German Casualties - Eastern Front vs. Western Front

[fortchoteau]

Does anyone have the figures for German casualties on the Eastern Front vs. Western Front during the war? I am really interested to see the difference.

Thanks,

CJW

[Latze]

These figures are from the official report of the German army's medical service, published in 1935.

SanB.pdf

If you are unable to read or translate the headings dop me a line.

best regards
Matt

[Art]

Thank you for posting this. I wonder how they count the war year, beginning from 1 August, I guess? Curiously, until the autumn of 1916 German casualties on the Eastern Front in proportion to the number of men were not smaller than in the West despite Russian weakness in artillery and ammunition.

[Latze]

Thank you for posting this. I wonder how they count the war year, beginning from 1 August, I guess? Curiously, until the autumn of 1916 German casualties on the Eastern Front in proportion to the number of men were not smaller than in the West despite Russian weakness in artillery and ammunition.

The years are just the calendar years. I think the casualties were counted starting with the day each formation was considered "mobile" and started to report its strength to higher headquarters. The Sanitätsbericht mentions that the records in the first two months of the war are incomplete, especially for the units of 1st and 2nd army in France (no time for paperwork and a high number of stragglers because of some epic marches).

[mars]

In Great War forum, PJA addressed German WWI loss at East Front based on sanitatsbericht

1914 : 149,418 ;
1915: 663,739;
1916 : 383,505;
1917 : 238,581;
1918 : 33,568;

[fortchoteau]

Thanks for the figures Mars!
What I am wondering is how do those Eastern Front figures compare with the ones from the Western Front when placed side by side.

CJW

[mars]

I think it is about 2:1 in 1915, have no idea about other years, but you also need to remember Austria-Hungary suffer very heavy losses at East front too, they lost 1.8 million for all causes in 1915 alone.

[Latze]

Thanks for the figures Mars!
What I am wondering is how do those Eastern Front figures compare with the ones from the Western Front when placed side by side.

CJW

Why don't you use the figures I posted? They include the comparison between Western and Eastern front as well as break down of types of casualties (KIA, WIA, sick, ...).