In Europe, how many casualties were there per soldier per day in WWI and WWII?

by Erpp8

That is, adjusted for the length of the war and the number of soldiers fighting, how did the casualties compare?

the_howling_cow

I will try to give you something close to what you seek.

For the United States, there are the following figures for the European Theater of Operations during WWII:

Daily average non-effective rate (per 1,000 strength), European Theater:

Disease Non-battle injury Battle injury or wound Total daily admissions per 1,000
26.52 9.77 32.44 68.73

This means that on a daily basis, about 69 of every 1,000 men were not participating in combat

The United States Army (including the Army Air Forces) suffered the following casualties while participating in the European Theater. The "European Theater" in US Army speak is restricted from June 6, 1944 to May 11, 1945 and consists of the following campaigns (or time periods, if you will)

  • Normandy (6 June - 24 July 1944)

  • Northern France (25 July - 14 September 1944)

  • Southern France (15 August - 14 September 1944)

  • Rhineland (15 September 1944 - 21 March 1945)

  • Ardennes-Alsace (16 December 1944 - 25 January 1945)

  • Central Europe (22 March - 11 May 1945)

  • Any air operations during that period

Total battle casualties|Deaths among battle casualties, including|Killed in action|Wounded and later died|Captured and later died|Missing in action and declared dead|Wounded in action |Missing in action|Prisoners of war :--|:--|:--|:--|:--|:--|:--|:--|:--|:-- 586,628|135,576|116,991|16,264|950|1,371|381,350|14,528|73,759

"Battle casualties" are those that are killed in action, wounded in action, missing in action, or captured by the enemy

The war in Europe, for the Unites States Army, lasted from 6 June 1944 to 11 May 1945, a total of 339 days. That means that during this time period;

  • There was an average of 1,730.4 battle casualties per day, of which

  • 399.9 of them were men who were killed in action

  • 1,124.9 of them were men who were wounded in action (47.9 of them would later die of their wounds)

  • 42.8 of them were men who went missing in action (4 of them would later be declared dead; the rest were eventually returned to military control)

  • 217.6 of them were men who were captured by the enemy (2.8 of them would later die in captivity; the rest were eventually returned to military control)

Sources:

GI: The US Infantryman in World War II, by Robert S. Rush

Army Battle Casualties and Nonbattle Deaths in World War II Final Report, 7 December 1941 - 31 December 1946 The absolute final word on US Army casualties during WWII; it supersedes and makes void any previous reports