I recall seeing statistics that indicated that the
number of combat unit soldiers who actually fired
their weapons in combat was incredibly low in WWII.
It was so low, in fact, that I didn’t believe it
then and I still dont. My father was with the 11th
Airborne held in reserve on New Guinea. They landed
on and fought their way across Leyte and jumped on to
Luzon. Attending various reunions with my dad I never
got the impression that relatively few of his fellow
paratroopers ever fired their Garands, BARs, or
Thompsons. I think the stats I saw must have included
desk jockies at Taccoa.
I synthesized a good deal from the books I read into the statement, “Each was a small town with its own equivalents for community services”. Certainly none of those guys fired small arms. Even regimental and division artillery probably never got closer than 6,000 to 10,000 yards of the front.