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I recall as a kid in the 1970s that my 1976 edition World Book Encyclopedia had US deaths at much less total than what is now. I think combat deaths were only included then. Appears now training and non-combat but in uniform deaths are included.
The US put in 90 divisions of troops - between the ETO & PTO - a calculated gamble that this was sufficient force, & that we could train, equip, transport & deploy them in time. Proportionally (to the other countries involved), we could have put in a lot more troops. But we were short of cadre, troops, ships, arty, tanks, airplanes - nearly everything. Plus, we wound up supplying war material & food & clothing & uniforms, transport to UK, Free France, USSR. In material terms, our trade & contracts with the Allies were decisive - see
Freedom's forge : how American business built the arsenal of democracy that won World War II / Arthur Herman, 1956 - , c2012, Random House, 940.531 HERM
Summary
Assesses the pivotal role of American big business in building weapons and enabling industrial dominance for Allied forces in World War II, tracing the contributions of Danish immigrant William Knudsen and shipbuilding industrialist Henry Kaiser.
Length: xiv, 413 pages : index, photos, chapter notes, bibliography, graphs Total US munitions spending, Rate of increase in US munitions spending
V. good on war production/mobilization. Dispels Keynesian view of flip a switch to get wartime production, flip it again for peacetime. (Cf. the morass of WWI wartime production.)
for one.
Actually the US put 95 divisions in the field in WWII. 89 army divisions and 6 marine divisions. The army actually had 91 but 2 were inactivated during the war. The US ended up having 68 divisions in Europe and Italy and 27 divisions in the Pacific. But that really dont tell the whole story. By wars end the US had over 7.6 million of its troops oversea's all over the world in many theaters fighting while the USSR had all of its troops in one theater which was eastern Europe. In casualities the US did have a low number compared to the USSR but so did most countries other then China who had about as many as the USSR when you add all the civilians in. The US fought the war trying to keep casualties as low as we could so the public would not outcry to much and we fought the war that way. But not the USSR who did throw more ground forces in the war then any other country but they did not seem to care how many casualities they took since they had an endless supply of ground troops. They seemed to just throw their troops at the Germans and not care how many got hurt as they just wanted to overwelm the German lines. And when you look at the ratio of ground troops the USSR had to other nations you can see why.
Most agree that at the wars end the USSR had about 13 million under arms and the US had about 12.2 million under arms. But the USSR had about 11 million in the army and maybe 2 million in the air force and navy. The US had 6 million in the army ground troops. Then they had about 6.3 million in the navy and air force as the navy which includes the almost 500,000 marines and the 200,000 coast guard which fought overseas had just over 4 million and the US army air force had 2.3 million. You can see that because the USSR fought on just one front that was a ground war thats where they put most of their troops. The US ended up having the largest navy and air force in the world since they had to because they fought on a few fronts and the Pacific war was mostly a navy war. The USSR had the largest army in the world at wars end and the US had the largest navy and air force in the world but the both had almost the same size peak forces. The USSR used more troops during the war because they had so many more troops killed and wounded. Most agree the USSR had about 10 million military troops killed and wounded and about as many civillians. I believe the US had a total of about 690,000 killed and wounded total in the war.
I know the Germans , British and Russians threw alot of troops into WW I also by the time World War One was over as I believe they all had well over 6 million in that war. I have the real figures in one of my books for WW I as I will try and find the book tomorrow. Ron
I went there in 2014 with this lady and I'll never forget it. That whole place is proof that evil exists.
Not to minimize the suffering of the casualties (of all kinds) of World War II, but since we're talking about comparisons:
There's another (preventable) war still raging that no one has yet mentioned here, and the casualties are all noncombatants. This link is from 2011, so the actual number of casualties is even higher than reported, and it continues with roughly 84 people a MINUTE dying horribly violent deaths at the hands of the people who are most supposed to love them.
Since 1960, globally, we have murdered in excess of 2 billion unborn babies, many of whom were born alive - and even cried. More babies have died since 1960 via intended abortion than grown people have died in all the wars in the history of the human race - civilians and combatants included.
Yes, Brodi, evil does indeed exist.
How can we even think about calling this age 'The age of peace'?
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