The most dangerous job in WWII?

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LWD
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Re: The most dangerous job in WWII?

#31

Post by LWD » 26 Sep 2011, 14:34

Berthier92 wrote:
JonS wrote:
Berthier92 wrote:I reckon being in an M4 Sherman was the most dangerous job.
You'd be wrong. Very very wrong.

Allied tankers had a excellent survival rate, vastly better than their infantry counterparts who only had a layer of cotton or wool between themselves and anything the enemy chose to throw at them.

Even in tank-vs-tank actions (which was anyway a statistical anomaly as an event) the casualty rate was on the order of 1 KIA and 1 WIA per KO'd Sherman. A 66% survival rate in the worst possible circumstances - one which most crews never faced - is not terribly dangerous by the standards of WWII.

you may have that from your statistics but i've talked to a Canadian Sherman tank Veteran, and he said, the thing about the sherman was that if a shell past through the turret, and you werent shredded by the shrapnell, you tended to die because the shells impact buckled the main and emergancy hatches and you were trapped in a flaming tank,
That just proves that you don't want to be in a tank that has suffered a penetrating hit. I do wonder why a turret hit would buckle the underbelly emergency hatch though. Historically more tankers were lost outside their tanks after abandoning them I believe.
The Germans didn't name Shermans "Tommy Cookers" for no reasons
This has been dealt with quite a few times.

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Re: The most dangerous job in WWII?

#32

Post by JonS » 05 Oct 2011, 22:48

Berthier92 wrote:you may have that from your statistics but ...
So, you mean to tell me that men die in truly horrible ways in a war? Thanks, I hadn't realised that.

What you may not have realised is that this thread is about "the most dangerous job in WWII" rather than "the worst way to die in WWII.' It's an easy mistake to make though, so it's not really your fault. If only threads had a title to help readers understand what they were about.


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Re: The most dangerous job in WWII?

#33

Post by Berthier92 » 07 Oct 2011, 14:41

ok ok ok, english is my third language, im sorry and lets get back on topic
3rd Recon battalion ,DAK , First in Tripoli, First at front

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Re: The most dangerous job in WWII?

#34

Post by Kingfish » 07 Oct 2011, 21:11

JonS wrote: If only threads had a title to help readers understand what they were about.
That may not be enough, especially with long threads that tend to go off on tangents. What you would really need is a 'sticky' of the thread title above each post, but that might be too difficult to code.

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Re: The most dangerous job in WWII?

#35

Post by SvenHassel. » 07 Oct 2011, 21:23

I read many books,but as far as I think one of the dangerous jobs were the pioneers who wielded flamethrowers,1 shot in the tank and they were crispy critter or also the same pioneers with minesweepers.Also only 1% of tank crews survived the war.

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Re: The most dangerous job in WWII?

#36

Post by LWD » 07 Oct 2011, 21:48

SvenHassel. wrote:... Also only 1% of tank crews survived the war.
I'd sure like to see a source on that. Seems really excessive to me.

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Re: The most dangerous job in WWII?

#37

Post by Christoph Awender » 07 Oct 2011, 21:49

Hello,
I read many books,but as far as I think one of the dangerous jobs were the pioneers who wielded flamethrowers,1 shot in the tank and they were crispy critter or also the same pioneers with minesweepers.Also only 1% of tank crews survived the war.
Well weren´t the most realistic books I guess.
1 shot in the tank and they were crispy critter
as well as a shot into the head... or into the heart or.....
also the same pioneers with minesweepers
So you think that engineers cleared mines with minesweepers under enemy fire?
Also only 1% of tank crews survived the war
Maybe you have a source for this?

/Christoph

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Re: The most dangerous job in WWII?

#38

Post by SvenHassel. » 08 Oct 2011, 09:01

Christoph Awender wrote:Hello,
I read many books,but as far as I think one of the dangerous jobs were the pioneers who wielded flamethrowers,1 shot in the tank and they were crispy critter or also the same pioneers with minesweepers.Also only 1% of tank crews survived the war.
Well weren´t the most realistic books I guess.
1 shot in the tank and they were crispy critter
as well as a shot into the head... or into the heart or.....
Yes right,but in the head is a little more hard to hit than in the gas tank
also the same pioneers with minesweepers
So you think that engineers cleared mines with minesweepers under enemy fire?
No they didnt did under enemy fire,but still you couldnt rely fully on those minesweepers,and if one soldier already is on a mine,the pioneers job was to dig around the mine and demorse it
Also only 1% of tank crews survived the war
Maybe you have a source for this?
That i seen at a documentary about Battle of the Bulge,was an american veteran saying it
/Christoph

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Re: The most dangerous job in WWII?

#39

Post by Christoph Awender » 08 Oct 2011, 20:46

Yes right,but in the head is a little more hard to hit than in the gas tank
You think so? It seems your knowledge comes mainly from Hollywood movies. Two things... in a battle situation it is for sure not easier to hit the tank of a flamethrower than the head. Check reliable sources if the tank really explodes if hit or if just the flamethrower liquid pours out of the hole, or if there is a fire or really a explosion like in movies.
No they didnt did under enemy fire,but still you couldnt rely fully on those minesweepers,and if one soldier already is on a mine,the pioneers job was to dig around the mine and demorse it

SO? I thought Pionier was the most dangerous job? The infantry soldier walking on a mine is out of danger??
First.... you have to look on the situation.. a road or area mined by a retreating or not present enemy will be cleared by pionier teams with the usual mine sweeping equipment (if the enemy mine is of a certain type). They have time and that was not more or less dangerous than any other "frontline job". Second is the situation when assault teams engage an enemy defense system. The Pioniere will prepare several teams for clearing obstacles, wires, ditches etc.. and teams which crawl forward .. centimeter for centimeter and search the ground for mines either with special sticks or knives. Another possibility was that the artillery fires on a corridor which is then searched a little faster.
That i seen at a documentary about Battle of the Bulge,was an american veteran saying it
And after thinking about that with a little bit common sense you believe it?

/Christoph

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Re: The most dangerous job in WWII?

#40

Post by Mark V » 08 Oct 2011, 21:16

For a larger group, an arm of armed forces (comparative to Bomber Command, US Marines, etc...)..

German U-boatwaffe. Something like 40.000 men went to combat patrol, and 28.000 died.


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Re: The most dangerous job in WWII?

#41

Post by Mark V » 08 Oct 2011, 21:29

For smaller units, but much more men involved than in U-boat crews:

- German strafbattalion and Soviet shtrafbat punishment batallions in Eastern Front

At least in Soviet side they could normally gain freedom by "cleansing with blood".

Tramping routes to own advancing troops through enemy minefields was typical chore. Killed/maimed by APERS mines, shot by enemy, and shot by their commanders with machineguns if taking one step back.

In Soviet side hundreds of thousands men served on those units, and few survived till the end of war.


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Re: The most dangerous job in WWII?

#42

Post by AVV » 09 Oct 2011, 14:15

Hello!
Mark V wrote:German U-boatwaffe
A small addition - starting from approximately late 1942.

Best regards, Aleks

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Re: The most dangerous job in WWII?

#43

Post by ChristopherPerrien » 09 Oct 2011, 15:35

Kamikaze pilot

Chris

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Re: The most dangerous job in WWII?

#44

Post by IvanSR » 09 Oct 2011, 18:04

being part of the Galahad Force in Burma (a unit also known as Merrill's Marauders). The same with most of the special operations units in WW2, Commandos, etc.

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Re: The most dangerous job in WWII?

#45

Post by Mark V » 10 Oct 2011, 18:56

AVV wrote:Hello!
Mark V wrote:German U-boatwaffe
A small addition - starting from approximately late 1942.

Best regards, Aleks
Hello. I may be wrong, haven't digged the statistics on that matter, but i think the kill ratio remains the same. The (smallish) number of U-boat crews that went to the job already in early war years just managed to get several war patrols under their belt, before they died, like their newly trained comrades.

Some lucky few got promoted away from sea. Some got jobs as trainers of new crews. Some were deemed unsuitable to job, and went to less demanding jobs, but in any case, the U-boatwaffe suffered horribly. The tally is partly so high because submariners of an given boat, more often than not, all survive, or all die. That is also seed to special kind of comradeship between crew members.


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