BATTLE CASUALTIES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23860, 10 January 1941, Page 6

BATTLE CASUALTIES

British losses in the series of major operations in the Western Desert have so far been phenomenally low. Total British and Australian losses incurred in the storming of the strongly fortified zone at Bardia are reported this morning to be less than 600. In the first seven days of the offensive, when the assault was directed at the positions covering Sidi Barrani, and to the east and west of it, total casualties amounted to 72 killed and 7158 wounded. Measured against the scale of the operations, the numbers engaged, and the successes achieved, the ratio of losses is exceedingly low. The fact is a reminder that the losses announced by British, French and Germans in the colossal battles of the West in May and June appeared at the time to be exceptionally small by all previous standards. Wounded and killed in operations ending in the conquest of the Low Countries and France seem to have been less than those incurred in some of the interminable trench battles of 191418. At Verdun in 1916, for instance, total casualties were 700,000 and the

toll of the "blood bath" of the Somme the same year was 1,100,000. The world may well be thankful that no such swathe has so far been cut into the present war generation, but may ask the cause of this merciful escape, with the efficiency of lethal weapons so vastly increased. The reason seems to be that invention has endowed armies with such mobility and striking power that the one gaining an advantage can quickly manoeuvre its opponent into a position where resistance becomes hopeless. Hence the high tallies of prisoners and the low tallies of wounded and killed. Modern war entails the highest expenditure ever of money, materials and machines, but mercifully has so far proved less expensive of human life. The successful exploitation of the war of movement in 1939-41 has saved the static shambles of 19] 4-18.