Rehabilitation to raise expense
WASHINGTON (UP – The victory in Europe cost the United States about 800,000 casualties and more than $185 billion.
These are the best conservative estimate available now. It will be a long time before the final figures are worked out.
A survey showed today that this country’s share of the cost of crushing the Nazi bid for world domination will exceed by three or four times the cost of World War I and its aftermath – whether the measuring standard is casualties or dollars.
The cost in money will be increased in future years by many billions of dollars through interest on government borrowings and benefits to veterans. The cost in broken lives, too, will be paid over a long period.
Experts consulted
Most of the government experts consulted believed that at least two-thirds of the dollar outlay since defense preparations began in 1940 went directly or indirectly into the war against Germany and Italy.
This is based on the allocation of men to the two major spheres of combat. The best available information is that two U.S. fighting men were sent to Europe for each one sent to the Pacific.
The cost estimate includes not only guns, bullets, planes and tanks, plus the plants to make them, but also such items as Lend-Lease expenditures, training costs, merchant ships, transportation, subsistence and literally thousands of articles and services that never appeared on the field of battle but were vital to victory.
Results of survey
Here are the results of the survey:
COST IN MONEY: Defense and war expenditures total more than $277,600,000,000 since July 1, 1940. Assigning two-thirds of this to the European War gives a figure of $185,066,000.0U0. This compares with the $55,345,000,000 cost of the last war.
The figure for the last war includes continuing expenses for many years after the war and unpaid war debts. The figure for this war is just the cost up to now.
COST IN CASUALTIES: Approximately 800,000 men killed, wounded, missing and prisoners. This is a projected figure because the official casualty compilations are far behind.
Army casualties compiled here by theaters as of March 31 showed a total of 685,247 for the European, Mediterranean, Middle East and Caribbean theaters – all part of the European war. The figures included 133,284 killed, 431,965 wounded, 67,008 missing and 52,990 prisoners.
Reports lag
But these figures actually included only casualties suffered until early March. Much severe fighting was not covered by these reports, and it will be months before final casualty data of the war against Germany is available. Best estimates are that the European Theater alone will report a final casualty total exceeding 800,000.
The Navy has never broken down its casualties by war theaters so it is impossible to determine accurately now what part of Navy casualties were incurred against Germany.
But an informed source said that through last July, a period which included the toughest phase of the Battle of the Atlantic as well as the landing operations in North Africa, Italy and Normandy, slightly less than 25 percent of Navy casualties were suffered in the war against Germany.
At the end of last July, the Navy had suffered 52,000 war casualties throughout the world. It may be estimated that naval casualties in the war on Germany totaled between 13,000 and 14,000. No breakdown of this figure into killed, wounded and missing is available now.
World War I figures
In World War I, the final casualty total for all the armed services was 259,735. This included 53,878 killed, 201,377 wounded and 4,480 prisoners.
Relatively speaking, the Merchant Marine suffered the highest death ratio of any of the services engaged in the war against Germany. Although its casualties by theaters are not available, an estimated 5,000 out of more than 6,000 casualties to date occurred in the Atlantic and adjacent waters. A large portion of these are dead or missing, mostly as a result of the German U-boat campaign in the first 18 months of the war.
MEN INVOLVED: Probably between 3,500,000 and 4,000,000 out of the Army’s 5,200,000 men overseas have been involved in the war on Germany and its satellites.
The Army has not announced allocation of its men by theaters, but some 70 divisions have been identified in the war against Germany. These divisions would total roughly 1,250,000 men, but to them must be added the tremendous U.S. Air Force and the great numbers of supply and maintenance men behind the lines.
Naval forces
It is estimated that not more than 235,000 men in the naval services were engaged in the war on Germany. All told, the Navy has a total of 2,352,275 sailors, marines and coast guardsmen now serving outside the continental limits. The Navy estimated that approximately 80 percent of this total are under Adm. Chester W. Nimitz’s command in the Pacific. The rest of them are scattered throughout the world with possibly less than 10 percent in the Atlantic. It was recalled that about 124,000 naval officers and men took part directly or indirectly in the invasion of Normandy.
These were in addition to the many thousands engaged in escorting convoys across the Atlantic and in protecting the supply lines.
COST IN WARSHIPS: A total of 96 naval vessels and naval craft were sunk in the Atlantic, the Mediterranean and European theaters.
The figure includes landing craft destroyers, some PT-boats, and transports. The largest vessel lost was the escort carrier USS Block Island. Many merchant ships were also lost.
