Wednesday 13th
December 1916: From our Correspondent in
the Field
The heavy
fall of snow yesterday ay Berles-au-Bois has put to rest any thoughts of
resumed offensives on the Somme. A number of correspondents, still based near
Albert, have been musing about this battle and have come up with a decidedly
macabre statistic.
We were set
to our musing by receipt of figures which show that the number of soldiers who
died as a result of the battle has been calculated at 95,676 from Britain and
the Empire and 50,756 from France and her overseas colonies(1). This makes a
total of 146,432 allied soldiers died. Enemy deaths, of course, are unknown.
The battle
saw an advance of six miles on a front of 26 miles – near enough 96 square
miles of ground thus having been retaken from the enemy. This means that some
1,525 men were killed, on average, for every square mile of land taken from the
enemy.
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