Nelson Evening Mail. THURSDAY, AUGUST 3, 1916. BRITAIN'S WAR LOSSES.

Nelson Evening Mail, 3 August 1916, Page 4

Nelson Evening Mail. THURSDAY, AUGUST 3, 1916. BRITAIN'S WAR LOSSES.

BRITAIN'S total war losses in the present offensive, north of the S'omme, may be inferred reasonably closely from: a recent cable which ga.ve the losses of officers at 5485. In this war the .proportion of officers to men lost has been given as a little less than one in, twenty. For instance, up to the beginning of this year Britain's total casualties in all theatres were 549,467, of which 24,122 were officers and 525,345 •men. That works out at one officer lost per 21.7 men-, and if this proportion was held during the present advance Britain has lost tinder 120,000 men; the exact, figuresare 119,024. At that rate the total losses, officers and men together, wonld be 124,506. This is just about 12,000 more than were lost in the whole of the Dardanelles operations; it is more than one-third' as the British lost in the whole of the operations on the Western front. Yet, under the circumstances, it is pointed out by the Telegraph, the total cannot be considered out of the way. The proportion mentioned, .between losses of officers and men, seems pretty exact. It has not varied much with the different theatres of war. In the Dardanelles operations, for instance, the proportion of officers to men lost twas one to 21.4. or almost exactly the same as the total for all fields. .We have lost, then, so far in the Somme offensivt probably rather more than. 120,000 officers and men. This is almost certainly less than half as many as the Germans have had to pay for gains at Verdun, which may for comparison purposes be down as about equivalent. But then, on the one hand <the positions the Germans stormed at Verdun were certainly far stronger than those we have taken north of the Somme, and on the other we seeim to be on the edge of an achievement which should be more important than that of the Germans at Verdun.