World War I casualties
Casualty statistics for World War I vary to a great extent; estimates of total deaths range from 9 million to over 15 million. Military casualties reported in official sources list deaths due to all causes, including an estimated 7 to 8 million combat related deaths (killed or died of wounds) and another two to three million military deaths caused by accidents, disease and deaths while prisoners of war. Official government reports listing casualty statistics were published by the United States and Great Britain. These secondary sources published during the 1920s, are the source of the statistics in reference works listing casualties in World War I. This article summarizes the casualty statistics published in the official government reports of the United States and Great Britain as well as France, Italy, Belgium, Germany, Austria and Russia. More recently the research of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) has revised the military casualty statistics of the UK and its allies; they include in their listing of military war dead personnel outside of combat theaters and civilians recruited from Africa, the Middle East and China who provided logistical and service support in combat theaters. The casualties of these support personnel recruited outside of Europe were previously not included with British war dead, however the casualties of the Labour Corps recruited from the British Isles were included in the rolls of British war dead published in 1921. The methodology used by each nation to record and classify casualties was not uniform, a general caveat regarding casualty figures is that they cannot be considered comparable in all cases.
German strategic bombing during World War I
On 28 January 13 Gothas and two Giants set off, six of the Gothas turning back because of poor visibility. Over a hundred defensive sorties were flown, resulting in one Gotha being shot down after being attacked by two Sopwith Camels from the 40 Squadron RFC, flown by Second Lieutenants Charles Banks and George Hackwill, the first victory for night fighters against a heavier-than-air bomber over Britain; both pilots were awarded the DFC. On the ground, 67 people were killed and 166 injured: the casualties included 14 dead and 14 injured in stampedes, when people queuing for admission to shelters were alarmed by maroons set off as a warning that a raid was expected; another 11 were injured by shrapnel from anti-aircraft fire. Many of the other casualties were caused by a bomb, which fell on the Odhams printing works in Long Acre, which was being used as a shelter.