World War One

[August]

Originally Posted by Schroeder

OT
Am I the only one who thinks the term "casualties" is complete BS? I mean someone gets shot in the little toe -> casualty
someone gets shot in the head and dies instantly -> casualty
So all in all the number of "casualties" doesn't tell me anything about how severs things are. Over here "casualties" are referred to as wounded and dead with the respective numbers for each.

So what does 6,444 "casualties" concretely mean? People we won't see again or people who will soon be there again to fight another day? We don't know and therefore those statistics contain zero tangible info.

/OT

A casualty in military parlance is anything that removes a soldier from duty. Death, illness, injury of course but it also includes POW's and even deserters. It's a calculation used to determine replacement needs so in that sense it doesn't matter if it's a stubbed toe or a fatality.