The Pittsburgh Press (January 18, 1945)
Stimson: U.S. ground forces lose 332,912 men in west since D-Day
Casualties in December, including part of Ardennes battle, 74,788
Washington (UP) –
Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson announced today that U.S. ground forces alone suffered 332,912 casualties on the Western Front from D-Day June 6 to Jan. 1.
This total, which includes losses during the most severe period of fighting in the Germans’ Ardennes offensive, represents 54,562 killed, 232,672 wounded and 45,678 missing, Mr. Stimson told a news conference.
Secretary Stimson said the Germans have suffered great losses in the past week as the U.S. First and Third Armies and British troops pressed them back in the Ardennes bulge.
The Allied pincers have cut off large numbers of Germans, swelling the prisoners of war taken in this battle, he said. Allied artillery hammering the roads have destroyed whole columns of enemy troops while Allied planes which operated when weather permitted took a heavy toll.
U.S. ground force losses for the month of December on the Western Front, Mr. Stimson said, were 74,788. These included 10,419 killed, 43,554 wounded and 20,815 missing. He added that most of the missing probably had been captured.
But German casualties in December were one-third heavier than American, totaling 110,000 to 130,000, including 50,000 captured, Mr. Stimson estimated.
Mr. Stimson had no new estimate of American losses confined strictly to the period of the German offensive. Monday. However, he estimated U.S. losses in the Ardennes area from Dec. 15 to Jan. 7 at 40,000, including 18,000 missing.
Today he reported that one American division, the 106th, suffered casualties equal to more than half its entire strength in a “gallant stand” against the Germans in the Ardennes.
This division suffered 8,663 casualties, including 416 killed, 1,246 wounded and 7,001 missing.
Mr. Stimson also announced total Army combat casualties in all theaters as compiled by the War Department here through Jan. 7. This compilation, however, reflected casualties actually suffered only up to the early days of December.
This overall figure was 580,495, bringing the total number of casualties announced here for all branches of the service – but not counting the 40,000 for the Ardennes breakthrough – to 663,859, an aggregate 17,479 greater than that disclosed one week ago.
Counting the 40,000, the grand overall total would be 703,859, as compared with a grand total of 259,735 for all of World War I.
The total of announced casualties for the Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard, released last night, is 83,364. The Army and Navy totals divide up as follows:
| Army | Navy | |
|---|---|---|
| Killed | 111,306 | 31,802 |
| Wounded | 343,250 | 37,630 |
| Prisoners | 57,462 | 9,454 |
| Missing | 68,477 | 4,478 |