Slitherine

Just thought I'd start a thread on interesting WWII statistics, perhaps for use in the manual:

+ 60,000,000 people died in the conflict –– Inferno, by Max Hastings
+ Over the course of the whole war, an average of 27,000 people died per DAY -- Inferno, by Max Hastings

1/3 of the casualties were Soviet alone.
3 million died due to a famine in Bengal.

Of the 3 million Russian prisoners taken, only a few thousand got back to the Soviet Union after the war where they were promptly 'Gulag-ed" by Stalin for having been taken prisoner in the first place.

More Frenchmen died fighting FOR the Axis powers than AGAINST them in WWII – the Storm of War, by Andrew Roberts.

metolius wrote:More Frenchmen died fighting FOR the Axis powers than AGAINST them in WWII – the Storm of War, by Andrew Roberts.

Any numbers? It's something the French (i'm living in France but am not French) won't like to hear... They still have that glorious vision of La France Résistante ...

I think the suggestion that more french died fighting for the Wermacht is incorrect. Especially if you remove the figure of Ethnic germans conscripted by the Wermacht from Alsace-Lorraine.

Military war dead include 150,000 regular forces (1939–40 Battle of France 92,000; 1940–45 on Western Front (World War II) 58,000; 20,000 French resistance fighters and 40,000 POWs in Germany. There were an additional 5,000 military deaths in French Indochina. The pro-German Vichy France forces lost 2,653 killed.[158] Vadim Erlikman a Russian journalist, estimates losses of Africans in the French Colonial Forces at about 22,000. French deaths in German Army (30–40,000), mostly men conscripted in Alsace-Lorraine, are not included in these totals, they are included with Germany
Civilian losses include 120,000 killed due to military action and 230,000 victims of the Nazi reprisals and genocide (including 83,000 Jews). 752 civilians were killed during the US air attacks on French Tunisia in 1942–43. R. J. Rummel estimates the deaths of 20,000 anti-Fascist Spanish refugees resident in France who were deported to Nazi camps, these deaths are included with French civilian casualties. The genocide of Roma people was 15,000 persons. Jewish Holocaust victims totaled 83,000.

I haven't researched this personally, but it was explicitly stated in the Storm of War, by Andrew Roberts. I was listening to this on audio, so I don't have the exact quote handy, but I'll look around and see what I can find. What are the sources for all of the numbers that you quoted?

I think afk_nero found it here :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_casualties

note 17 deals with France...

metolius wrote:I haven't researched this personally, but it was explicitly stated in the Storm of War, by Andrew Roberts. I was listening to this on audio, so I don't have the exact quote handy, but I'll look around and see what I can find. What are the sources for all of the numbers that you quoted?

This book is somewhat controversial based on the good and bad reviews it gets. It sounds interesting though and I'll pick it up, but hopefully the author is backing up his claims with research, and not just stirring the pot to increase book sales:).