The Western Way of War today.

[MarkSheppard]

Originally Posted by IronDuke99

Contrary to popular belief the casualties in British, American and Canadian infantry units in Europe from D-Day until the German surrender were just as high as they were in WWI (although a slightly lower percentage died as a result of medical advances).

The US 1st Infantry Division was in combat for 443 days in WW2, and suffered 20,659 casualties, of which 4,365 were fatal ultimately. This comes out to 46.6 casualties per day (9.85 fatal).

Meanwhile, the same division was in combat for approximately 167 days in WW1, and suffered 22,320 casualties, of which 3,730 were fatal. This comes out to 133.65 casualties per day (22.33 fatal).

Part of this is the increased dispersion between WW1 (2,400 m2 per man) and WW2 (27,500 m2 per man), and the tighter control that radio allowed -- for example, if an attack was going somewhat okay, then suddenly a hidden enemy strongpoint opened up and cut to pieces the advancing unit; there was enough C&C to enable commanders to halt the operation and reformulate a new plan on the fly -- stop, everyone hunker down while we call in artillery or airstrikes to fix this problem.

WW1? No such luck. Everything is largely pre-programmed, and the reaction times are much longer, so more people die before commanders realize the plan is not working.

[IronDuke99]

Agree with everything you say about lack of radios and control, but you can still find WWII Infantry units, especially in NW Europe who suffered casualties rates as heavy as those in WWI.

Large scale battle against a peer enemy is an expensive business, most especially if you have to do most of the advancing and attacking.