Now that the the D Day celebrations are over,my thoughts turned to logistics. Apparrently for the first wave of of the two US airborne divisions,the 82 and 101,13000 paratroopers were dropped by a force of 822 C 47s...must been the greatest number of transports in the air on one particular day. The other point made was the high proportion of casualties of glider pilots resulting from the D Day glider operations.196 gliders utilised and of their pilots,71 were casualties.
From Major DM Kennedy MC, A Tribute, Jocelyn; page 43: http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1936/jul/28/army-estimates-1936 http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1936/jul/28/navy-estimates-1936 http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1936/jul/28/air-estimates-1936 http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1936/mar/19/army-royal-ordnance-factories-estimate [hr] 1936 http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/sittings/1936/jul/28 1939 http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/sittings/1939/mar/14
Eric Lomax wrote in his memoir, The Railway Man [p. 25], that only 4 out of 25 boys in his final year at the Royal High School in Edinburgh survived the war. However, all 22 members of his Royal Signals officer training class at Catterick survived. One casualty rate very high, one very low.
The Daily Telegraph of 29 Nov 1940 reported that 70% of munitions was produced by the UK, 20% by the US, and that railway loads were more than doubled with 30% less trains but on longer journeys. The scope of the effort involved in the war is truely mind boggling and very much beyond my comprehesion.
The number of US military personnel killed in action each year did not exceed the number of US industrial deaths each year until sometime in 1943.
General Josef Foltnann, a leading expert on WW2 German officer fatalities, presents the following summary of these losses: Army General Officer Casualties (by type) Killed in Action/Died of Wounds 223 Accidental Deaths 30 Suicides 64 Executed (By Germany during WWII) 20 (By Allies after WWII) 33 Died (In Prisoner of War Camps) 128 (Of War Related Health Problems) 145 Missing in Action 32
This is from a HMSO document called "What Britain has achieved" published on 9th May 1945. There are lots more statistics If you can find a copy.
merged thread with earlier one about statistics, which includes extracts from ‘What Britain Has Done 1939-1945''
This is a must see video clip...it's quite staggering http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/06/world-war-two-fatalities-visualized_n_7526390.html Apologies if it's been posted on here before.
From WO 162/205 History of Casualty Branch (Liverpool) (Cas L) | The National Archives British Army - WW2 "Missing" men statistics. Numbers of men declared missing, by theatre and cases still outstanding year by year * These figures (17/08/1946) do not include:- 1. Non-Battle cases (mostly Home) = 1 Officer 15 Other Ranks 2. M.O.1. S.P. personnel = 18 Officers - 3. Locally enlisted Anglo Malayans, Palestinians, &c. = - 223 Other Ranks 4. Missing P.W. = - 54 Other Ranks Ex-Europe, 10 Other Ranks Ex-Asia and about 70 Other Ranks Locally enlisted 5. Cases completed but death action held up at request of Next-of-Kin = 4 Officers 5 Other Ranks
Table 7 from http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/staff/sbroadberry/wp/totwar3.pdf Distribution of UK Working Population, 1939-1945 (mid June)
From British Guards Armoured Division 1941-45, Sandars: The total strength came to just over 3,000 vehicles and 14,700 men (which needed nearly 1,200 gallons of petrol to move them all one mile). Of these just over 300 vehicles were tanks, and 800 vehicles and 3,000 men formed the administrative group.
And those 3000 vehicles at the normal 40vtm (vehicles to the mile) would take up 75 miles of roadspace. At a convoy speed of, say 15mph, the division would take 5hrs to pass a point. OK, the fighting elements might thrash their way across country, but the admin element on its own is a 20 mile column. The histories don't exaggerate when they talk of congestion in the Normandy bridgehead.
Given that - the preparation of all those Movement tables buried in WD appendices seems now to be a much overlooked admin skill, even if things didn't go to plan.