TOLL OF WARFARE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 115, 13 April 1940, Page 7

TOLL OF WARFARE.

SIX MONTHS’ LOSSES. COMPARATIVE FIG URES. LONDON, March 28. The first six months of the last war claimed six times as many lives as the first six months of the present campaign, says the Evening Standard. A’et the estimated fire-power of troops today is six times more intense than in the last war. Although Europe lias, endured tliree wars in the last six months —Poland, AYestern Front arid Finland —and two great armies have been defeated in the field, the killed have totalled onlv I 29-1,000. : The Poles, says the paper, were overwhelmed bv air power, mechanised j columns, and sheer numbers. For every; Polish division ir, the field there were two German divisions against it. RUSSIA’S TERRIBLE LOSSES. Finland was also overwhelmed by superior air power and immense gun and tank concentrations. There were probably three divisions against one, but the Finns were aided by the weather, and fought on favourable terrain, which precluded wide enveloping movements. The Finnish campaign exacted terrible losses from the conqueror, but the Russian losses were not disproportionate to the prize gained—the mastery of Scandinavia. In fhe AA’est the heaviest casualties have been at sea. A quarter of the German losses have been U-boat crews. SUMMARY OF CASUALTIES. The following British figures are official, while the others are partly based on official reports and estimates : i Polish Campaign.—German Josses, 13,972. Polish losses, 100,000. Finnish Campaign.—Russian losses, 150 000. Finnish losses. 17,000. AA’estern Front.- —British losses, 4486. French-losses, 1956. German losses, 6970. The AA : estern Front losses include the war at sea and in the air. The Standard says the prevailing | view is that the dictators’ fear will | sway them against vast sacrifices of j men, and the democracies are unwilling to begin a new era of “Passcliendaele slaughters.”