What was the deadliest single day in a battle?

No record can be proven for the ancient world. Borodino (1812) is often called the bloodiest single day of combat, with 70,000 to 80,000 casualties; the first day of the Somme (1 July 1916) is the bloodiest day in British military history, and Antietam (1862) the bloodiest single day in American history.

What was the deadliest battle of the American Civil War?

Gettysburg (1863), with 51,112 casualties over three days by the American Battlefield Trust's count; Antietam (1862) holds the record for the bloodiest single day in American history.

How are battle casualties counted?

Casualties combine soldiers killed, wounded, missing and captured, which is why they are far higher than death tolls alone and why sources disagree. We count the military casualties of both sides, give the range the sources use and rank each battle by its midpoint; civilian deaths are reported but not counted.

What was the deadliest battle of World War II?

Stalingrad, 1942 to 1943; six of the eleven battles on this list were fought on the Eastern Front of World War II. If whole campaigns counted as one battle, Operation Barbarossa in 1941 would cost far more: by December 1941 the Red Army alone had suffered about four million casualties.

How many people died at Stalingrad?

No one knows exactly. Germany's national history museum estimates that about 150,000 German soldiers died in the encirclement and probably more than 400,000 Soviet soldiers were killed. The military casualties of both sides, counting killed, wounded, missing and captured, are put at no less than 2 to 2.5 million.

What was the bloodiest day in British military history?

The first day of the Somme, 1 July 1916. The British Army suffered over 57,000 casualties, 19,240 of them killed, more than on any other day in its history.

The 11 Deadliest Battles in History, Ranked by Casualties

Q: What was the deadliest battle in history?

By the midpoint of the estimates, the Brusilov Offensive of 1916, with about 2.6 million military casualties on both sides, though its estimates run from 1.95 to 3.25 million, the widest range on our list. Stalingrad, 1942 to 1943, is the battle most often named, with about 2.25 million, the midpoint of firmer estimates of 2 to 2.5 million; the Dnieper, about 1.79 million, comes next.

Q: What was the deadliest battle of World War I?

By the midpoint of the estimates, the Brusilov Offensive in 1916, with 1.95 to 3.25 million casualties, No. 1 on our list; on the Western Front it was the Somme, the same year, with about 1.06 to 1.27 million, No. 5. Verdun, the same year, cost almost 700,000 to about 977,000, and Gallipoli 470,000 to 550,000.

The Children's Khorovod fountain after the air raid, Stalingrad, 23 August 1942. Photo: Emmanuil Yevzerikhin (TASS), public domain

At a glance
Rank	Battle	Date	Casualties	Result
1	Brusilov Offensive	1916	About 2.6 million (1.95 to 3.25 million)	Russian victory; Austria-Hungary crippled
2	Stalingrad	1942 to 1943	About 2.25 million (2 to 2.5 million)	Soviet victory; 6th Army destroyed
3	The Dnieper	1943	About 1.79 million (1.58 to 2 million)	Soviet victory; Kiev retaken
4	Moscow	1941 to 1942	More than 1.33 million	Soviet victory; Germans driven back
5	Somme	1916	About 1.16 million (1.06 to 1.27 million)	No breakthrough
6	Operation Bagration	1944	About 1.15 million (1.12 to 1.18 million)	Soviet victory; Army Group Center destroyed
7	Berlin	1945	About 991,000 (841,000 to 1.14 million)	Soviet victory; Berlin taken
8	Kursk	1943	About 967,000 (870,000 to 1.06 million)	Soviet victory; Citadel failed
9	Verdun	1916	About 838,500 (700,000 to 977,000)	French defensive victory
10	Normandy	1944	About 596,000 (526,000 to 666,000)	Allied victory; Paris freed
11	Gallipoli	1915 to 1916	About 510,000 (470,000 to 550,000)	Ottoman victory; Allies withdrew

Quick answer

What was the deadliest battle in history?

Counted by the military casualties of both sides, the deadliest battle in history was the Brusilov Offensive of 1916, with about 2.6 million soldiers killed, wounded, missing or captured at the midpoint of estimates that run from 1.95 to 3.25 million, the least certain total on our list. Stalingrad, 1942 to 1943, the battle most often named, comes second with about 2.25 million, the midpoint of firmer estimates of 2 to 2.5 million, and the Battle of the Dnieper in 1943, about 1.79 million, third.

This page answers one question: which battles cost the most soldiers? We count casualties, the military losses of both sides, killed, wounded, missing and captured, from a battle's first day to its last; civilian deaths are reported where we know them but not counted. The eleven battles below are ordered by casualties, largest first, from the Brusilov Offensive down to Gallipoli; see how we chose and counted them. Every figure is an estimate: where historians disagree we give the range, place the battle by its midpoint and say whose number it is. For the battles with the most soldiers engaged, see the largest battles in history.

1 Brusilov Offensive, 1916

Where: Some 200 miles of the Eastern Front from the Pripet Marshes to the Romanian border (today western Ukraine)
War: World War I, Eastern Front
Sides: Russia vs Austria-Hungary and Germany
Casualties: Russian: about 1 million (John Rickard) to 1.4 million (Erik Sass); Austro-Hungarian: up to 600,000 (Piotr Szlanta) to 1.5 million, 400,000 of them prisoners (HISTORY); German: 350,000 (Rickard); 1.95 to 3.25 million in all, about 2.6 million at the midpoint (our sums)
Result: Russian victory, 4 June to 20 September 1916; Austria-Hungary never recovered

In 1916, by John Rickard's account, the Allies asked Russia to ease Verdun and to save Italy from an Austrian offensive, and Aleksei Brusilov, commanding the Southwestern Front, offered to attack three weeks early. He struck with all four of his armies at once along some 200 miles, after a short bombardment and from trenches dug to within 75 yards of the enemy. The attack of 4 June took the Austrians by surprise: near Lutsk the Russians took 26,000 prisoners in a day, and within days the Austro-Hungarian Fourth Army was broken.¹

Germany sent fifteen divisions to prop up its ally and Romania joined the Allies on 27 August. When the offensive, which Rickard calls the Battle of Kovel-Stanislav, ended on 20 September, the Russians had advanced 20 to 100 miles. Russian losses run from about a million in Rickard's count to 1.4 million in Erik Sass's; Austro-Hungarian from up to 600,000, according to the Polish historian Piotr Szlanta, to 1.5 million, 400,000 of them prisoners, according to HISTORY; Rickard adds 350,000 Germans. That makes 1.95 to 3.25 million, about 2.6 million at the midpoint (our sums), the high total about two thirds above the low one; most of the gap is the Austro-Hungarian count. Austria-Hungary never recovered its striking power and fell under German command, while Russia, bled white, slid toward revolution.²

Why it ranks here: About 2.6 million casualties at the midpoint is the highest on the list, above Stalingrad's 2.25 million, so it ranks first. Its 37 points, level with Verdun and Gallipoli, are enough to make the list but fewer than its place suggests: recognition and memory score 3, and certainty 2, because the estimates are so far apart.

Read the full story of the Brusilov Offensive ›

2 Stalingrad, 1942 to 1943

Where: Stalingrad (today Volgograd) and the great bend of the Don, Soviet Union
War: World War II, Eastern Front
Sides: Soviet Union vs Germany, Romania, Italy and Hungary
Casualties: Soviet: 1,129,619 (Krivosheev, our sum of two tables) to about 1.37 million (other data with NKVD troops, cited by Krinko and Medvedev); Axis: 850,000 (Kommersant) to no more than 880,000 (Krinko and Medvedev); no less than 2 to 2.5 million in all (Krinko and Medvedev), about 2.25 million at the midpoint
Result: Soviet victory, 17 July 1942 to 2 February 1943; German 6th Army destroyed, about 91,000 taken prisoner

Russian historians date the battle from 17 July 1942, when the Germans attacked in the great bend of the Don on their way to the Volga. The German 6th Army under Friedrich Paulus reached the city in late August and by mid-November held about 90 percent of it. The city's people died in great numbers: the air raids of 23 to 29 August 1942 alone killed 71,000 people, according to Krinko and Medvedev, and like all civilian deaths they are not in our total.³

On 19 November the Red Army attacked in a pincer from the northwest and the south, and three days later about 250,000 Germans and more than 30,000 Romanian and Soviet auxiliaries were trapped. Paulus surrendered on 31 January 1943 and the northern pocket two days later; about 150,000 Germans had died in the pocket, and of some 91,000 prisoners perhaps 6,000 came home. The Soviet toll is the best counted: the study edited by Grigori Krivosheev gives 643,842 casualties in the defense and 485,777 in the counteroffensive, 1,129,619 together, while other data cited by the Russian historians Evgeniy Krinko and Maksim Medvedev, with NKVD troops added, reach 1.36 to 1.37 million. For the Axis, Kommersant's table gives 850,000 and Krinko and Medvedev no more than 880,000; they put the military losses of both sides at no less than 2 to 2.5 million.⁴

Why it ranks here: Its midpoint, about 2.25 million casualties, is second only to the Brusilov Offensive, and its 46 points are the most on the list, with full marks for scale, recognition, consequence and memory. Certainty is 3: the highest total, 2.5 million, is more than a quarter above the lowest sum of the two sides, about 1.98 million (our sum).

Read the full story of the Battle of Stalingrad ›

3 The Dnieper, 1943

Where: The Dnieper River in Ukraine and eastern Belarus, from Gomel to Zaporizhzhia, including Kiev
War: World War II, Eastern Front
Sides: Soviet Union vs Germany and its allies
Casualties: Soviet: 1,182,344 (Krivosheev, our sum of two operations; 1.2 million in Kommersant) to 1.6 million (National WWII Museum); German and allied: about 400,000 (Kommersant); about 1.58 to 2 million in all, about 1.79 million at the midpoint (our sums)
Result: Soviet victory, 26 August to 23 December 1943; Kiev retaken on 6 November

The Soviet drive on the Dnieper opened on 26 August 1943 with more than 2.6 million soldiers, and on 15 September Hitler ordered Army Group South to fall back behind the river, the Eastern Wall he meant to hold. Soviet units crossed on the heels of the retreating Germans: the first bridgehead was taken on 22 September, and by the end of the month there were 23. On 6 November the Red Army freed Kiev, and from Gomel to Zaporizhzhia it now stood on the west bank.⁵

The price is disputed. Krivosheev's tables count 427,952 Soviet casualties in the Chernigov-Poltava operation, which they call the first stage of the battle, and 754,392 in the Lower Dnieper operation, its final one, 1,182,344 together (our sum); Kommersant, which counts the same two operations, rounds the Soviet loss to 1.2 million. The National WWII Museum gives 1.6 million, over 417,000 of them killed or missing, close to the 417,323 dead and missing that Focus.ua attributes to the German historian Karl-Heinz Frieser. The German side is the weakest figure on this page: the only count we could check at source, Kommersant's table, gives about 400,000 German and allied losses.⁶

Why it ranks here: About 1.79 million casualties at the midpoint of the range we use put it third, behind the Brusilov Offensive and Stalingrad. It scored 39 on full marks for scale and 4 for consequence, held down by recognition and memory of 3, because few readers outside Ukraine and Russia know its name, and by certainty 3, since the high total is just over a quarter above the low one and the German figure rests on one count.

4 Moscow, 1941 to 1942

Where: The approaches to Moscow, Soviet Union (today Russia)
War: World War II, Eastern Front
Sides: Soviet Union vs Germany (Army Group Center)
Casualties: Soviet: 1,029,234 to 7 January 1942 (Krivosheev, our sum of two tables); German: more than 300,000 in the retreat (EBSCO); more than 1.33 million in all (our sum)
Result: Soviet victory; the Germans driven back, in places more than 200 km, the Wehrmacht's first major defeat

Hitler gave priority to taking Ukraine, and only at the start of October 1941 did Army Group Center attack Moscow in Operation Typhoon. The double pocket at Vyazma and Bryansk took about 670,000 Soviet prisoners by the count of the German Historical Museum, and Krivosheev counts 514,338 Soviet soldiers killed, missing or captured in the defense alone, out of 658,279 casualties. Rain and mud slowed the advance until the ground froze. German assault troops came within eight kilometers of the city before the last push failed in early December, and frostbite put more than twice as many Germans out of action as enemy fire.⁷

On 5 December the Kalinin Front attacked, and the next day Georgy Zhukov's Western Front followed, with 34 divisions from Siberia among the fresh troops; for the first time the Wehrmacht had to fall back, in places more than 200 km. Krivosheev counts 370,955 Soviet casualties in the counteroffensive to 7 January 1942, 1,029,234 with the defense (our sum). German losses are far less certain: the retreat alone cost more than 300,000 casualties according to EBSCO. Counted to 20 April 1942, a longer battle, Kommersant's table gives 1.8 million Soviet and 457,100 German and allied losses, which is why totals for Moscow vary so widely.⁸

Why it ranks here: More than 1.33 million casualties put it fourth. It scored 39 on full marks for consequence, as the Wehrmacht's first major defeat, with 4 for recognition and memory and certainty 3, because the German side rests on one open-ended count, for the retreat alone.

Read the full story of the Battle of Moscow ›

Military map of the Soviet winter counteroffensive of 1941 to 1942 — The Soviet winter offensive from 5 December 1941 to 7 May 1942, which threw the German armies back from the approaches to Moscow. Map from the US Military Academy atlas. Public domain (US government work). Department of History, US Military Academy, via Wikimedia Commons.

5 Somme, 1916

Where: The river Somme, Picardy, northern France
War: World War I, Western Front
Sides: Britain, its Empire and France vs Germany
Casualties: 1,059,535 (Mémorial de Verdun and Historial de Péronne after Alain Denizot: 437,322 German, 419,654 British and Empire, 202,559 French) to 1,265,000 (HistoryNet: 615,000 Allied and 650,000 German, our sum); about 1.16 million at the midpoint
Result: No breakthrough, 1 July to 18 November 1916

The Somme was planned as the Allies' great offensive of 1916, and when Germany attacked at Verdun in February, the British went in earlier than planned to take the pressure off their ally. A seven-day bombardment fired 1.5 million shells, yet much of the German wire stayed uncut. When the infantry went over the top on 1 July, the British Army suffered over 57,000 casualties in a single day; HistoryNet puts the day at about 60,000, a third of them killed.⁹

The offensive ground on through summer and autumn until Douglas Haig shut it down on 18 November. The National Army Museum counts 420,000 British Empire and 200,000 French casualties against German losses of at least 450,000 killed and wounded; HistoryNet gives 615,000 Allied and 650,000 German. The fullest count, a table published by the Mémorial de Verdun and the Historial de la Grande Guerre at Péronne after the historian Alain Denizot, gives 1,059,535: 437,322 German, 419,654 British and Empire and 202,559 French, on average 7,568 men a day. The German figure is the most disputed, running from at least 450,000 to 650,000 in the counts above, and it decides where the Somme lands between 1.06 and 1.27 million.¹⁰

Why it ranks here: About 1.16 million casualties at the midpoint put it fifth, the costliest World War I battle on this list after the Brusilov Offensive and the costliest on the Western Front. It scored 43, with full marks for recognition and memory, and certainty 4 because the German total is disputed.

Read the full story of the Somme ›

6 Operation Bagration, 1944

Where: Belarus, Lithuania and eastern Poland
War: World War II, Eastern Front
Sides: Soviet Union and the Polish 1st Army vs Germany
Casualties: Soviet: 765,815 (Krivosheev), plus 5,073 in the Polish 1st Army; German: about 350,000 killed or captured in four weeks (German Historical Museum) to about 390,000 in nine weeks (Jeff Rutherford) and 409,000 German and allied (Kommersant); about 1.12 to 1.18 million in all, about 1.15 million at the midpoint (our sums)
Result: Soviet victory, 22 June to 29 August 1944; Army Group Center destroyed

By June 1944 Germany's Army Group Center had 40 divisions with about 500,000 men, holding a bulge some 1,000 km long around Vitebsk, Orsha, Mogilev and Bobruisk that Hitler refused to give up. Against it Krivosheev lists 2,331,700 Soviet soldiers in four fronts and 79,900 in the Polish 1st Army. The Red Army attacked on 22 June, two weeks after the Allies landed in Normandy.¹¹

Once the front broke, 1.2 million Soviet soldiers with 4,000 tanks trapped the German 4th and 9th Armies and the 3rd Panzer Army; Minsk fell on 3 July and Vilnius ten days later. By the end of July Army Group Center had practically ceased to exist: about 350,000 German soldiers had been killed or captured in four weeks, by the count of Germany's national history museum. Over nine weeks the historian Jeff Rutherford puts German losses at about 390,000, with 28 divisions shattered, and calls it the costliest German campaign of the war; Kommersant's table gives 409,000 German and allied losses. Krivosheev counts 765,815 Soviet casualties to 29 August, 178,507 of them killed or missing, and 5,073 in the Polish 1st Army. Because every count agrees within a tenth, its total is among the best established on this list.¹²

Why it ranks here: About 1.15 million casualties at the midpoint put it sixth, just behind the Somme. It scored 40 on full marks for consequence and for certainty, as the counts agree within a tenth, held back by recognition and memory of 3, because in the West it is far less known than Stalingrad or Kursk.

7 Berlin, 1945

Where: The Oder and Neisse fronts and the city of Berlin, Germany
War: World War II, Eastern Front
Sides: The Soviet Union and the Polish 1st and 2nd Armies vs Germany
Casualties: Soviet and Polish: 361,367 (Krivosheev: 352,475 Soviet, 8,892 Polish, our sum); German: never counted in full, at least 480,000 (about 100,000 dead, dzieje.pl, and 380,000 prisoners in Soviet reports, the wounded uncounted, our sum) to 780,000 killed and captured (Soviet reports, Parlamentskaya Gazeta); about 841,000 to 1.14 million in all, about 991,000 at the midpoint (our sums)
Result: Soviet victory; the Berlin garrison surrendered on 2 May 1945; Krivosheev's casualty count covers the whole Berlin operation, 16 April to 8 May

By February 1945 the Red Army stood on the Oder and the Neisse, barely 80 kilometers from Berlin, and massed some 2.5 million men against about a million German soldiers on the Oder front, with just under 100,000 inside the capital. On 16 April three Soviet fronts attacked. Zhukov's men were held for three days on the Seelow Heights, where over 35,000 Soviet and 12,000 German soldiers fell between 16 and 20 April.¹³

The ring around the city closed on 25 April, and on 2 May the garrison surrendered; Khaldei's famous photograph of the flag over the Reichstag, taken that day, was staged. The Soviet side is well counted: Krivosheev gives 352,475 Soviet casualties, 78,291 of them killed or missing, and 8,892 Polish, 361,367 together (our sum). The German side never was counted in full. dzieje.pl puts the German military dead at about 100,000, besides some 125,000 civilians killed in the storming of the city, who are not counted here. Soviet reports claimed about 400,000 Germans killed and 380,000 captured, according to Parlamentskaya Gazeta; another Soviet tally claimed 480,000 prisoners. Adding the 100,000 dead to the lower prisoner claim gives at least 480,000 Germans, the wounded uncounted, against 780,000 in the Soviet reports: about 841,000 to 1.14 million in all, some 991,000 at the midpoint (our sums).¹⁴

Why it ranks here: About 991,000 casualties at the midpoint put it seventh, just above Kursk. It scored 36: scale 3, because its midpoint is just under a million, and certainty 2, because the German half of its total rests on Soviet claims that no one has checked. Full marks for recognition, consequence and memory, because the fall of the capital ended Hitler's Reich, keep it on the list: it is level with Passchendaele and ahead of it on the first tie rule, recognition.

Read the full story of the Battle of Berlin ›

A soldier looks at graffiti-covered pillars inside the ruined Reichstag — Graffiti left by Soviet soldiers on the pillars of the ruined Reichstag, photographed by a British Army Film and Photographic Unit cameraman in the summer of 1945. Public domain

8 Kursk, 1943

Where: The Kursk salient and the Oryol and Belgorod-Kharkov sectors, Soviet Union (today Russia and Ukraine)
War: World War II, Eastern Front
Sides: Germany vs the Soviet Union
Casualties: Soviet: more than 685,000 (David Glantz) to 863,303 (Krivosheev's three operations, our sum); German: about 185,000 (Karl-Heinz Frieser) to some 200,000 (HISTORY); about 870,000 to 1.06 million in all, about 967,000 at the midpoint (our sums)
Result: Soviet victory, 5 July to 23 August 1943; Operation Citadel halted, Kharkov retaken

After Stalingrad the front bulged west around Kursk, and Hitler's Operation Citadel, opened on 5 July 1943, was meant to pinch the salient off from north and south. Krivosheev's tables count the defensive battle from 5 to 23 July at 177,847 Soviet casualties. Myth vs fact: Prokhorovka was not the largest tank battle in history; on 12 July about 910 tanks fought there in the narrowest count, 294 German and 616 Soviet, not the 700 to 800 a side of Pavel Rotmistrov's memoirs.¹⁵

The counterstrokes cost even more. Operation Kutuzov toward Oryol, from 12 July, alone cost more than 429,000 Soviet casualties, and Operation Rumyantsev ended with Kharkov retaken on 23 August. Krivosheev counts 429,890 and 255,566 casualties for the two, wounded and sick included, so 863,303 for all three operations (our sum). David Glantz's lower count, more than 685,000, takes only the dead and the wounded who could not return to battle; Karl-Heinz Frieser puts the German loss at about 185,000. HISTORY gives up to 800,000 Soviet and some 200,000 German casualties. Added together that is about 870,000 to 1.06 million, some 967,000 at the midpoint (our sums), with three to five Soviet casualties for every German one.¹⁶

Why it ranks here: About 967,000 casualties at the midpoint put it eighth. It scored 38 on full marks for recognition, with consequence and memory at 4: Citadel was Germany's last great offensive on the Eastern Front, but the name means less to most readers than Stalingrad or Berlin. Certainty is 4 because the sources count the phases differently.

Read the full story of the Battle of Kursk ›

9 Verdun, 1916

Where: The hills north of Verdun, on both banks of the Meuse, France
War: World War I, Western Front
Sides: Germany vs France
Casualties: French: 379,000 (Mémorial de Verdun: 163,000 dead, 216,000 wounded) to 543,000; German: 333,000 (143,000 dead, 190,000 wounded) to 434,000 (the higher tally in J. Rickard); almost 700,000 (Mémorial de Verdun) to about 977,000 in all (our sum), about 838,500 at the midpoint
Result: French defensive victory, 21 February to 18 December 1916

At 7:15 on the morning of 21 February 1916 the German army opened its great attack of the year on Verdun: ten infantry divisions, some 150,000 men, against almost 25,000 French infantry on the right bank of the Meuse. Fort Douaumont fell on 25 February. Three quarters of the French army would pass through the battle before it ended.¹⁷

The last German attempt to break through came on 11 and 12 July; on 24 October French divisions advancing behind a creeping barrage began to take the lost ground back, and after ten months the battle ended on 18 December almost where it had begun. How many men it cost depends on who counts. The Mémorial de Verdun gives 163,000 French dead and 216,000 wounded and 143,000 German dead and 190,000 wounded, "almost 700,000" in all. HistoryNet gives 400,000 French and 340,000 German casualties, 740,000 together. John Rickard sets out two tallies without naming their authors: 378,000 French and 329,000 German in some, 543,000 and 434,000 in others, which brings the total close to a million. We use the range from almost 700,000 to about 977,000 (the higher tally added up, our sum), some 838,500 at the midpoint. The Douaumont Ossuary holds the remains of 130,000 soldiers.¹⁸

Why it ranks here: About 838,500 casualties at the midpoint put it ninth. It scored 37 with full marks for recognition and memory; certainty is 3 because the highest tally is two fifths above the lowest. It is level on points with Gallipoli and the Brusilov Offensive.

Read the full story of the Battle of Verdun ›

Aerial view of the cratered Fort Douaumont and battlefield at Verdun, late 1916 — Fort Douaumont at Verdun photographed from the air in late 1916, after months of shelling had turned the ground around it into a field of craters. Public domain. German aerial photograph, 1916, via Wikimedia Commons.

10 Normandy, 1944

Where: Normandy, northern France
War: World War II, Western Front
Sides: The United States, Britain, Canada and their allies vs Germany
Casualties: Allied: more than 226,386 from D-Day to 21 August (White House); German: 300,000 (Veterans Affairs Canada) to over 440,000 (White House: over 240,000 casualties and 200,000 captured, our sum); about 526,000 to 666,000 in all, about 596,000 at the midpoint (our sums)
Result: Allied victory, 6 June to late August 1944; German army in Normandy trapped near Falaise, Paris liberated on 25 August

On 6 June 1944 the Allies landed more than 160,000 troops in Normandy, by the White House's count, at a cost estimated at 10,000 killed, wounded and missing on the first day. For six weeks the Germans held them in a slowly growing beachhead, until Operation Cobra broke out near Saint-Lô on 25 July.¹⁹

By mid-August the Allies had encircled and destroyed much of the German army in Normandy near Falaise, and on 25 August Paris was liberated, with French forces taking a prominent role. From D-Day to 21 August the Allies landed more than two million men in northern France and suffered more than 226,386 casualties: 72,911 killed or missing and 153,475 wounded. The German losses were never counted the same way. The same White House fact sheet gives over 240,000 German casualties and 200,000 captured, over 440,000 if the two are added; Veterans Affairs Canada puts the German losses in Normandy at 300,000 men and more than 2,000 tanks. With the Allied figure that makes about 526,000 to 666,000 casualties, some 596,000 at the midpoint (our sums). Canada alone lost 18,444 men, 5,021 of them killed.²⁰

Why it ranks here: About 596,000 casualties at the midpoint put it tenth. It scored 38 with full marks for recognition, consequence and memory, because it broke the German army in the West; that is why it makes the list ahead of Kiev 1941, which cost more men but is far less known (29). Certainty is 3: German losses were never counted the same way, and the high total is just over a quarter above the low one.

Read the full story of the Battle of Normandy ›

11 Gallipoli, 1915 to 1916

Where: Gallipoli peninsula and the Dardanelles, Ottoman Empire (today Turkey)
War: World War I, Dardanelles campaign
Sides: Britain, its Empire and France vs the Ottoman Empire, with some German officers
Casualties: Allied: over 220,000 (National Army Museum) to over 250,000 (Gallipoli Association); Ottoman: about 250,000 (HISTORY) to over 300,000 (Gallipoli Association); about 470,000 to 550,000 in all, about 510,000 at the midpoint (our sums)
Result: Ottoman victory; naval attack from 19 February 1915, landings from 25 April, evacuation complete 9 January 1916; the Allies evacuated the peninsula

Britain and France hoped to force the Dardanelles, reach Constantinople and open a sea route to Russia. The naval bombardment of the forts began on 19 February 1915, the fleet's attempt to force the straits failed on 18 March, and on 25 April troops landed at Cape Helles and Anzac Cove. Three attacks on Krithia between 28 April and 4 June and a new offensive from 6 August, with a landing at Suvla Bay, all stalled below the heights.²¹

The Allies left Anzac and Suvla on 19 and 20 December and Cape Helles on 8 and 9 January 1916. The Gallipoli Association, which calls its figures approximate, counts over 250,000 Allied casualties, more than 58,000 of them dead, and more than 300,000 Ottoman, over 87,000 of them dead. The National Army Museum gives over 220,000 Allied casualties, and HISTORY 250,000 Allied and roughly as many Turks killed or wounded. That is about 470,000 to 550,000 in all, some 510,000 at the midpoint (our sums). Myth vs fact: Gallipoli is remembered as an Anzac battle, but of some 559,000 Allied troops only about 63,000 were Australians and New Zealanders; 420,000 were British and Empire troops and 80,000 French.²²

Why it ranks here: About 510,000 casualties at the midpoint put it eleventh and last. It scored 37, level with Verdun and the Brusilov Offensive, with full marks for memory, with Anzac Day kept on 25 April since 1916, and certainty 4.²³

Read the full story of Gallipoli ›

Soldiers of the Royal Irish Fusiliers in sun helmets crowded into a narrow sandbagged trench at Cape Helles, Gallipoli, 1915 — British soldiers of the Royal Irish Fusiliers in a trench at Cape Helles, 1915, photographed by Ernest Brooks. Public domain

How we chose and counted these deadliest battles

We counted a single battle or a named operation with one plan and fixed dates, such as the Battle of the Dnieper or Operation Bagration, and measured it by its casualties: the soldiers of both sides killed, wounded, missing or taken prisoner from its first day to its last. Civilian deaths are given where we know them but not counted, because no two sources count them the same way: the some 71,000 people killed in the raids on Stalingrad in August 1942 are not in its total. Whole campaigns and wars do not count either: Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of 1941, and the Allied Hundred Days of 1918, whose close to 1,070,000 Allied and up to 1,172,075 German casualties (National WWI Museum) would put it near the top, were many battles, not one. The siege of Leningrad, where 700,000 to 800,000 civilians died by Anna Reid's count, is in our guide to the greatest sieges in history; battles ranked by the soldiers engaged are in the largest battles in history, and more on the wars of millions in the greatest battles of the Eastern Front, of World War II and of World War I.²⁴

We scored 30 candidates on five criteria to decide which eleven belong here: the ten highest scores and, level with the tenth on points and ahead on the first tie rule, Berlin; the list is then ordered by casualties, largest first, because that is what the title promises. The scale of losses counts four times, because this page is about the deadliest battles; recognition and the certainty of the casualty figures count twice, because a ranking by losses stands or falls on its figures; consequence and memory count once. Each criterion is scored from 1 to 5:

Scale of losses (×4). The military casualties of both sides (killed, wounded, missing and captured) over the whole battle or operation, at the midpoint of the range the sources give: 5 = 1.5 million or more, 4 = 1 to 1.5 million, 3 = 500,000 to 1 million, 2 = 200,000 to 500,000, 1 = under 200,000.
Certainty of the casualty figures (×2). How far apart the lowest and highest totals we use are: 5 = within a tenth, 4 = the high one at most a quarter above the low one, 3 = at most half above, 2 = at most double, 1 = more than double, or resting on one ancient or partisan source.
Recognition (×2). 5 if the name is known far beyond military history and appears on most published lists of its kind, 1 if only specialists know it.
Consequence (×1). 5 if it decided a war or changed the map (an army, a regime or a country won or lost), 1 if it changed nothing beyond the battlefield.
Memory (×1). 5 if it is still a living memory (a day of remembrance, a memorial, a famous image or song), 1 if it is forgotten.

The score decides only which battles make the list; their order is set by casualties, using the midpoint where historians give a range (where sources give each side separately, we add the lowest figures and the highest and say the sum is ours), with ties going to the older battle. The scores are our editorial judgment, made on the evidence in the sources below, and the table shows every one of them. That is why the Brusilov Offensive of 1916 stands first, with about 2.6 million casualties at the midpoint of estimates that run from 1.95 to 3.25 million, the least certain total on the list; Stalingrad, with about 2.25 million and much firmer figures, is second.²⁵

The scores that decided which entries made the list
Rank	Name	Scale of losses ×4	Certainty of the casualty figures ×2	Recognition ×2	Consequence ×1	Memory ×1	Total
1	Brusilov Offensive	5	2	3	4	3	37
2	Stalingrad	5	3	5	5	5	46
3	The Dnieper	5	3	3	4	3	39
4	Moscow	4	3	4	5	4	39
5	Somme	4	4	5	4	5	43
6	Operation Bagration	4	5	3	5	3	40
7	Berlin	3	2	5	5	5	36
8	Kursk	3	4	5	4	4	38
9	Verdun	3	3	5	4	5	37
10	Normandy	3	3	5	5	5	38
11	Gallipoli	3	4	4	4	5	37

Close calls

Four battles came close and did not make the list:

Passchendaele, 1917. The British offensive at Ypres from 31 July to 10 November 1917 cost 300,000 British casualties by the National Army Museum's count and 325,000 Allied by HistoryNet's, and about 260,000 German in both, 560,000 to 585,000 in all (our sums), more than Gallipoli. It scored 36, level with Berlin, and missed on the first tie rule, recognition (4 against 5), because an advance of about five miles changed little (consequence 3).²⁶

Kiev, 1941. Krivosheev counts 700,544 Soviet casualties in the defense of Kiev from 7 July to 26 September 1941, the Uman pocket included, and Kommersant's table gives 700,500 Soviet and 128,600 German and allied losses: some 829,000 in all (our sum), more than Normandy and close to Verdun. It scored 29, held back by recognition (2) and certainty (3).²⁷

Gettysburg, 1863. The bloodiest battle of the American Civil War, fought from 1 to 3 July 1863, cost 51,112 casualties by the American Battlefield Trust's count: 23,049 Union and 28,063 Confederate. It scored 33 on recognition, memory and certainty, but its losses are about a fortieth of Stalingrad's, so scale scores 1.²⁸

Leipzig, 1813. The Battle of the Nations, 16 to 19 October 1813, was the largest battle in Europe until World War I in HistoryOfWar.org's words, and one of the largest and bloodiest in European history in the German Historical Museum's. Both put allied losses at 54,000; the museum counts more than 90,000 dead and wounded in all, with 37,000 French, and HistoryOfWar.org about 124,000, with some 70,000 French, about 30,000 of them prisoners (our sum). It scored 29 on consequence and recognition, but lost a fifth as many men as the last place on the list.²⁹

What was the deadliest battle of World War I?

The Somme, by most counts. The table of the Mémorial de Verdun and the Historial de Péronne gives 1,059,535 casualties from 1 July to 18 November 1916, and HistoryNet's 615,000 Allied and 650,000 German casualties come to 1,265,000 (our sum). Verdun, fought the same year, runs from almost 700,000 in the Mémorial de Verdun's count to about 977,000 in the higher tally John Rickard sets out (our sum). Campaigns made of many battles, such as the Allied Hundred Days of 1918, give larger totals, which is why lists differ.³⁰

Which battle had the most casualties in a single day?

No source can settle a world record for one day, because the oldest tallies cannot be checked. The Fondation Napoléon calls Borodino, 7 September 1812, the bloodiest single day of combat in military history, with casualties generally estimated at 70,000 to 80,000 on both sides. For Cannae in 216 BC, Polybius wrote that about 70,000 Romans died, a number no one can verify. The first day of the Somme, 1 July 1916, is the bloodiest day in British military history: 57,470 British casualties, 19,240 of them killed. Antietam, on 17 September 1862, is the deadliest one-day battle in American history, with 22,717 casualties on both sides.³¹

Do campaigns and sieges count?

Not on this list, because they were many battles, not one. In Operation Barbarossa, Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, the Red Army had suffered four million casualties by December 1941, three million of them prisoners, by the count of The National WWII Museum. Sieges have their own guide, the greatest sieges in history. For the siege of Leningrad, 1941 to 1944, the historian Anna Reid puts the civilian death toll at 700,000 to 800,000, and The National WWII Museum estimates that about 1.5 million soldiers and civilians died.³²

Explore more in the greatest battles of all time or the greatest military commanders. Verdun and the Somme are questions in the World War I battles quiz, Stalingrad and Kursk in the World War II battles quiz.