1941 1945 WW2 ... 408,000 408,000 408,000 DEAD in four years of fighting. Think about that as you here about one soldier getting killed in Iraq.
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On D-Day, the Allies landed around 156,000 troops in Normandy. The American forces landed numbered 73,000: 23,250 on Utah Beach, 43,250 on Omaha Beach, and 15,500 airborne troops. In the British and Canadian sector, 83,115 troops were landed (61,715 of them British): 24,970 on Gold Beach, 21,400 on Juno Beach, 28,845 on Sword Beach, and 7900 airborne troops.
11,590 aircraft were available to support the landings. On D-Day, Allied aircraft flew 14,674 sorties, and 127 were lost.
In the airborne landings on both flanks of the beaches, 2395 aircraft and 867 gliders of the RAF and USAAF were used on D-Day.
Operation Neptune involved huge naval forces, including 6939 vessels: 1213 naval combat ships, 4126 landing ships and landing craft, 736 ancillary craft and 864 merchant vessels. Some 195,700 personnel were assigned to Operation Neptune: 52,889 US, 112,824 British, and 4988 from other Allied countries.
By the end of 11 June (D + 5), 326,547 troops, 54,186 vehicles and 104,428 tons of supplies had been landed on the beaches.
As well as the troops who landed in Normandy on D-Day, and those in supporting roles at sea and in the air, millions more men and women in the Allied countries were involved in the preparations for D-Day. They played thousands of different roles, both in the armed forces and as civilians.
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How many Allied and German casualties were there on D-Day, and in the Battle of Normandy?
"Casualties" refers to all losses suffered by the armed forces: killed, wounded, missing in action (meaning that their bodies were not found) and prisoners of war. There is no "official" casualty figure for D-Day. Under the circumstances, accurate record keeping was very difficult. For example, some troops who were listed as missing may actually have landed in the wrong place, and have rejoined their parent unit only later.
In April and May 1944, the Allied air forces lost nearly 12,000 men and over 2,000 aircraft in operations which paved the way for D-Day. Total Allied casualties on D-Day are estimated at 10,000, including 2500 dead. British casualties on D-Day have been estimated at approximately 2700. The Canadians lost 946 casualties. The US forces lost 6603 men. Note that the casualty figures for smaller units do not always add up to equal these overall figures exactly, however (this simply reflects the problems of obtaining accurate casualty statistics).
Casualties on the British beaches were roughly 1000 on Gold Beach and the same number on Sword Beach. The remainder of the British losses were amongst the airborne troops: some 600 were killed or wounded, and 600 more were missing; 100 glider pilots also became casualties. The losses of 3rd Canadian Division at Juno Beach have been given as 340 killed, 574 wounded and 47 taken prisoner.
The breakdown of US casualties was 1465 dead, 3184 wounded, 1928 missing and 26 captured. Of the total US figure, 2499 casualties were from the US airborne troops (238 of them being deaths). The casualties at Utah Beach were relatively light: 197, including 60 missing. However, the US 1st and 29th Divisions together suffered around 2000 casualties at Omaha Beach.
The total German casualties on D-Day are not known, but are estimated as being between 4000 and 9000 men.
Naval losses for June 1944 included 24 warships and 35 merchantmen or auxiliaries sunk, and a further 120 vessels damaged.
Over 425,000 Allied and German troops were killed, wounded or went missing during the Battle of Normandy. This figure includes over 209,000 Allied casualties, with nearly 37,000 dead amongst the ground forces and a further 16,714 deaths amongst the Allied air forces. Of the Allied casualties, 83,045 were from 21st Army Group (British, Canadian and Polish ground forces), 125,847 from the US ground forces. The losses of the German forces during the Battle of Normandy can only be estimated. Roughly 200,000 German troops were killed or wounded. The Allies also captured 200,000 prisoners of war (not included in the 425,000 total, above). During the fighting around the Falaise Pocket (August 1944) alone, the Germans suffered losses of around 90,000, including prisoners.
Today, twenty-seven war cemeteries hold the remains of over 110,000 dead from both sides: 77,866 German, 9386 American, 17,769 British, 5002 Canadian and 650 Poles.
Between 15,000 and 20,000 French civilians were killed, mainly as a result of Allied bombing. Thousands more fled their homes to escape the fighting.
Just a little reminder as they are dedicating the WW2 Memorial this weekend.
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We have veterans in this country who served in many recent wars, including Vietnam, Korea, Desert Storm, Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as World War II. I respect them all equally, but there's something special about those WWII guys. Too soon, they'll all be gone.
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We have veterans in this country who served in many recent wars, including Vietnam, Korea, Desert Storm, Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as World War II. I respect them all equally, but there's something special about those WWII guys. Too soon, they'll all be gone.
God has truly blessed America! Certainly the men and women of the WWll generation who are our parents/grandparents are part of our generation's greatest blessing. I thank Him for each of them....especially the ones who made that supreme sacrifice.... whose bodies have been resting in the earth these last 60 years or so....for they gave their all for my freedom and quality of life. I feel the same way for every one of every generation who has done the same...in every conflict this nation has endured. My heartfelt gratitude goes to every one of them.
Because of all they have done---
May God bless America some more!
Clint
Just a little reminder as they are dedicating the WW2 Memorial this weekend
Why did it take so long to get a memorial for WWII vets?
I thought about this when i heard this. not meaning to step on you vietnam vets but that generation just didnt whine as much and it took so much longer to get them a memorial.
I am glad to see they are being recognized but it's truely sad that most are not here to see it![]
It kinda ticked me off when I heard Cheney and Rumsfield tell the troops a couple weeks ago'they were the great generation." I'm not trying to minimize any one sacrifice to this country,but come on.In ww2 we lost about 250 men a day and millions wounded.
I was just up cutting the lawn for a women that lets me hunt her property she told me she didn't see her husband for 4 years. She saw some women on TV saying how they weren't giong to know their husbands when they got home after 6 monthes to year her response"guess they didn't know them before they left." She's a riot 83 yrs old and just rebuilt a stone fence.
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The greatest generation in the history of our nation was the first. They fought to establish the freedom and liberty of our nation, produced the first half dozen or so Presidents and Vice Presidents, and the Senators and Congressmen for that same period of time.
A very close second are the veterans of WWII and their families. Fully 10% of our nation was in the military during WWII, 16.5 million out of 165 million. That is phenomenal. Our military is miniscual today relative to WWII's standards!!
The men and women fighting the war in Iraq are a great generation, too. They are fighting a war in a far distant land so it won't have to be fought here and to protect the liberty of a bunch of folk who don't appreciate it. You can say you support the troops but oppose the war, to that I say "HOG WASH!!!!"
You can say you support the troops but oppose the war, to that I say "HOG WASH!!!!"
I hear you.
WWII vets are in a league of their own. My great-grandfather was a colonel in WWII. He was at Pearl Harbor. He was at Okinawa, Midway, and many other little island hopping missions. I never knew him as he died 2 hours after I was born. 2 hours and 1700 miles.
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My Grandpa doesn't talk about the war a whole lot. But either way He is one of my greatest heroes. I've done research on the Bataan Death March and I simply don't understand how those men lived through the torture and pain. My accolades to not only the vets of any war, but of the families who support and love them enough to know that they might be literally sacrificing their life for the rights of us in this wonderful country. I will always be in debt and will never forget the honorable soldiers who stand up for all of us.
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Hey not to mention these spouses today get e mails from their loved ones almost daily. In WWI andWWII it could take months for letters to be exchanged. sometimes the familys would be notified of ones death and recieve a letter weeks later.
All wars were bad and they each had there circumstances that were particularly unpleasing but this thing we are in now has got to go down as the most media techno driven thing of history. familys today can sit and watch it play by play.
Hey and do you think they had mail in the civil war?
My parents believed in their God, then this Country, and then their family...in that order.
I think that the thing that defines this generation from the last is; Most folks put themselves first, then their family, and then God and country are somewhere down the list between Six flags and Burger king.
After Pearl Harbor, there was no doubt in anyones mind that this country was at war. The young men of that generation proudly stepped into the breach and did what needed doing. When they came home, amazing things were accomplished in the name of progress. New medicines, New machines, and New families.
With that said, I'm not disputing that great new things are being accomplished today, but nostalgia aside, I'm rather disapointed in "my" generation.
I'm disapointed in knowing that there are many among us that don't even believe that the United States is in an epic war of Good against Evil... Right against Wrong...Good against Bad.
I'm disapointed in knowing that something like "Gun Control" is even an issue.
I'm disapointed in knowing that someone like Michael Moore's opinion is given more than a by-line in a cartoon.
We all talk about the "rights" that we have to disagree with the current politics, and the miscellaneous goings-on in this country. But what we tend to forget is what it took to put us in a position to bicker about such things.
It's really sad to contemplate the current mindset of many folks that make up the american public.
"Greatest generation" WW2 Vets
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