ww2 military deaths

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#1

This is interesting…i have been searching for the military death figures for ww2. Alot of websites had totally different figures but these were the most commonly accepted figures. Only military deaths, no civilian deaths included.

US- 407,000
Soviet Union-8 million
Germany-5 million
Japan-1.5 million

Everyone believes that the US was really the biggest, or at least most important player in world war two, and without them that the world would be under axis control. But the Soviets (now Russians) really won the war. It is also interesting to note that the Americans, who were fighting on 2 fronts lost alot less men then Japan who was only fighting the US.

Also there are alot of countries that were minor players, or countries that i didnt even know were in world war 2 that lost alot of men:
China- 2.5 million
Yugoslavia- 300,000 (what did they do?!)
France-210,000 (taken over in about a week by the Germans)
Romania-290,000

It is odd to see that countries like Yugoslavia and Romania lost so many men, and yet had such a small impact on the war. The US lost only about 100,000 more and yet had a huge impact on the war.

#2

hi mate,welcome to the forum!. :smiley:

here is a web: http://www.angelfire.com/ct/ww2europe/stats.html

the credit of finding this web is for a mate who found it,it’s a member of this forum,i don’t remember who was.

but cheers :wink:

#3

Well,the US never fought in the Rusian winter…

#4

Perhaps as relevantly, the Germans never operated a policy of starving to death all the US prisoners they captured. IIRC something like 4 million of the Russian casualties died of starvation or were murdered while PoWs.

#5

It is also interesting to note that the Americans, who were fighting on 2 fronts lost alot less men then Japan who was only fighting the US.

You seem to have forgotten the Forgotten Army. Which is quite apt, I suppose. They inflicted heavy casualties on the Japanese during the Burma Campaigns.

Edited for spelling, and to add:
You didn’t just forget the Forgetten Army! You forgot the entire country.

#6

Not to mention a little contretemps in China which had been going on for 10 years or so by the end of WW2…

#7

Death seemed to follow the Nazi’s wherever they went and visit itself on the local populace… and they went and invaded Russia and Romania. They fought rather vicious little wars with the Nazi’s. In fact, didn’t Yugoslavia liberate itself? Certainly the Yugoslav resistance was (according to the Wiki I’ve pulled up for clarification) the largest in Western or Central Europe.

#8

ya, death did follow the germans, as it did the Russians. Stalin was brutal. Also, the japenese fought to the death, no retreat. So that had to attribute to some of their losses. But it still amazes me that the US only lost that amount of men, altho they did have another 700,000+ injured.

#9

the reason why the us death toll is comparably low is because the americans only truely commited there forces against germany after june 1944. and even then, the english/commonwealth had to deal with all the hardest fighting, against most of the german armored divisions in france

america, didn’t do as much fighting on the ground as you think.

9/10s of the german military losses were in Russia, so the we got off easily with comparably little fighting. and , by late 1944, we were fighting the deteriated portions of the german army.

Even when the situation escalated after D-day, the majority of german forces were still in Russia for the rest of the war.

And, THe pacific island battles the us fought were tiny compared to the fighting going on in China.

#10

Yugoslavia lose 300.000 soldiers 1941 becouse they not have panzer divisions ,they have only old tanks ,for one month germans crash them.

US army have equipment romania and yougoslavia dont have ,search on net germans lost betwean 1941-45 in romania and yugoslavia ,and you will see .

When partisans take country in your hands ,germans have not anyone win battle. :wink:

#11

My country is very small.
10% of the population was killed in WWII.

#12

[quote=“festamus”]

Death seemed to follow the Nazi’s wherever they went and visit itself on the local populace… and they went and invaded Russia and Romania. They fought rather vicious little wars with the Nazi’s. In fact, didn’t Yugoslavia liberate itself? Certainly the Yugoslav resistance was (according to the Wiki I’ve pulled up for clarification) the largest in Western or Central Europe.[/quote]

yes, Mr. Tito had acquired himself a sizeable army that was actively annoying the germans. Then, german intelligence discovered his fortress hideout and parachuted SS para Battalion 500 to finish him off. (Operation Rosselsprung) But when the germans stormed his hideout, all they found was his personal belonging, and tito had excaped already.

#13

mr tito?

#14

Death seemed to follow the Nazi’s wherever they went and visit itself on the local populace… and they went and invaded Russia and Romania. They fought rather vicious little wars with the Nazi’s. In fact, didn’t Yugoslavia liberate itself? Certainly the Yugoslav resistance was (according to the Wiki I’ve pulled up for clarification) the largest in Western or Central Europe.[/quote]

yes, Mr. Tito had acquired himself a sizeable army that was actively annoying the germans. Then, german intelligence discovered his fortress hideout and parachuted SS para Battalion 500 to finish him off. (Operation Rosselsprung) But when the germans stormed his hideout, all they found was his personal belonging, and tito had excaped already.[/quote]

And the para battalion found itself cut off in a graveyard and was very nearly destroyed before ground forces arrived to save them.

#15

yes. somehow, this scenario reminds me of us’ forray into somalia, the “Black hawk down”. a small elite force comes in to preform an extraction, and then finds itself completely surrounded by numerically superior enemy forces.

#16

Tito is not been in town like germans think ,he is been in cave over the city.

#17

2.5 million people lost in China is alot, considering you dont hear about it much.
You are also forgetting countries like Australia and Africa, Australia was being invaded by the Japanese and we fought our asses off losing alot of men for a new country like us.

#18

Eh? Africa isn’t a country.

Australia was never actually invaded by the Japanese, although they did get rather too close for comfort. In any case, Australia was most certainly not fighting Japan on her own. There was furious fighting across Burma by British and Commonwealth troops. That British and Commonwealth troops did little to reinforce the efforts in the South Pacific is more to do with the USA being in a far better position to do so than any ignoring of the importance of Australia.

Is suspect one of the reasons that Australia appears to get overlooked is that typing ‘The British Empire and Her Commonwealth’ is quite time consuming, so people tend to just refer to Britain.

I believe I speak for all the British members here when I say that we are accutely aware of the contribution made by the Colonies and Dominions before, during and after WW2. This includes the ANZAC, Indian Army, Canadians and South African contributions.

#19

I would of said American Propoganda, over looks alot of the Australians in WW2.

#20

‘We’ ?

You’re older than I thought !