Death ratios among WWII combatants...

[L. Kafka]

A Mr. Braitwaite who wrote a book on Moscow in 1941 appeared on C-SPAN last weekend and gave the following death ratios...

For every American that died, six Japanese died.

For every American that died, 15 Germans died.

For every American that died, 85 Soviets died.

I didn't quite get his whole string on this and may be off here. If anyone else caught this, please submit the correct figures he rolled out.

[Cott Tiger]

Wikipedia (ho-hum) gives the following figures for total deaths (including civilians) in WWII.

USA: 418,500
Japan: 2,600,000
Germany: 7,500,000
Soviet Union: 23,200,000

These would give a ratio of

1 American for every 6.2 Japanese
1 American for every 17.9 German
1 American for every 55.4 Soviet

Regards,

Andre

[Cott Tiger]

Figures below are for just military deaths alone (source: Wikipedia again I’m afraid):

USA: 407,300
Japan: 2,000,000
Germany: 5,500,000
Soviet Union: 10,700,000

Ratios then work out at:

1 American for every 4.9 Japanese
1 American for every 13.5 Germans
1 American for every 26.2 Soviets

Regards,

Andre

[L. Kafka]

Moscow 1941: The People and a City at War, or some such title.

I seen Braithwaite on C-SPAN twice. He has a lot to say, but unfortunately he is not a very good public speaker. His slow, halting delievery is tough to stay with.

But he does not merely read from text, which can often be painful for an audience to sit through.

[oleg]

Moscow 1941: The People and a City at War, or some such title.

I seen Braithwaite on C-SPAN twice. He has a lot to say, but unfortunately he is not a very good public speaker. His slow, halting delievery is tough to stay with.

But he does not merely read from text, which can often be painful for an audience to sit through.

Total Soviet excessive deaths due to WW II (Civilian and Military ) amounted to roughly 27 million. Out of this number about 9 million are actual military related deaths - including those who died in POW camps (Axis POW camps that is) , executed by the orders of military tribunals, died in accidents, died because of illness etc.

[Dragunov]

and, mind you, America never got the crap bombed out of it (so what? forget about hawaii). the Japs had a plan to put candle-powered balloon-bombs into the jet stream and have them land in America a year and a half later, but they landed in Canada instead and burned a few houses down (and unfortunately killing 3 or so).

[L. Kafka]

One of the balloons released in Japan made it all the way to Detroit, Michigan where it failed to go off. It landed in the suburb of Livonia, MI

At least one other Jap balloon made it to the Iron Wood, Michigan area near Wisconsin.

[Reb]

The Japanese actually were able to start massive forest fires in the Pacific Northwest. The US had a black paratrooper outfit who instead of being posted to Europe ended up becoming the first "smoke jumpers" (that's now a common tactic against forest fires) but never received much credit because the Govt didn't want to acknowledge success of Japanese attack.

cheers
Reb

[sid guttridge]

Hi Reb,

Or perhaps the attack just wasn't that successful? One cannot reasonably acknowledge a virtual non-event.

The fire-jumpers information was interesting, though.

Cheers,

Sid.

[sid guttridge]

P.S. The first such jump seems to have been on 12 July 1940 - before Japan entered the war.

Sid.

[Reb]

The events I'm referring to happened IIRC in late '44 early '45 and the fires went on for weeks if not months. Sparsly populated area so the success of the attack can only be measured in trees destroyed - more of an issue these days than it was now.

cheers
Reb

[sid guttridge]

Hi Reb,

But forest fires are a natural phenomenon anyway. As far as I recall there was only a single incident in which deaths were caused to a family picknick by a forest fire begun by a Japanerse baloon.

cheers,

Sid.

[sid guttridge]

Hi Reb,

According to the following link, the balloon offensive mostly occurred in the damp winter of 1944-45 and had little impact:

http://www.axishistory.com/index.php?=932

Cheers,

sid.

[Reb]

Other than tying up one of our para bns, a bunch of fireman and burning down some trees I never claimed it had any real impact. Remember - the Paciifc Northwest is has an area of forest you won't encounter in Europe without crossing into Russian.

With a campaign like that it requires massive damage to the war effort to create a real, ie strategic impact. Burning down our trees was annoying but in the course of things, who really cares? in the meantime, we were buring things too....Little things like Tokyo...and virtually every other Japanese city that wasn't marked as "reserved for a nuke."

cheers
Reb

[phylo_roadking]

LOL you've BOTH forgotten something, the REAL reason why the US Government was totally paranoid about forest fires and other damage in the Pacific northwest!!!