In article <jumfs3hrrrrkkr1v0d4mfj2o60h678n4f8@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>, tppm@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
(Tim Merrigan) wrote:
> BTW I can understand why most of the European countries (that includes
> the Central Powers, BTW), and Britain in particular might still have
> it as a day of morning 89 years later considering their and our
> relative losses.
France even more than us. They lost 4.3% of the whole population killed
and 10.7% were military wounded. The UK lost 2% killed and 3.7% as
military wounded; Germany had the highest casualty rate amongst the
Central Powers, with 3.8% killed and 6.5% military wounded.
It changed things utterly. The optimism of the past was gone. I have
heard theories, which seem plausible to me, that the "British sense of
humour", evolved as a defence mechanism against the horror of the
business. I think it will be at least another century before we really
recover.
It was notable that WWII was simply not fought in that manner amongst
Germany, Italy, the UK, France and Germany. The losses the Axis
inflicted on the Soviet Union in WWII were extraordinary - 13.7% of the
population killed and go some way to explaining their attitude to the
Germans during and after the war, who lost 10.5% killed. Latvia and
Lithuania and ****tuguese Timor also lost more than 10% killed, while
Poland did worst of all at 16.7%.
The figures are all from Wikipedia, but look plausible to me. One
campaign that was not fought, but would have been very bloody indeed,
was the invasion of Japan. That could have got into WWI levels of deaths
rather readily.
--
John Dallman, jgd@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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