was it safer being an artillery man than a simple soldier

[kenf48]

I'm not sure that I am bothered which was "safer". They all did their duty

Roger

or as the poet wrote:-

'carefully charting with ruler and pen,

numbers and names that were men...'

Ken

[Roger H]

or as the poet wrote:-

'carefully charting with ruler and pen,

numbers and names that were men...'

Ken

Now that I like.

Roger

[trenchtrotter]

3 rd Ypres saw more RA casualties in Sept / Oct than Infantry (according to Lynne McDonalds book? (may have been Aug / Sept). Roget H is right though!!!!!

TT

[oscarquebec]

Thanks Ken - amen to #26. Where did you find that?

[Scalyback]

I was a mere underwriter, not actuary. So the monkey not organ grinder with regards to statitical management.

stats, stats and dammed lies. I belive is the term.

Going with Mr C on this.

Given the breakdown of stats. Looks it refers to capbadge, not trade. A big diffrence in working out risk factors. tunnel work V IC Sh*t waller. Both RE badged, of very diffrent risk factors.

Every single one of them brave men.

[Robert Dunlop]

The statistics provided by Tom illustrate the orders of magnitude difference. While it would be possible to argue the toss over details - trench mortar batteries, tunnellers, etc - it appears highly unlikely that some shifts here and there would fundamentally change the relative overall risks. FWIIW, I don't trust the details either. But the stats do have face validity and, in the absence of anything else, support the notion that infantry were proportionately more likely to be killed or wounded.

Robert

[phil andrade]

Infantrymen took far heavier casualties than gunners , both relatively and absolutely.

Anyone in doubt should refer to Tom McC's tabulation.

That does not mean that artillerymen were safe.

And I should think that being a Forward Observation Officer for the gunners was a very perilous occupation.

I have a tabulation of French army casualties for the war, which clearly shows how the preponderance of deaths among the infantry diminished year by year, as warfare became more "technical" and the deployment of gunners increased. As a total of all deaths in the army, the infantry comprised :

1914 : 95%

1915 : 94%

1916 : 90%

1917 : 84%

1918 : 80%

In 1914 fewer than three per cent of all the dead were artillerymen; by 1918 the proportion exceeded twelve per cent.

This must not be construed as evidence that the gunners were relatively safer in the earlier part of the war : it might well be that the death rate per capita in the artillery was higher in 1914 than it was to be in 1918.

Phil (PJA)

[Stoppage Drill]

That's why they were the PBI.

[kenf48]

Thanks Ken - amen to #26. Where did you find that?

As you asked, I'm afraid I took liberties with the original...

It is from a poem 'The Chart' by Wilfrid Wilson Gibson pub 1920 in the collection 'Neighbours' [downloadable here http://www.ebooksread.com/authors-eng/wilfrid-wilson-gibson.shtml

along with his influential 'Battle'.]

Gibson volunteered a number of times but was turned down on medical grounds, eventually he was found a job in the RASC ending up as a medical officer's clerk http://www.warpoets.org/conflicts/greatwar/gibson/

His duties included keeping a record the casualties on a chart.

THE CHART

Drawing red lines on a chart

With diligent ruler and pen,

Keeping a record of men,

Numbers and names in black ink —

Numbers and names that were men

With diligent ruler and pen

Drawing red lines on a chart —

Would you not break, O my heart,

If I stopped but a moment to think!

Having hijacked the thread, (sorry) could I say no criticism is implied of the amount of effort to try to find a valid answer and mathematical analysis seems the most objective way to do so.

On the other hand I think it's humbling for any researcher to recall Gibson's lines especially when trying to establish some obscure fact from, say the service records or SDGW.

Ken

[oscarquebec]

In thinking about the most successful, I keeping coming back to the countless engagements that took place all along the Western Front and elsewhere that involved the straggling remnants of this company or that. What comes to mind are the words of the German Chaplain who apparently witnessed the counter attack at Aubers Ridge. He said of 'a few' that held onto a captured trench, "They were heroes all, brave and true to the end, until death.... men of the 'active English Rifle Brigade'.