Here's just one of many examples: Nose blown off by flak (bombardier and both pilots vaporized); the interior turned in a 200+ mph wind tunnel. Imagine seven others pinned to the plane as it plummeted, knowing they were dead. 
Posted on 05/29/2021 10:25:25 AM PDT by Retain Mike
The Army deployed 65 infantry divisions for the Second World War. Each was a small town with its own equivalents for community services within eight categories of combat arms. Units such as artillery, engineering, and heavy weapons engaged the enemy directly. Yet of all categories, the foot soldier faced the greatest hazard with the least chance of reward.
These civilians become warriors confronted the most dismal fate of all, and whose duty was uninterrupted by missions completed or a fixed deployment time. The infantryman was enveloped within a most deranged, barbaric, and brittle existence against a resolute enemy where victory often required actions pushing beyond prior limits for impossibility. Except for the Purple Heart and the coveted Combat Infantryman’s Badge, recognition often eluded these common men become citizen soldiers, because so few came through to testify to the valor of the many.
Omar Bradley said, “Previous combat had taught us that casualties are lumped primarily in the rifle platoons. For here are concentrated the handful of troops who must advance under enemy fire. It is upon them that the burden of war falls with greater risk and with less likelihood of survival than any other of the combat arms. An infantry division of WW II consisted of 81 rifle platoons, each with a combat strength of approximately 40 men. Altogether those 81 assault units comprised but 3,240 men in a division of 14,000…..Prior to invasion we had estimated that the infantry would incur 70 percent of the losses of our combat forces. By August we had boosted that figure to 83 percent on the basis of our experience in the Normandy hedgerows.”
Nearly a third of the 65 divisions in the Pacific and European theaters suffered 100% or more casualties. However, their regimental staffs saw frontline units obliterated three to six times over. To deal with this problem there were never enough infantrymen coming from the states, though large numbers were transferred from Army Service Forces and Army Air Forces to Army Ground Forces. Replacement centers overseas continually reassigned artillerymen, machine gunners, cooks, and clerks to infantry duties. The situation in Europe became so severe that rear area units in France and Great Britain were tasked to supply soldiers for retraining as infantrymen. Those suffering battle fatigue came off the line for a few days for clean uniforms, bathing, hot food, and sleep. However, scarcity compelled their repeated return until crippling wounds, mental breakage, death, or victory brought final relief.
For example, the 4th and 29th Infantry landed on D-Day and suffered about 500% battle casualties in their rifle platoons during the eleven months until VE-Day. Added to these numbers were half again as many non-battle human wrecks debilitated by trench foot, frost bite, pneumonia, hernia, heart disease, arthritis, etc. Many never returned to duty. In the jungles of the Pacific, non-combat losses often exacted a greater price. But somehow the infantry crossed Europe and the Pacific and always remained in the forefront of attacks.
Ernie Pyle said of them, “The worst experience of all is just the accumulated blur, and the hurting vagueness of being too long in the lines, the everlasting alertness, the noise and fear, the cell-by-cell exhaustion, the thinning of the surrounding ranks as day follows nameless day. And the constant march into the eternity of one’s own small quota of chances for survival. Those are the things that hurt and destroy. But they went back to them because they were good soldiers and they had a duty they could not define.”
Partial bibliography:
A Soldier’s Story by Omar N. Bradley
Brave Men by Ernie Pyle (the quote named Tommy Clayton, but was generalized here because Ernie Pyle saw him as an example of the infantrymen he loved.)
Crusade in Europe by Dwight D. Eisenhower
The U.S. Infantryman in World War II by Robert S. Rush
Foot Soldier by Roscoe C. Blunt, Jr.
Links for Listings of United States Divisions during WW II http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_Army_divisions_during_World_War_II http://www.historyshots.com/usarmy/
Army Battle Casualties and Non-battle Deaths in World War II http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/ref/Casualties/index.html
3rd 'Marne' Infantry Division http://www.custermen.com/ItalyWW2/Units/Division3.htm Total casualties greater than 34,000
National 4th Infantry (IVY) Division Association http://www.4thinfantry.org/content/division-history Total casualties of 34,000
29th Infantry Division http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/29th_Infantry_Division_(United_States)
45th Infantry Division http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/45th_Infantry_Division_(United_States)
Remembering the Thunderbirds – Oklahoma’s 45th Infantry Division http://www.baptistmessenger.com/remembering-the-thunderbirds-oklahomas-45th-infantry-division/ Total casualties of 62,640 When Gen. George S. Patton described the 45th Infantry Division, he said it was “one of the finest, if not the finest infantry division in this history of modern warfare.”
Churchill, Ike, & The "Epic Human Tragedy" Of The First Wave At Omaha https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-06-06/churchill-ike-epic-human-tragedy-first-wave-omaha
A D-Day Survivor Story https://biggeekdad.com/2019/05/a-d-day-survivor-story/
The Green Books [US Army In World War II Series] are online, and accessible: https://history.army.mil/html/bookshelves/collect/usaww2.html
Thank you for posting this. Semper Fidelis...
Most of my uncles, mother and fathers brothers, served overseas in WW 2. Only one made it a career, retiring as a USAF Master Sergeant aircraft mechanic. Another avoided military service by working in a shipyard in Long Beach, CA. He made that a career, staying there for 40 years. Another was a navy fighter pilot, but buckled under fear and pressure, becoming an alcholic during the war, and relegated to non-combat ground duties. He was in and out of VA treatment facilities for the rest of his life.
None of them, including my father, would talk very much about their experiences.
Thanks. I want to write one for the Marine Corps, but I am not there yet.
I understand that the highest casualty rate was among the USAF.
I had a school teacher who was a Marine in the Korean War. You may have seen his picture. He can be seen crouching around the corner while a buddy is shooting at a sniper in Seoul after the Inchon landings.
He told stories in class about his experiences. One was how he watched U.S. and Chinese (Russian ?) jet fighters dueling high above the Yalu River. He said that is how he overcame his own PTSD, before PTSD became a thing.
I understand that the highest casualty rate was among the USAF. Entire B-17 crews did not make it alive.
The support staff in the USAF is far safer than those supporting the Army infantry. The other 17-33% of the casualties were still something. In the air force if you aren’t actually flying in a combat air craft you are normally pretty safe, or at least it seems to me.
Now granted a lot of the men ended up as prisoners of war, but one historian noted that Kamikaze squadrons had a lessor casualty rate until fighter escorts (p-51s) could accompany bombers throughout the mission. Completing 25 missions was so extraordinary in 1942 and 1943, that the aircraft and crew of the Memphis Belle returned to the United States to sell war bonds. During the war, the 8th Air Force based in England suffered more than 26,000 dead compared to the Marine Corps which incurred nearly 20,000 killed for all its campaigns in WW II.
Our Air Force people were mortared on a regular basis during our current desert adventures. Plus some of the natives working on the bases attacked personnel. Not the pointy end of the spear exactly, but still dangerous.
I had the privilege of knowing one of the greatest of the “Greatest Generation”. He was a banker when I knew him. During WW II he served with 10th Mountain division. The division did not see action until it was sent to Italy in January 1945. Because of its special training, it was in the lead for a lot of offensives. He was the only one of eight officers in his company not to become a casualty during the five months until Germany surrendered and earned two Silver Stars. The division overall suffered 25% casualties with about 83% occurring in rifle companies like his. He returned home to marry in 1947, and he and his wife had 72 years together.
What happened to the other divisions not activated?
Repple Depple
https://www.defensemedianetwork.com/stories/the-u-s-world-war-ii-troop-replacement-policy/
You saw in on TV Combat, now you know.
Well, there goes Word spell check again. It should say “post” and not “most”.
I understand that the highest casualty rate was among the USAF. Entire B-17 crews did not make it alive.
—————the numbers show our Army Air Force deaths far exceeded our Marines, by 28,000 plus. My father was an infantryman, machine gunned three weeks before the wars end, cut the Ruhr pocket in half. His most treasured award was not his bronze star, but his Combat Infantrymans Badge......ALL deserve much honor, the majority were young draftees, rightfully called the Greatest Generation. Rest In Peace, Dad, you would never recognize our county today.
Airborne All the Way, 1977-1980.
USAAF. There was no USAF at the time.
Here's just one of many examples: Nose blown off by flak (bombardier and both pilots vaporized); the interior turned in a 200+ mph wind tunnel. Imagine seven others pinned to the plane as it plummeted, knowing they were dead.
way back in the 80s I read that only a shockingly small number of infantry who engaged the enemy actually ever fired their weapon. Don’t recall the actual number (20%?) but I was suprised we won at all. I have no idea how they managed to figure this out but they did. By Vietnam they’d gotten the number way up. I’d love to know how they did that as well.
If I’m not mistaken, the WW2 casualty rate was actually highest in the Navy, its submariners. It is a harrowing thing to be in your bomber falling from 20,000 feet, but no less harrowing than your submarine being crushed at several hundred feet of depth.
it is possible an air crew member might make it out of his burning airplane with his parachute and survive, not so in a depth charged submarine. No one survives.
God loves the infantry.
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