An official estimate made in Paris
the German loss for the next two weeks of the Franco-British offensive
in the Somme at 3,000 men a day, a total of 50,000 men in a fortnight. The losses since also have been serious.
The Berlin grand headquarters, set 35,000 men as a "cautious estimate" of the allied casualties, against which the French and British can show a gain of only two and a half miles on an eighteen-mile front. Berlin declares that the German line has not been shaken at any point, and that even the British will not claim that it has after their experience of losing 23,000 men in less than a month.
"The French had to do the highest part of the job," says the Berlin statement, "and, even taking into consideration their superior fighting skill, the losses cannot be less than 1,000."
"As the result of the slow progress made by the allied offensive," concludes the statement, "we have had time to construct new fortifications behind our actual lines identical to those left behind." 