• Re: US Infantry combat effectiveness in World War II

    From Byker@byker@do~rag.net to alt.history.what-if,soc.history.what-if,alt.war.world-war-two,sci.military.naval,us.military.army on Sat Jul 20 14:56:25 2019
    From Newsgroup: soc.history.what-if

    "SolomonW" wrote in message
    news:1uhmk26cqxpxk.msipchov2j7$.dlg@40tude.net...

    I am sure that all of you here have heard of Marshall's work on infantry combat effectiveness in World War II, titled Men Against Fire.

    Marshall claimed was that in World War II U.S. troops in actual combat,
    75% never fired at the enemy for killing, even though they were engaged in battle and under direct threat.

    "Is it true that during WW2 only 10% of soldiers shot their weapon toward
    the enemy and only 2% of those, shot directly at enemy soldiers to kill
    them?"

    "This is a commonly thrown around claim from Brigadier General SLA
    Marshall's book, Men Under Fire. And it has been completely debunked." https://tinyurl.com/yy5onm86

    "The amount of ammunition used in WW2 resulted in 25,000 rounds per
    casualty. Bear in mind that by far the biggest killer in actual WW2 combat
    was artillery. That doesn't take into account grenades and bombs. The people killed by actual bullets would be around 30% of the total casualties.": https://tinyurl.com/y6tuvos5

    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2