[niteowl77]

For the US Army in WWII, the highest % of turnover due to casualties was in the 4th Infantry Division (252.3%), followed by the 9th Infantry Division (240.4%); only three other divisions - all infantry divisions - in the Army had a casualty rate over 200%. Sobering enough, but then - as mentioned in the article - the brunt of all that was suffered by the rifle platoons.

Pretty grim.

[larrytown]

Much the same happened in WW1 as well. All the extensive training of the regiments and divisions suddenly hits a crisis point when the well-trained are murdered in windrows, and the cooks, clerks and repo guys that just got bum-rushed through a limited basic training showed up on the lines. More than a few stories are out there for WW1 and WW2 newbies like this that hadn’t even held a rifle, much less loaded or fired one.