WW I United States Military records 1917 to 1918

"The United States entered World War I in April 1917. Over 4.7 million men and women served in the regular U.S. forces, national guard units, and draft units. There were 53,402 killed in action, 63,114 deaths from disease and other causes, and about 205,000 wounded. New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Ohio furnished the most soldiers."

Now what was it I said Rapparee?

"their {Pershing's US Army} losses amounted to some 112,000 men only half that number died in combat."

So not really that far out considering that it was purely from memory - and certainly not understated.

The impending arrival at some point in the future of hundreds of thousands possibly even a million Americans provided the Allies with a propaganda tool that the Germans had no way of countering, while they knew that by 1918 they only had what they had and all of that, including the entire country, was worn out, war weary and fast running out of resources - the main US contribution to the ultimate allied victory in 1918 was primarily psychological.

In 1918 Pershing did not want "his" troops used until the summer of 1919 because he did not considered them to be ready for, or capable of conducting offensive operations.


"Lions led by Donkeys" By all means keep trotting this complete and utter MYTH out, but please remember that each time you do I will remind everyone of the true origins of the phrase - An ex-Tory Cabinet Minister who coined it retrospectively in the 1960s in order to sell a book he had written. "Musket" & Jim Carroll make rather unlikely supporters of anything uttered by an ex-Tory Cabinet Minister and old school Tory Party stalwart purely for his personal gain - just goes to show you doesn't it.

Fusell is simply wrong, knowing the figures right across the board, and looking back with 20 x 20 hindsight, if there was any army of the major combatant powers from 1914 fighting on the "Western Front" (British Empire; France; Germany) in the First World War that I would have had to have served in - then my best chances of surviving would have been in the forces under British/Commonwealth/Empire Command - Anyone wishing to challenge that then these are the "Official" Figures:

British Empire - Population 379.5 million, % deaths 0.27% to 0.32%

Britain alone population 45.4 million, % deaths 1.79% to 2.2%

France - Population 39.6 million, % deaths 4.29% to 4.39%

Germany - Population 64.9 million, % deaths 3.39% to 4.32%

Straightforward military deaths:
Britain - 888,246
France - 1,397,800
Germany - 2,037,000

So if the British were being led by "donkeys" WTF were the others being led by??