A solid number on the amount of explosives use in the First World War has proven hard to find. http://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/nitrate http://

A solid number on the amount of explosives use in the First World War has proven hard to find. http://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/nitrate http://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/nitrate says: > Great Britain, for example, stepped up production of powder and explosives from 50,000 tons in 1914 to over 1,860,000 tons in 1917 http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-17011607 http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-17011607 has a graph of the British and German explosives production during the war years. It looks like about 625,000 tons, with 285,000 by Great Britain. I have better feelings about http://rsnr.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/68/2/171 http://rsnr.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/68/2/171 ("Lord Justice of Appeal John Fletcher Moulton and explosives production in World War I: ‘the mathematical mind triumphant’"). Figure 3 shows Great Britain manufactured about 340,000 tons of high explosives, and 400,000 tons of propellant. (Rough eyeball numbers.) But that gives only about 350,000 tons for the year 1917, compared to the 1,860,000 tons earlier. Table A7, p122 of https://books.google.com/books?id=2YqjfHLyyj8C&pg=PA121&lpg=PA121&dq=explosives+production+tons+%22First+World+War%22&source=bl&ots=BShbYbVNZL&sig=9AWCKhXRQE3IRZHcucurw8BrV6k&hl=sv&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj-vv7GkprOAhUBWSwKHaBhALg4ChDoAQhHMAY#v=onepage&q&f=false https://books.google.com/books?id=2YqjfHLyyj8C&pg=PA121&lpg=... lists partial wartime production as 409,000 tons of explosives for Great Britain, and 350,000 tons for Germany, or 759,000 tons total. Table 9 p87 of https://books.google.com/books?id=q_G_Qnag_TcC&pg=PA64&lpg=PA64&dq=explosives+production+tons+%22First+World+War%22&source=bl&ots=XC-MH50aD7&sig=Kb_fyV-AtE-3LZphjDdzSJ1FNgY&hl=sv&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj-vv7GkprOAhUBWSwKHaBhALg4ChDoAQhNMAc#v=onepage&q&f=false https://books.google.com/books?id=q_G_Qnag_TcC&pg=PA64&lpg=P... says Great Britain produced 409,000 tons of powder and explosives. I can believe 2.5M tons produced by all sides during the war. Barely. I can't believe that would all be on a single square mile. That would be equivalent, after all, to a 2.5MT nuke, or a Little Boy/Hiroshima-sized bomb equivalent every day for 3-4 months.