What single weapon of war is responsible for the most deaths?

Question

The Atomic Bomb used on Japan in WW2? Allied bombs used in such campaigns as Dresden in WW2? Or something more unremarkable such as the Kalashnikov AK47, which has been in use for decades in probably every conflict since it was invented, or machine guns used in the trenches in WW1?

**According to the BBC, the death toll from the Atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 140,000 and 74,000 respectively, bringing the total number of dead to around 210,000.***

Answer 1

The Atomic Bomb has the most potential, but is not the one that has killed the most.

During WWI the German Machine Gun Maschinengewehr 08 killed over 700,000 troops in a single battle. (it was a very long battle as with most WWI battles)

Since then, many more have died.

The Machine Gun is the biggest killer of anything in recent times. It single handedly converted war into a machine of death.

The Maschinengewehr 08 was not the first Machine Gun, but it was the first effectively used one. Without it, you would not have such automatic rifles as the AK-47.

As far as a single weapon that has killed the most people, the AK-47 takes that title. Swords had different types and there have been more people born in the last 150yrs than in the 3000 before it. So, that knocks them off the list. And the AK-47 is one of the most produced weapons of all time, after the fall of communism they found their way to the drags of the earth where death is an everyday occurrence for people. Not going to name names, but there are 2 places I'm thinking of.

As far as an American weapon that has killed the most people, probably the Browning .50cal Machine Gun. It came in use at the end of WWI and is still being used today, virtually unchanged. It has the power to rip a person to pieces........... even if it doesn't hit them. If two people are standing side by side, within 2ft of each other and a .50cal rounds goes between them, it will rip both their arms off.

Answer 2

In modern times the AK-47 is the true weapon of mass destruction.
The club is the weapon that has been in existence the longest, so it is probably the weapon that has been used the most times.
Regardless of the weapon used it is always a person using it. So MAN is the weapon of war responsible for the most deaths.

Answer 3

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RE:
What single weapon of war is responsible for the most deaths?
The Atomic Bomb used on Japan in WW2? Allied bombs used in such campaigns as Dresden in WW2? Or something more unremarkable such as the Kalashnikov AK47, which has been in use for decades in probably every conflict since it was invented, or machine guns used in the trenches in WW1?

Answer 4

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Answer 5

Deaths from ancient battle dont' come close to the scale of death in modern times, even looking at the past 4,000 years combined, so that rules out the sword and spear. The nuclear attacks did not come close the deaths from incendiary and carpet bombing deaths. Mass death on a large scale is one of the following:

Artillery
Machine guns
Carpet bombing and incendiary attacks
Does gassing of innocent civilians count as a weapon of war?

Carpet bombing and Artillery has been the weapon of choice on the battlefield to neutralize large formations, even more so than machine guns.

Looking at the deaths in the tens of millions, i'd have to say carpet bombing.

Answer 6

While the atomic bomb was a very deadly weapon, I would say the Machine gun has a higher kill record because of the fact it is a versatile and reliable gun in certain conditions. Being from a military background, if you look at the cost side of everything, machine guns and other fully automatic weapons have a tendency to be used more frequently than say a Tomahawk missile or a smart bomb. Also to quote Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, "There is nothing more deadlier than an infantry man with a rifle." Or in my case, someone packing a M2 "Ma Deuce" .50 Caliber Machine gun on top of a Humvee!!!! HOO_RAH!!!

Answer 7

The weapon of war that has resulted in the most deaths thru out history, would be,

either the,

Spear

or the

Sword.

Fire arms have only been used the last 200 years, swords and spears have been used for the last 4,000 years.

Answer 8

The one single weapon that has caused the most number of deaths is the AK-47 rifle. Cheap, usable by untrained people and sold without regard for how they would be used.

Answer 9

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I wouldn't say it was the "cause", but certainly a justification. For example: the Crusades were motivated by politics, not god. But at the time politics and god were one thing, and the miserable peasants were promised a place in heaven if they fought for the holy land. Without religion, i do think there would be far less war in history and far less people would have involved themselves. Atheists generally hate war because we see it as evil. Religious people can justify it by claiming it's god's will. You can more easily convince people to do terrible things for a god.

Answer 10

Wow, tricky question. So many factors to consider . . .

For one-time deaths per item, I'd have to say the A-bombs.

The aerial bombings of German and Japan during WW2 caused a lot of deaths, but at the expense of thousands of bombs.

For total deaths in modern warfare, I'd have to go with artillery. It is considered the queen of battle.

And I have to admit that there's a strong case for swords/ knives/ spears/ other bladed weapons as the greatest killers, because of the length of time that they were used. OTOH, those battles typically involved far fewer people overall, so . . .

Historically, of course, disease is the greatest killer of all time. Up until the discovery of antibiotics, disease killed more soldiers than all other weapons combined!

But for all the technological innovation, it is a truth that "man" is the ultimate weapon of war, as a number of folks have posited. Without "man" (and by this I mean human beings, male and female) to wield those weapons, none of it would ever have happened.