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THE GREAT WAR IN NUMBERS By Press Association Published: 16:41 GMT, 24 June 2014 | Updated: 16:42 GMT, 24 June 2014 e-mail Meticulous monthly records were kept on every aspect of the First World War and later published, providing details not just of the fighting but the huge logistical effort involved in supplying food and equipment to millions of men in the field.: : The terrible toll the war took on the armed forces is starkly illustrated by the fact that total British and British Empire deaths reached more than 908,000;:: These figures include those who died from injuries up to the end of 1920, while the number of wounds received by soldiers from August 4 1914, to December 31 1920, was more than 2.09 million;:: In July 1916 alone - the first month of the First Battle of the Somme - there were 38,734 deaths among the British Expeditionary Force in France, with total casualties (deaths, wounded, missing, prisoners) reaching 187,372;:: According to a telegram sent from Petrograd (now St Petersburg) to Copenhagen on December 20 1918, Russian losses amounted to 1.7 million dead, with nearly five million wounded or disabled and 2.5 million taken prisoner;:: The number of troops being treated in hospitals and convalescent depots in France on November 21 1918 - three days after the Armistice - was 121,604;:: The estimated strength of the empire forces, at home and abroad, in November 1918 - the last month of the war - was more than 3.22 million;:: By August 1918 there were 7,123 women employed by the British Expeditinary Force in France;:: An Army Cyclist Corps was created in November 1914 and its numbers were at their greatest - at 14,264 - in November 1916;:: The number of aerial photographs taken by the Royal Flying Corps grew from around 25,000 in 1916 to more than 2.24 million in the first 10 months of 1918;:: The strength of the Royal Flying Corps itself went from just 1,200 at the start of the war in August 1914 to more than 144,000 by the early months of 1918;:: As of August 31 1917, more than 591,000 horses were being used in the various theatres of war as well as more than 213,000 mules, more than 47,000 camels, 11,040 oxen and 6,810 donkeys;:: In the first six months of 1918 more than 4.5 million items, including over one million blankets and 500,000 greatcoats and leather jerkins, were cleaned and repaired;:: More than 136 million pairs of socks were supplied to troops from the start of the war to March 1919 as well as nearly 47 million pairs of boots, more than 57 million shirts and 23.5 million caps;:: From August 9 1914 to November 10 1918, a total of more than 5.25 million tons of ammunition were shipped to France as well as nearly four million tons of coal;:: From the start of the war to the end of March 1919, a total of 3,080 death sentences were passed on British and Empire troops and other camp followers for offences such as desertion and mutiny, but only 346 were actually carried out;:: From December 23 1914 to July 20, 1918, a total of 619 British civilians, including 142 children, were killed in air raids, with 1,650 injured;:: A bombardment of the east coast of England by the German navy on December 16 1914 killed 127 civilians, including 39 children, in Hartlepool, Scarborough and Whitby, with 567 suffering injuries;:: William Barnard Rhodes-Moorhouse, 27, was the first airman to be awarded, posthumously, the Victoria Cross, dying the day after being severely wounded in a bombing raid over Belgium in April 1915;:: His was one of 578 VCs awarded during the period August 1914 to May 1920 as part of more than 229,000 honours conferred on British forces in the field as well as 15,399 conferred on British forces for services in connection with the war;:: A total of 500 of the VCs were awarded for action in France and 28 in Gallipoli::: The average daily expenditure of the war reached £7.45 million in the period April 1 to May 5 1917, and was still costing an average of more than £6.47 million a day in the period November 10 1918 (the day before the Armistice) to March 31 1919;:: Daily rations issued to troops in France at the beginning of the war included 1.25lbs of bread, four ounces of bacon, three ounces of cheese and three ounces of sugar;:: By the beginning of 1918 the daily bread ration had been reduced to 1lb, with cheese down to two ounces;:: For troops at home, a flat rate of 4.5d a day (just under 2p) took the place of part of the rations, with this rising later to 5.5d and then to 6.5d;:: Supply of hay for the horses came not just from the UK but also from Algiers, the south of France and Egypt, with nearly 2.7 million tons being shipped to France from August 9 1914 to May 1 1920;:: According to records on September 2 1919, nearly half a million prisoners of war were captured on land and at sea and interned by British forces;:: The greatest number of PoWs put to work on any one day was 64,250 in the UK on November 7 1918 - just a few days before the war ended.These figures are taken from a March 1922 War Office publication entitled Statistics Of The Military Effort Of The British Empire During The Great War.