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To: oh8eleven

I saw one terrible stat. In WW2, the 8th AF had more deaths than the Marine Corp.


28 posted on 03/03/2020 7:03:21 AM PST by AppyPappy (How many fingers am I holding up, Winston?)
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To: AppyPappy

In 1943 they set the tour of duty to 25 missions. The typical crew didn’t make it past 5.


34 posted on 03/03/2020 7:15:52 AM PST by D Rider
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To: AppyPappy
I saw one terrible stat. In WW2, the 8th AF had more deaths than the Marine Corp.

The RAF's Bomber Command casualty rate was bad too- actually painful to contemplate.

I have never seen a direct comparison of stats for the 8th AF fighter-bomber/close air support casualties vs the 9th AF; they would be an apple vs orange comparison in many ways, but nonetheless interesting.

37 posted on 03/03/2020 7:23:19 AM PST by niteowl77
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To: AppyPappy

On some bombing runs, 1,000 bombers would go out on mission and only 500 bombers would return to their home airfields. Aircrews were in the 10-12 man range so that’s 5000-6000 airman gone (wounded, captured or killed) per day or night. Returning aircrews were able to report on what happened to some of the aircrews as they had seen them bail out, get shot down or crash into the ground, but for many other aircrews that did not return, they simply vanished- never to be seen or heard from ever again.


48 posted on 03/03/2020 8:29:33 AM PST by freepersup (BQQM!)
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To: AppyPappy

So what? It’s not a freakin’ contest.


49 posted on 03/03/2020 8:32:40 AM PST by oh8eleven (RVN '67-'68)
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