What was the deadliest battle in world history?

The Battle of Stalingrad (23 August 1942 – 2 February 1943) was a major battle on the Eastern Front of World War II in which Nazi Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad (now Volgograd) in Southern Russia, on the eastern boundary of Europe.The heavy losses inflicted on the German Wehrmacht make it arguably the most strategically decisive battle of the whole war. It was a turning point in the European theatre of World War II; German forces never regained the initiative in the East and withdrew a vast military force from the West to replace their losses.

The Axis suffered 850,000 total casualties among all branches of the German armed forces and its allies.
The USSR, according to archival figures, suffered 1,129,619 total casualties. This figure, however is considered low as the total number of civilians killed in Stalingrad is unknown.

The important information about the other variants:

The Battle of Changping is perhaps the largest "formation battle" with ancient sources claiming 700,000 casualties.
The Battle of Antietam saw 23,000 - 26,193 killed; the bloodiest single-day battle in American History.
The Battle of Verdun was one of World War One's largest battles with an estimated 755,000 - 976,000 casualties.

More Info: en.wikipedia.org

Test your knowledge

What are your thoughts on this subject?

80 Comments

Nicole Toma-Tolman

Darn it, Stalingrad was my first guess. Why do I keep second-guessing myself, it never works. :/

billptxb

1. Mongol Sacking of Baghdad, 1258 (~2 million casualties) Though the previous nine deadly battles all belonged to the World War I and World War II eras, the most treacherous recorded battle in the history of the world in terms of death tolls was waged a much longer time back. It occurred in 1258, when the Mongol forces sacked the city of Baghdad. The event took place during a short period between January 29 and February 10, 1258, but was violent enough to result in around 2 million casualties, military and civilian alike. The Siege of Baghdad was carried out by Hulagu Khan, the brother of Khagan (emperor) Möngke Khan. The initial orders dispatched from Möngke Khan were not directed at overthrowing the Abbasid Caliphate in Baghdad, but rather to convince the then-Caliph Al-Musta’sim to quietly surrender to the Mongol forces. However, the Caliph refused to do so, leading to the siege of the city, and the subsequent complete ransacking of Baghdad by the conquering Mongols. The blood-bathed city was forced to surrender to the destructive Mongols within only 12 days of the initial Mongol attacks. This battle also brought an inglorious end to the Islamic Golden Age and its many impressive cultural, scientific, and architectural achievements.

Stimpy

The percentage of casualties in relation to number of protagonists would be antietam

Cat Woman

Beautiful statue, is it called "Mother Land"?

Cujo

Jim Adams, they didn't. The number of civilian casualties were higher than "usual".

Cujo

Much respect for providing stats on all possible answers. Well done, I'll be your neighbor anytime Mr. Rogers.

Darla

I thought it was the somme

wandajaneburlinson

My dad and my favorite uncle were in Europe during the war, and I have studied it extensively.

Debbie Phillips

I disagree! I chose the correct answer and got told it was wrong!

Donna Smith

Missed it

Jim Adams

Didn’t know they were counting civilians too.

Keith Hodgson

The answer is wrong, it said history - and there are several battles that have a higher casualty rate than that given in the answer a few of which are mentioned here in comments.

BPlunkettTurner

Chriss Crockford, if you read my brief below, my father was USMC, Korea, as he once put it to me: "you need a war every 25 years to cut down on the need for food and population of places." Crude but true. I tend to think of war as a necessity to bring two factions together to be the victor over the atrocities of monsters like Hitler, Assaad and Sadaam Hussein and others over the centuries. But then I get "oh well what about the crusades of the Christians?" So then I delved a bit deeper and although I grew up in total Christianity, learning all the books, stories, people, etc of the Bible, reciting everything we were taught, then throughout school and all of that I decided to read the Bible actually from beginning to end. One thing that jumped out at me: "Matthew 10:34 Jesus' words "I come not to earth to bring peace, not peace but a sword." That tends to clarify things a bit more for all Christians and Soldiers who are to uphold their oaths "God, Country, Mother, Home" in their various branches of the military. I was baptized when I was 8, I lived everything of Christ's beliefs and He called me as His through Divine Intervention so yeah I'm His. Heavy stuff indeed.

BPlunkettTurner

Got it. My father's family had 56 who served WWII, 14 of those served their entire hitches in Europe and we had many decorated for everything, POW's, one 19 yr old co-pilot and his entire crew were shot down over Germany then imprisoned at the infamous Stalag Luft III that was made famous by the Steve McQueen movie "The Great Escape" and they were later liberated by the Russians in April 1946. Many many amazing stories.My father's older brother 1Lt. USArmy, lost his bf and over 1/2 his btn at Normandy, Omaha and Italy. He told me about it out in his garden right after Daddy passed. I had 6 direct Uncles who served in that war. We have 2 at the USS Arizona, the Murdock brothers, as well as 2 on the VN wall, G. Plunkett and Nate Kennedy and my mother's cousin Gloria was a Supv. for the Rosy the Riveters program in Atlanta, GA. Lots of Heros in our family.