Interesting Statistic

[tinjaw]

I am currently watching Vietnam in HD and they had a statistic that I found very enlightening.

The average infantryman in World War II spent 10 days out of one year in combat. The average infantryman in Vietnam spent 240 days out of one year in combat.

http://www.history.com/shows/vietnam-in-hd

[Every Single Soldier]

That's a great video btw, watch it every now and again.

I guess the stat hides the level of the combat tho, running into a VC patrol or stumbling into a Panzer SS division both count as combat ...

[jack54]

I just watched the 1st 2-hour episode and saw that quote about days in combat; very interesting and surprising. Something else that I didn't realize until watching the video; taking ground was not considered important...body count was the determining factor.

It seems to me that the game tries to take this into account. Very interesting and unique design decisions.

[Every Single Soldier]

A very contravertial strategy, body count....

No Vietnam sim would be complete without it

[Sabratha]

I just watched the 1st 2-hour episode and saw that quote about days in combat; very interesting and surprising. Something else that I didn't realize until watching the video; taking ground was not considered important...body count was the determining factor.

If I recall correctly, it was Westmoreland who said that "We were fighting a war against the population growth of North Vietnam".

That was one of the major factors behind the eventual outcome of the war - the North was able to muster more men for military service and send huge numbers into South vietnam, while the south vietnamese were prohibited from crossing into the north.