Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1919-01-15
Wars Hagoc On Lite


The latest available table of casualties in
the great war is necessarily incomplete and Il
may be doubted whether the whole truth will
ever be known about the Sacrifice OF life. the
manning OF men doomed to be remnants of
humanity, and the many lost to view and never
to be accounted for The casualties of the Rus
SANS. can only be conjeetured records were
loosely kept during the imperial regime now
gone, and such records as existed have been en-
quilted in chaos. Il is acknowledgements guess
ed would be the filter word-that 100000 Rus
SLAMS were killed in the war 3500000 wounded
and the sum of the missing or prisoners" was
2;,50UO0O, the grand total being 100000. II
these hgures were approximately correct and
those given for the German forces are trust
worthy, Russia's losses would be the greater by
nearly 100000
It is to be supposed that the French casual
ties have been registered with some care, but
during the war not figure was published, and
now that the war is over, admitted losses are
limited to the dead, of which the number is
l,0Il, 800. How many French soldiers and sail
ors were wounded. and how many were cap
tured or missing, has not been divulged ieav-
ing gaps in any table that can be constructed.
The Austrian casualty list also leaves a good
deal to be desired The dead are given as 800
600; nothing is said about the wounded and
missing or prisoners" Can anything be def
nitely known about Austrian losses of any kind
in the war, even in Austria where the military
system broke down long before the armstce
was granted? The Italian figures have the
color Of truth-460000 dead. o47000 wounded
and 100000 missing or prisoners" most of
whom the disaster following Caporetto accounts
for.
It is when we come to the casualties of the
British empire, Germany, and the United
States that the ground to stand on has sfabi-
ity but this should be qualified by saving that
vanduished Germany is not interested at pres
ent in revising her records, if they have been
brought down 70 date. The German dead are
given at 100000 wounded as 3.623143 and
the missing or prisoners" as z72,5l2; total
6,055,655. Records have probably been we'll
kept. but there is danger of impairment in the
confusion now widespread in Germany. Great
Britain has published her losses by the month
regularly, and the work seems to have been
we'll done. Her dead are given as 706726,
wounded as 2032142 and ''missing or prison
ers" as $50 las; total 3,0o8013 1t has been
ntimated that the dead" do not include a
considerable number of losses by accidents,
from disease, and from unexplained causes.
sense that all deaths overseas from whatever
cause are counted. The list of January 1,
given out by the War department makes the
army casualties 1.-THE naval have not been num-
erousl 5o,111 dead, 126435 wounded and
missing" 1880 exclusive of the marines,
which body has had 2042 deaths, 3,014 wound
ed 423 missing" and 81 taken prisoners
The latest available table. one of series
that will extend through months until the last
word is said, gives a total of 6396,504 dead.
hut that total does not include the Serbians,
fans and Turks. When al the returns that can
be gathered are in it will be found doubtless,
that 100000 men laid down their lives in the
great war