiest day in American military history, with over 3,600 combined fatalities and almost 23,000 total casualties on September 17, 1862. Revised Civil War figures For more than a century, the total death toll of the American Civil War was generally accepted to be around 620,000, a number which was first proposed by Union historians William F. Fox and Thomas L. Livermore in 1888. This number was calculated by using enlistment figures, battle reports, and census data, however many prominent historians since then have thought the number should be higher. In 2011, historian J. David Hacker conducted further investigations and claimed that the number was closer to 750,000 (and possibly as high as 850,000). While many Civil War historians agree that this is possible, and even likely, obtaining consistently accurate figures has proven to be impossible until now; both sides were poor at keeping detailed records throughout the war, and much of the Confederacy's records were lost by the war's end. Many Confederate widows also did not register their husbands death with the authorities, as they would have then been ineligible for benefits.

Estimates for the total death count of the Second World War generally range somewhere between 70 and 85 million people. The Soviet Union suffered the highest number of fatalities of any single nation, with estimates mostly falling between 22 and 27 million deaths. China then suffered the second greatest, at around 20 million, although these figures are less certain and often overlap with the Chinese Civil War. Over 80 percent of all deaths were of those from Allied countries, and the majority of these were civilians. In contrast, 15 to 20 percent were among the Axis powers, and the majority of these were military deaths, as shown in the death ratios of Germany and Japan. Civilian deaths and atrocities It is believed that 60 to 67 percent of all deaths were civilian fatalities, largely resulting from war-related famine or disease, and war crimes or atrocities. Systematic genocide, extermination campaigns, and forced labor, particularly by the Germans, Japanese, and Soviets, led to the deaths of millions. In this regard, Nazi activities alone resulted in 17 million deaths, including six million Jews in what is now known as The Holocaust. Not only was the scale of the conflict larger than any that had come before, but the nature of and reasoning behind this loss make the Second World War stand out as one of the most devastating and cruelest conflicts in history. Problems with these statistics Although the war is considered by many to be the defining event of the 20th century, exact figures for death tolls have proven impossible to determine, for a variety of reasons. Countries such as the U.S. have fairly consistent estimates due to preserved military records and comparatively few civilian casualties, although figures still vary by source. For most of Europe, records are less accurate. Border fluctuations and the upheaval of the interwar period mean that pre-war records were already poor or non-existent for many regions. The rapid and chaotic nature of the war then meant that deaths could not be accurately recorded at the time, and mass displacement or forced relocation resulted in the deaths of many civilians outside of their homeland, which makes country-specific figures more difficult to find. Early estimates of the war’s fatalities were also taken at face value and formed the basis of many historical works; these were often very inaccurate, but the validity of the source means that the figures continue to be cited today, despite contrary evidence.

In comparison to Europe, estimate ranges are often greater across Asia, where populations were larger but pre-war data was in short supply. Many of the Asian countries with high death tolls were European colonies, and the actions of authorities in the metropoles, such as the diversion of resources from Asia to Europe, led to millions of deaths through famine and disease. Additionally, over one million African soldiers were drafted into Europe’s armies during the war, yet individual statistics are unavailable for most of these colonies or successor states (notably Algeria and Libya). Thousands of Asian and African military deaths went unrecorded or are included with European or Japanese figures, and there are no reliable figures for deaths of millions from countries across North Africa or East Asia. Additionally, many concentration camp records were destroyed, and such records in Africa and Asia were even sparser than in Europe. While the Second World War is one of the most studied academic topics of the past century, it is unlikely that we will ever have a clear number for the lives lost in the conflict.

Of the ten deadliest battles of the American Civil War, the Battle of Gettysburg in early July, 1863, was by far the most devastating battle of the war, claiming over 51 thousand casualties, of which 7 thousand were battle deaths. The Battles of Shiloh, Bull Run (Second), Antietam, Stones River and Chancellorsville all have very similar casualty counts, between 22.5 and 24 thousand casualties each, although it should be noted that the Battle of Antietam took place in a single day, and with 22,717 casualties it is the bloodiest day in U.S. history. The Battles of Chickamauga, the Wilderness and Spotsylvania, all had approximately 30 to 35 thousand casualties each, whereas the Siege of Vicksburg is the only entry on this list with less than 20 thousand casualties.

The Korean War was an international military conflict which lasted from June 1950 until July 1953, which pitted the communist forces of North Korea, the Soviet Union, and the People's Republic of China against South Korea and a U.S.-led UN force comprised of troops from over 20 additional countries. The war was the United States' first major military engagement of the Cold War, the period of rivalry and heightened tension between the world's two superpowers, the U.S. and Soviet Union. While the war was one of the deadliest in the Cold War and the 20th century in general, it resulted in a stalemate between the North and South, with the boundary between the two countries remaining to this day at the 38th parallel line. The two countries remain technically at war to the present day, as the South's dictator, Syngman Rhee, refused to sign the peace agreement which in practice ended the fighting in the war.

U.S. military deaths in Korea

The majority of U.S. military fatalities during the Korean War were battle deaths (63 percent), with a smaller number of deaths while missing (12 percent), deaths while captured (eight percent), or deaths from battle wounds (seven percent). In addition, around three percent of deaths were from airplane crashes which were not caused by hostile forces, with another seven percent dying of other causes unrelated to battle. In total around 36,000 U.S. military servicemembers were killed in Korea, out of a total of around 40,000 deaths for the UN forces combined. The war was the United States' second deadliest conflict of the Cold War, as well as its fifth deadliest ever, after the Vietnam War, World War I, World War II, and the Civil War.

A dataset to advance the study of life-cycle interactions of biomedical and socioeconomic factors in the aging process. The EI project has assembled a variety of large datasets covering the life histories of approximately 39,616 white male volunteers (drawn from a random sample of 331 companies) who served in the Union Army (UA), and of about 6,000 African-American veterans from 51 randomly selected United States Colored Troops companies (USCT). Their military records were linked to pension and medical records that detailed the soldiers������?? health status and socioeconomic and family characteristics. Each soldier was searched for in the US decennial census for the years in which they were most likely to be found alive (1850, 1860, 1880, 1900, 1910). In addition, a sample consisting of 70,000 men examined for service in the Union Army between September 1864 and April 1865 has been assembled and linked only to census records. These records will be useful for life-cycle comparisons of those accepted and rejected for service. Military Data: The military service and wartime medical histories of the UA and USCT men were collected from the Union Army and United States Colored Troops military service records, carded medical records, and other wartime documents. Pension Data: Wherever possible, the UA and USCT samples have been linked to pension records, including surgeon''''s certificates. About 70% of men in the Union Army sample have a pension. These records provide the bulk of the socioeconomic and demographic information on these men from the late 1800s through the early 1900s, including family structure and employment information. In addition, the surgeon''''s certificates provide rich medical histories, with an average of 5 examinations per linked recruit for the UA, and about 2.5 exams per USCT recruit. Census Data: Both early and late-age familial and socioeconomic information is collected from the manuscript schedules of the federal censuses of 1850, 1860, 1870 (incomplete), 1880, 1900, and 1910. Data Availability: All of the datasets (Military Union Army; linked Census; Surgeon''''s Certificates; Examination Records, and supporting ecological and environmental variables) are publicly available from ICPSR. In addition, copies on CD-ROM may be obtained from the CPE, which also maintains an interactive Internet Data Archive and Documentation Library, which can be accessed on the Project Website. * Dates of Study: 1850-1910 * Study Features: Longitudinal, Minority Oversamples * Sample Size: ** Union Army: 35,747 ** Colored Troops: 6,187 ** Examination Sample: 70,800 ICPSR Link: http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/ICPSR/studies/06836

Between 2003 and 2024, the annual number of civilian deaths due to the Iraq war has fluctuated significantly. As of July, there were 210 deaths in 2024. Civilian Deaths in the Iraq WarCivilian casualties are the deaths of non-military individuals as a result of military operations. The number of documented civilian deaths in the Iraq war peaked in 2006 at 29,526 casualties. Since then, the number had fallen to 4,162 casualties documented in the year 2011, and the number of casualties has been decreasing again since 2014. Due to the nature of the Iraq war and of war reporting, data cannot be considered exact. Many civilian deaths that occurred during the war in Iraq may remain unaccounted for. The Iraq war was launched in March 2003 upon the invasion of Iraq by U.S. forces. Eight years later, in December 2011, the U.S. formally declared an end to the Iraq war. From the start of the war in 2003 until September 30, 2015, it is estimated that the United States spent a total of over 819 billion US dollars on war costs in Iraq. This number includes funding requested by the President and appropriated by Congress, and accounts for both military and non-military spending. Spending was highest in 2008, that year over 142 billion US dollars were spent in Iraq by the United States government. As of 2022, around 6,561 U.S. active-duty military personnel were deployed in North Africa, the Near East, and South Asia. The number of US American soldiers killed in Iraq peaked in 2007 with just over nine hundred causalities. In the same year, there were over 25,000 civilian deaths in Iraq.

The Battle of Gettysburg, at the beginning of July 1863, was the largest and costliest battle of the American Civil War, and is often regarded as the turning point in the war. Confederate General Robert E. Lee sought to capitalize on his victories earlier in the year, such as the Battle of Chancellorsville, by launching his second invasion of the northern states. He did this in order to alleviate the pressure on the Virginia farmland, which had been ravaged by the preceding campaigns, and also in an attempt to force the Union into negotiations to end the war. In June, General Lee's forces marched through Virginia, into Pennsylvania, and were pursued by Union forces led by Major General Joseph Hooker, and later Maj. Gen. George G. Meade. The Battle of Gettysburg The armies met near the town of Gettysburg, PA, on the morning of July 1. In the first day of fighting, the Confederates won control of much of the area surrounding the town, while the Union held the lands to the south. On the second day, reinforcements arrived on both sides, and while the Confederate forces tried flanking the entrenched and heavily defended Union forces, they had limited success. At 1pm on the third day of battle, General Lee launched what was probably the largest artillery bombardment of the entire war, and two hours later he ordered Pickett's Charge, which saw roughly 12,500 Confederate troops charge the Union forces entrenched on Cemetery Ridge. The bombardment had little effect on the Union defenses, and the oncoming soldiers suffered heavy casualties before being forced to retreat, marking an end to the battle and a victory for the Union. Gettysburg has been described as the bloodiest battle of the war, as, not only were the casualties higher than any other battle, but the depletion of ammunition stocks led to much close-quarters, hand-to-hand combat on the final day. Legacy Over 165,000 men took part in the Battle of Gettysburg, with roughly one third becoming casualties. More than 7,000 men died in the fighting, and a further 33,000 were wounded. The battle also saw the deaths of six Confederate and five Union generals, more than any other battle in the war. Although the war would not end for another two years, this battle is seen by many as the turning point, and as the closest that the Confederacy came to accomplishing their goal of complete cessation from the Union. Prior to this, the Confederacy had won more decisive battles than the Union, but after Gettysburg this shifted in favor of the Union, who would go on to win the war in 1865. Four months after the battle, President Lincoln gave his famous Gettysburg Address, which paid tribute to the men who fell in the battle, and has gone on to become one of the most famous speeches in American history.

NARA PoW Data W.D. A.G.O. FORM NO. 0326.

This deposit contains a dataset relating to persons interned between December 7, 1941 and November 19, 1946, which has been enhanced to make it more accessible to scientists. It is based on information from the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), which is unrestricted and available at https://aad.archives.gov/aad/series-description.jsp?s=644&popup=Y, and informs this summary. The NARA 'series' is part of Record Group 389: Records of the Office of the Provost Marshal General. It identifies 79 'places of capture' globally "Using copies of reports from the International Committee of the Red Cross ...". The Scope & Content Note states:

"This series has information about U.S. military officers and soldiers and U.S. and some Allied civilians who were prisoners of war and internees. The record for each prisoner provides serial number, personal name, branch of service or civilian status, grade, date reported, race, state of residence, type of organization, parent unit number and type, place of capture (theater of war), source of report, status, detaining power, and prisoner of war or civilian internee camp site. Records of prisoners of the Japanese who died also document whether the prisoner was on a Japanese ship that sank or if he or she died during transport from the Philippine Islands to Japan. There are no records for some prisoners of war whose names appear in the lists or cables transmitted to the Office of the Provost Marshal General by the International Committee of the Red Cross."

The U.S. War Department used punched cards to manage this information, although "The punch card records were transferred to NARA with virtually no agency documentation." According to the Custodial History Note:

"The U.S. Army transferred punch card records of World War II prisoners of war (POWs) to NARA as a unique series in its 1959 transfer of all of the U.S. Army's Departmental Archives. In 1978 the Veterans Administration borrowed most of the punch card records of repatriated U.S. military personnel for a study of Repatriated U.S. Military Prisoners of War, migrated the data on almost all of the borrowed cards to an electronic format and returned the punch cards and two electronic records data files to NARA. In 1995 NARA migrated the data from almost all of the remaining punch card records to an electronic format and has subsequently preserved all of the records in a single data file."

It is evident that the organization of this data file assumes access to other information, also accessible in CSV files in the series, in order to interpret detailed information, such as branch of service, grade, parent unit number and detaining power. For example, records appear in the following format:

O&745255ABDALLAH EDWARD A    2 LT  G1AC 200803413223003620O7222094171035  
32214872ABDALLAH JOSEPH T    CPL   61INF10230241231100157069802075181087  
36336867ABDAY JOSEPH C     PVT   81INF10170231611100168069516075181004 

constituting a serial number, then a name, then a textual code for rank; followed by a string, (starting G1AC on the first line) which encodes the remaining information. For example, the first digit (G) can be looked up in cl_1279.csv to decode ‘2nd lieutenant’, corroborating in this case the appearance of '2 LT. 'AC' indicates 'armofservicecode: AIR CORPS', but less obviously, 'detainingpower: Germany'; 'race: White' and 'theater: European Theater: Germany'. This single line is the entirety of the information provided per person instance by the NARA series. Users of this potentially valuable resource must develop automation in order to be able to search and employ it effectively; no such tools or specification from which software might be developed immediately is provided.

Significantly, this task is hampered by evidence of corruption of the some of the information, which may be due solely to the digitization process mentioned above being applied to the paper records, but possibly with subsequent contribution of fixity effects. NARA documentation does not refer to data integrity issues and, especially since the dataset which NARA provides is large, it may only be during development of automation to employ the series that such issues are discovered. Examples of problems include substitution of characters, such as 'O' replacing '0' and vice-versa; '}' replacing '3' and '&' replacing '8', or less obviously 'L' mis-recognized as '-' and 'II' replacing 'H'.

12138003 AREY GERALD J     S SG  41AC 2002064123S55}340069802055181033

Ideally, access to high resolution scans of the paper documents could be used to address these issues, or external documents. However, checking for completeness of each of the components of a person record enables detection of compromised entries and, where character substitution affects decoding of key information, other contextual information is often available to validate decoding such strings with these characters re-substituted. The larger percentage of strings which already decode plausibly without intervention do not contain incidences of such characters (so there is strong evidence that they are invalid in particular positions.

Unfortunately, there is a proportion of digital records with more severe corruption which cannot be addressed without access to scanned imagery of the paper records, for example:

O&557875ANDREW THOMAS A     2 LT  G1AC 2011094115     70140
 6881276AFTEWICZ EDWARD L    PVT   81INF10150231321100135069508065181004
   6 APLIN -OR-& -      3   1INF102  1       1 0 1 1

As of the initial date of this deposit is anticipated that such access will be possible to support further work on this series.

The dataset in this deposit does not contain records for which decoding is compromised to the extent that information to populate a basic person schema is incomplete. However, although 36,791 of the 143,374 person records in the NARA series were found to be compromised in some way, 19,624 of those have been substantially decoded and/or repaired and further work is being undertaken to both improve decoding of the 126,207 available here and to retrieve others among the 17,167 which are currently inaccessible.

This dataset has been enhanced to present the original NARA 'single data file' as a JSON resource which is more accessible for search and analysis, since each record is document-oriented (containing labels and values for each field, together with provenance information) for example:

{
  "$schema": "https://schemata.hasdai.org/historic-persons/historic-person-entry-v0.0.2.json",
  "location": [
   {
    "association": "military service",
    "transcription": "European Theater: Germany"
   },
   {
    "association": "interred",
    "transcription": "Stalag 2D Stargard Pomerania, Prussia 53-15"
   }
        ],
  "name": {
   "familyname": "AARON",
   "givenname": "JACK",
   "rank": "SGT",
   "transcription": "AARON JACK"
      },
  "set": {
   "id": "https://persons.freizo.org/export/pow/1.0.0",
   "partof": "10.5281/zenodo.3565392",
   "title": "WDAGO-0326"
      },
  "source": {
   "type": "data file"
       }
 },

The schema employed here serves a specific purpose, in addition to on-going work identifying and correcting errors in the NARA data: it supports work to discover other instances of persons appearing in this NARA series 0326, which also appear in external documentation. For example, in a separate collaborative project with Europa Institute at the University of Basel, a benchmark dataset has been produced based on listings of foreign residents in the Asian Directories and Chronicles, which forms a deposit at 10.5281/zenodo.2580997 and employs a compatible schema for the purpose of efficient comparison with this and other datasets. Other schemata could be employed for different purposes—leading to alternate datasets, all derived from series 0326. The full extent of information currently decoded from NARA series 0326 is presented at https://pow.freizo.org/ which provides search facilities by person name, plus interactive filters for person rank, service and theater of conflict.

The surprise Japanese attack on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941, marked the beginning of the United States' involvement in the Second World War. As a result of the attack, a total of 2,403 Americans were killed, and the vast majority of these were from the U.S. Navy. Almost half of all American deaths on the day came were those on the U.S.S. Arizona, where 1,177 servicemen were killed as the ship was sunk. In contrast, just 129 Japanese soldiers were killed in the attack.

The purpose of the Canadian Virtual War Memorial (CVWM) is to recognize and keep alive the memory of the achievements and sacrifices made by those who served Canada in the defence of freedom and so have contributed to the development of Canada as a nation.

The virtual memorial also contains images of individual Canadians and their experiences. You are invited to send us digital images of photographs and memorabilia relevant to Canada's war dead.

The names found in the Canadian Virtual War Memorial are those found in the Books of Remembrance. They contain the names of Canadians who fought in wars and died either during or after them. Together, they commemorate the lives of more than 118,000 Canadians who, since Confederation, have made the ultimate sacrifice while serving our country in uniform.

The United States military entered the Korean War in July 1950 and fought on the side of South Korea against the communist forces of North Korea and the People's Republic of China until August 1953. In total, the United States military would suffer almost 37,000 deaths through hostilities. Of these, servicemembers in the Army made up the vast majority of deaths (82.19 percent), with most of these being the result of soldiers being killed in action. A smaller number of marines and navy servicemembers were killed in Korea, with the majority also having been killed in action for these groups. For the United States Air Force, the composition of total deaths is quite different, as the majority of pilots killed during the conflict were declared dead after going missing in action. This likely reflects the fact that when an airplane was shot from the sky in battle, the remains of the pilots are not recoverable.

VBA HOUSING BENEFITS PROGRAM to provide direct loans to certain veterans who are, or whose spouses are, Native Americans for the purchase or construction of homes on trust lands. Veterans who are, or whose spouses are, recognized by a Federally Recognized Tribal Government as a Native American and who: (a) Served on active duty on or after September 16, 1940, and were discharged or released under conditions other than dishonorable. If service was any time during World War II, the Korean Conflict, the Vietnam-era, or the Persian Gulf War, then the Native American Veteran must have served on active duty for 90 days or more; peacetime service only must have served a minimum of 181 days continuous active duty. If separated from enlisted service which began after September 7, 1980, or service as an officer which began after October 16, 1981, a veteran must also have served at least 24 months of continuous active duty or the full period for which called or ordered to active duty. Veterans of such recent service may qualify with less service time if they have a compensable service-connected disability or were discharged after at least 181 days, under the authority of 10 U.S.C 1171 or 1173. (b) Any veteran in the above classes with less service but discharged with a service-connected disability. (c) If acknowledged as a Native American by a Federally Recognized Tribal Government, unmarried surviving spouses of otherwise eligible veterans who died in service or whose deaths were attributable to service-connected disabilities and spouses of members of the Armed Forces serving on active duty, who are listed as missing in action, or as prisoners of war and who have been so listed 90 days or more. (d) Members of the Selected Reservists who ae, or whose spouses ae, recognized by a Federally Recognized Tribal Government as Native Americans and who are not otherwise eligible for home loan benefits and who have completed a total of 6 years in the Selected Reserves followed by an honorable discharge, placement on the retired list, or continued service.

The First World War saw the mobilization of more than 65 million soldiers, and the deaths of almost 15 million soldiers and civilians combined. Approximately 8.8 million of these deaths were of military personnel, while six million civilians died as a direct result of the war; mostly through hunger, disease and genocide. The German army suffered the highest number of military losses, totaling at more than two million men. Turkey had the highest civilian death count, largely due to the mass extermination of Armenians, as well as Greeks and Assyrians. Varying estimates suggest that Russia may have suffered the highest number of military and total fatalities in the First World War. However, this is complicated by the subsequent Russian Civil War and Russia's total specific to the First World War remains unclear to this day.

Proportional deaths In 1914, Central and Eastern Europe was largely divided between the empires of Austria-Hungary, Germany and Russia, while the smaller Balkan states had only emerged in prior decades with the decline of the Ottoman Empire. For these reasons, the major powers in the east were able to mobilize millions of men from across their territories, as Britain and France did with their own overseas colonies, and were able to utilize their superior manpower to rotate and replace soldiers, whereas smaller nations did not have this luxury. For example, total military losses for Romania and Serbia are around 12 percent of Germany's total military losses; however, as a share of their total mobilized forces these countries lost roughly 33 percent of their armies, compared to Germany's 15 percent mortality rate. The average mortality rate of all deployed soldiers in the war was around 14 percent.

Unclarity in the totals Despite ending over a century ago, the total number of deaths resulting from the First World War remains unclear. The impact of the Influenza pandemic of 1918, as well as various classifications of when or why fatalities occurred, has resulted in varying totals with differences ranging in the millions. Parallel conflicts, particularly the Russian Civil War, have also made it extremely difficult to define which conflicts the fatalities should be attributed to. Since 2012, the totals given by Hirschfeld et al in Brill's Encyclopedia of the First World War have been viewed by many in the historical community as the most reliable figures on the subject.

Characteristics of police violence fatalities, 2013–2019.

Andersonville Prison was one of the largest, and most overcrowded and unsanitary prison camps during the American Civil War. For this reason, almost one third of all prisoners died while in captivity in the prison. As Confederate records were so poorly maintained, there are no complete records for the entire war, however from March until August, 1684, we know that over 7,700 Union soldiers died in captivity here. The most common causes for death were diarrhea and dysentery, and scurvy, which are both fast-spreading diseases, facilitated by poor and unhygienic living conditions. As a comparison, approximately 5.9 thousand Confederate POWs died from diarrhea or dysentery between 1861 and 1865.

The First Battle of the Somme is acknowledged as one of the most devastating and bloodiest battles of all time. The battle took place during the First World War, between allied British and French forces and opposing German forces, from July 1 to November 18, 1916. Initially this attack was supposed to be led by the French army, however their focus changed to the Battle of Verdun, where they were locked in a deadly stalemate against the German forces, therefore the role of the British changed from support to that of the lead. After a week of heavy bombardment from British artillery, on the morning of July 1, 1916 over 100,000 British troops charged the enemy lines, in what would become the bloodiest day in the history of the British Army. The German trenches were dug so deeply that the artillery fire did not have its desired effect, and it failed to sufficiently clear much of the barbed wire, meaning that the German machine guns were able to mow down thousands of oncoming troops as they tried to rush across no mans land. By the end of the day, the British troops secured approximately eight square kilometers of ground, along a front that stretched 24km (averaging just 0.33km from the initial line of attack), at a cost of over 57,000 casualties, including over 19,000 fatalities. By comparison, the German and French armies were of relatively similar sizes, however their fatality rate was much lower.

Progress was slow

The first day set much of the tone for the remainder of the battle. The German forces were able to retreat and dig new trenches and form their defenses faster than the British and French could mobilize their attacks, meaning that progress was slow, and cost many many lives. The majority of casualties to British and French forces came from German machine gun fire. While the Battle of the Somme is justly regarded as the prime example of trench warfare, it is also important to note that the respective air forces did play a large part in gathering intel and coordinating attacks, as well as the artillery regiments who provided much of the suppressing fire and disrupted one another's supply chains. September 15th also marked the first ever use of a tank in battle, where the British sent a small fleet of tanks into the field, with mixed results.

Legacy of the Somme

By the end of the battle the casualties were high. As the battle progressed the French became more heavily involved, and German soldiers began falling more rapidly. The battle ended on November 18th 1916, with well over one million casualties and 300,000 fatalities. Although casualties were high for all sides, the battle is most prominently remembered in Britain and the Commonwealth as an example of the ultimate sacrifice made by the men who served throughout the First World War.

Since the terrorist organization Hamas launched its attacks on Israeli soil on October 7, 2023, around 1,200 Israelis died, and 5,431 were injured. Through retaliation attacks by the Israeli armed forces against Hamas in Gaza, 47,540 Palestinians were killed, and 111,618 were injured. As of January 2025, the number of Palestinian deaths in the West Bank was 1,004, due to the on going conflict. Information on the data situation Data on the number of fatalities and injuries are based on the UNOCHA (United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) reporting by both parties to the conflict. The respective data sources were named for the purpose of transparency. It must be stated that in the case of wars and other conflicts, objective data collection is almost impossible, and reports are based on estimates. At the same time, it needs to be noted that some parties to the conflict may use numbers and data selectively for their own agenda. Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7th, 2023 Before October 2023, there had been four wars between Israel and Hamas. The current conflict is already the deadliest, and the death toll is certain to rise. The new escalation of violence in the Middle East started after the militant Palestinian group Hamas attacked Israel in the early hours of October 7, 2023. An estimated 2,200 rockets were fired by Hamas from Gaza toward Israeli targets, hitting civilian buildings and military facilities. Hamas fighters entered the Israeli territory, killing around 1,200 of Israeli citizens. In the weeks that followed, the Israeli military conducted an aerial bombardment and launched a ground offensive in Gaza. Humanitarian pauses allowed aid to get into Gaza, but fighting has continued since a weeklong cease-fire ended on December 1, 2023. Operation Iron Swords and the humanitarian situation of Gaza Initially, Israel reacted to the Hamas attacks with further isolation of the Gaza Strip, cutting off the supply of electricity, fuel, and drinking water. As of November 6, 2023, water supply to parts of the Gaza Strip has been resumed. The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) summoned the Palestinians to evacuate the northern part of the Gaza Strip towards the south of Gaza in the direction of the Egyptian border. This affects around 1.93 million people out of the 2.06 million inhabitants of Gaza. According to the UN, over one million people are internally displaced inside the Gaza Strip. Some trucks with relief supplies could infrequently enter the territory via the Rafah border from Egypt. This Israeli military operation is one of the longest-lasting in Gaza, and over 6,000 bombs were already dropped by the IDF.

The Battle of Antietam (also known as the Battle of Sharpsburg) is the single bloodiest day in the United States' military history, with almost 23,000 total casualties, which included over 3,600 fatalities. The battle began at dawn on September 17, 1862, as General Robert E. Lee's Confederate army were attacked by Major General George B. McClellan near Antietam Creek, Maryland. While the Union had almost double the Confederacy's numbers, McClellan did not commit his full force, and did not capitalize and push his attack any time he broke Lee's defensive line. This meant that Lee's men were able to hold off the Union army until reinforcements arrived in the evening and drove the battered Union army back, thus ending the battle. Although some skirmishes took place during the day before and after the 17th, they pale in comparison to the violence and losses suffered on that day.

For the Confederate prisoners in the Union's prisons, the most common cause of death was via diarrhea and dysentery, followed by lung inflammations, and then infectious diseases such as smallpox and measles. In Confederate prisons, the proportion of deaths for Union POWs was much less spread out than in Union prisons.

The Korean War began on June 25, 1950, and ended on July 27, 1953, with an armistice. The “War of June 25” started with an invasion by North Korea and claimed around 1.9 million military casualties, including 815 thousand fatalities. This does not even consider the millions of civilians killed or forced to flee from their homes. Throughout the war, North Korea gained control of almost all of South Korea before South Korean and United Nations forces pushed north to regain control. Nearly all regions and people were affected at some point, with massive destruction everywhere. The unfinished warThe Korean War was the largest international war following the Second World War and one of the few conflicts during the Cold War. The United Nations forces, largely composed of American troops, fought alongside South Korea, while Chinese and Soviet troops supported North Korea. The Korean War unofficially ended with an armistice. This was to be followed by a formal treaty to end the war, but this never happened. Officially, North and South Korea are still at war today. Divided familiesThe Korean War resulted in millions of dead, missing, abducted, and refugee civilians. Over a million North Koreans fled south of the border. The war tore many families apart. Following the inter-Korean summit in 2000, the two governments arranged for family reunions in North Korea. North Korea would not permit the people to leave, so the family members in the south went to meet them. From 2000 to 2023, about 21 reunions have taken place in North Korea. Most of the family members in South Korea are now in their 70s to 90s. Although there is substantial agreement on the need to continue these reunions before the separate families age and pass away, this has not always been possible due to tensions between the two Koreas.