Early casualties
It is interesting that in the early days of the First World War General Haig saw fit to record in his diary casualty numbers that in years to come would be unremarkable.
On the diary page shown here he records in detail the day's casualties for 14 October 1914 — four killed and 17 wounded.
In years to come they would pale into insignificance beside the enormous losses of the first day of the battle of the Somme of July 1916. On that day, British losses amounted to some 60,000.
