Hi guys, I've recently discussed the main cause of military casualties in the First World War with my history teacher. He believes that the machine gun was the most deadly weapon, but I am quite sure it was in fact the artillery fire that claimed most lives. The sources I’ve found to support my claim are not completely bulletproof. Can you please help me out on this one and cite your sources? Thanks in advance!
I can't provide exact statistics, but excluding Disease and Non-Battle Injuries (DNBI) artillery was the biggest killer; this review of Trench quotes Stephen Bull as asserting that "two thirds of all deaths or injuries on the Western Front" were caused by artillery. Artillery being the biggest killer is mentioned explicitly in the following works that I am aware of:
Corrigan, G. (2004), Mud, Blood and Poppycock, London, Phoenix.
Holmes, R. (2005), Tommy: The British Soldier on the Western Front, London, Harper Perennial.
Middlebrook, M. (1971), The First Day on the Somme, London, Penguin.
And I'm sure it is in many, many more. The importance of artillery was recognised early on by the BEF and came to prominence after the Battle of Neuve Chapelle in March 1915 when Field Marshal French blamed the BEF's poor performance on a shortage of artillery ammunition. This precipitated the Shells Crisis, which was something of a national scandal, and a complete reform of British munitions production under the leadership of David Lloyd George and the newly formed Ministry of Munitions. A good source for more information on this is:
According to G A Dewar in The Great Munition Feat, Britain produced 258,400,000 artillery shells during the war and this gives some idea of the considered importance of artillery. Another more morbid piece of evidence is the number of dead with no known grave - only artillery can obliterate the human body and leave no trace.