What was the most dangerous place to be

Comparing the men that fought on the ocean (or under), the air or on land? I have read that the infantry was called cannon fodder, but after reading about the giant ships sinking from torpedos, subs sinking and airplanes going down...I think I would pick somewhere on land.

I have spent the last 2 months reading so many WWII books about Tarawa, Burma, Philippines, Iwo Jima, Normandy etc and many about the great ships. I am just curious about other peoples opinions.

Krystal

 

Krystal,

The most dangerous job in the US Army was infantry rifleman. Hence the most dangerous place to be was in the front lines fighting as an infantry rifleman.

Duckbill

 

I am scared to death of the ocean and have also never flown so you can understand my line of thinking just a little!

Wasn't a fighter pilots chances of survival pretty slim as well? It seems I read somewhere their average # of missions was a very small #...wish I could remember it-5 maybe??

Being sunk in the ocean and even if you made it off the ship ok would be terrifying. Who knows how long you'd float. When the ship is being attacked where do you go to take cover? The thought of seeing a topedo heading your way and just praying it misses would be a lot to handle.

 

wanted to add that this is mostly for opinions, I understand Duckbill's comment and agree completely.

 

Krystal, the most dangerous place was the place that was under fire in a battle, no matter if it was at land in an aircraft or an ship. But the badest place to be in my opinion was a U-boat. If they had detected you and started to bomb you, you couldnt get away to hide in a foxhole or another place. Horrible to imagine what happend in such an U-boat after it sunk to the ground and you know you have to drown!!!

Regards

Ulrich

 

A civilian in one of the cities firebombed. Being incinerated is a bad way to go.

 

think I would agree with Ulrich ............ a sub, no thanks

 

I would guess being on a U Boat. Correct me if I am wrong but I seem to have read that the mortality rate on actual crew was near 85%. Casualty rate include deaths, wounded and captured but most U Boat sinking's were fatal.

Ulrich, there is a Type VII U boat at Laboe near Kiel, the only type VII in existence, I believe, as well as a monument to all U Boat crews. More than worth a visit. I am an American and it brought tears to my eyes. So many young men.

I also recall reading where tail gunners on heavy bombers suffered a death rate 4X that of any other station. Sounds high but I have no other evidence to the contrary. Again would like to know an accurate figure. Heavy bomber loses were fairly high, especially the British who flew many more missions.

GB

 

Bomber and sub crews would have lost the greater % of those involved, surely.

Maybe fighter pilots would be next.

There were millions of Infantry soldiers, and I doubt their % losses would have surpassed the others.

 

A dangerous place I think would be at sea. If the ship gets attacked by torpedo.. there is only one place to go.. it's down... The lucky ones who survive by jumping ship could only hope that someone will find them and save them from the freezing waters.



i think a dangerous underestimated job was to be a medic/doctor on the battlefield. having to dodge bullets , hidden land mines and falling bombs to get to an injured comrade in the middle of the battlefield then haviing to carry the patient back to safety.

 

Barring Kamikaze and other suicide units, that were designed to have 100% losses, the German subs are probably the worst. Interestingly "special ops" units like SAS or the Regia Marina's decima MAS had lower percentage losses than the U-Boats despite the high risk ops they performed.
On the land side I would go for mine or bomb clearing units, contrary to bomber crews that were "retired" if they managed to survive a certain number of missions they were facing bad odds again and again. Even if they didn't always operate under fire, AFAIK it was the exception to the rule as enemy fire would turn a difficult task into an impossible one, it was still a very high risk job.

 

U-boats definately...Being a ranger, having to scale pointe du hoc, being shot at, and hoping/praying it's gonna miss, what truly brave guys took on that task...and many paid the ultimate price too....

 

I think I'd rather be a Ranger at Pointe du Hoc, than a Marine at Tarawa having to wade a half mile to shore under small arms, machine gun, sniper, mortar and artillery fire. Tarawa also had the highest ratio of killed to wounded in the Pacific theater.

 

Fighting in Burma or being a merchant marine. Or just being in the Japanese army.

 

In a sub or being in a bomber crew. Didn´t the Allied lose some 50,000+ men in the bombers? That´s more than the axis sub losses...

 

The most dangerous place to be during WW2 is...

Anywhere you have incoming fire.

Still, I would take U-Boats any day of the week over a Japanese POW Camp.

 

Hi gtblackwell,

yes i know the "Laboe Mahnmal". And it has the same effect to me to read the names of the killed crews as it have seeing the long endless rows of graves at the Normandy graveyards. You couldn´t resist the tears. Hopefully it will never happen again.

Regards

Ulrich

 

Simple, each place had its 'safe places' and 'dangerous places'

 

Not trying to redirect the OP but is there a site that shows casualties by particular types of combat ? We all seem to be just reacting to what we think and now I am really curious . To me the most dangerous place is not based on total casualties but the percent of those committed who became casualties. Were you in more danger in a heavy bomber or in a U Boat which is quite different from total casualties.

It seems what were your chances of survival . It is of course very complicated. At what point in the war, how many missions were required was vastly different, do you figure casualties per sortie, for example. On a percent of casualties per mission over the course of the war I would still guess the men of the U Boat Service.

Any one have firm figures? ( That does not sound right !)

GB