Your chances of surviving 5 different wars

In the event that you suddenly get transported back in time and conscripted into an army, you’re probably going to want to know the chances of surviving the war you’re going into, or you may just be generally interested, but for whatever reason, here’s a list of some major conflicts fought between the human race and your chances of surviving 5 different wars.

World war one

80 to 90% chance of survival for the British

The casualties for the British during the First World War ranged between 700,000 and 900,000 depending on the source and what it included. The British army at the end of the war was just under 4.6 million, giving you a 1 in 6 chance of getting killed, but this is an overall figure and highly inaccurate. Your chances of dying in the first few months of the war were substantially higher than towards the end due to trench conditions and unknown enemy weaponry, primarily gas. Over the entire war, 6% of the adult male population of Britain was killed, and 12.5% of all serving personnel lost their lives.

World War two

20% chance of death (British army)

There was a total of 384,000 British troops killed during the war, but the army’s overall size increased greatly from 1.1 million in 1939 to 2.9 million at the end of the war. This war also claimed the lives of 70,000 British civilians compared to the 2,000 killed during the first war.

Napoleonic war as British line infantry

40% to 70% chance of death

Exact numbers on this war don’t seem to exist when it comes to casualties as many of the deaths weren’t recorded or kept well enough to last more than a few years, but in the year 1813, the British army numbered 250,000 troops. Surviving records from the war indicate there were over 300,000 dead or missing from the British army by the war’s end in 1815, but because it started in 1803, this isn’t a huge amount of casualties for such a long war. Most of these deaths happened within the last few years as many of the early British actions against the French involved only the navy, giving the infantry a very high chance of surviving the first half of the war.

The Crusades

75% chance of death

This is an estimated figure as source material on the subject is sketchy at best, and no one seems to be able to agree on the same numbers. The other problem is there were multiple crusades starting in 1095 and ending in 1291 when the Crusaders lost the last stronghold of Acre. Many of the expeditions were very successful, leading to a low casualty count for the Christians and years of living without major conflict in their new lands, but others didn’t go so well. One of the crusader groups was a collection of peasants led by a charismatic leader who convinced around 20,000 people to grab a weapon and follow him to the holy land. After looting everywhere they passed along the way, they eventually found themselves lost in the Middle East where every single one of them was slaughtered by an army of angry Turks. On some crusades, you are guaranteed death, but on others, you could expect many years of stability and peace.

Mongol Invasion

40% chance of death (Civilian and soldier)

The number of deaths from the entire Mongol invasion campaign is generally agreed on to be around 40 million people, which includes both soldiers and civilians. There are no records for the populations of the countries involved in the conflict, but the Mongols managed to get as far as Central Europe and attacked territories in modern-day Germany, Poland, Hungary, and Czechia. They didn’t take anywhere near as many slaves as they could have and instead preferred to make their mark by killing everyone, but the further west they went the weaker they got. The eastern half of Europe would have seen a much higher death rate, but Western Europe would have been relatively safe, making an exact survival chance very hard to estimate.

Modern day British army

less than 0.1%

Over the last few years, the British army has experienced similar death rates which average at just over 40 people per 100,000. The majority of these deaths happen to front-line personnel or peacekeeping forces who experience ambushes, giving the support forces an almost guaranteed chance of survival. The number of deaths for modern-day forces is much lower than in previous wars due to the level of technology involved. Whoever has the best missiles and planes can crush an enemy before there are even troops on the ground, leading to a change in warfare from the most numerous to the most advanced.