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FACTS & FIGURES The following are a collection of statistics on the cost of the war in Italy in man-power, casualties, and equipment, including some minor facts about logistics. Note: "Casualties" refers to the total number of men that were killed, wounded and missing in action. |
Troop Strength
Number of Divisions in Italy SYMBOL = 1 DIVISIONNOTE: German divisions were not up to full strength after Spring 1944.
Oct 1943
ALLIED INVASIONGerman Allied
..
..Spring 1944
CASSINO FRONTGerman Allied
..
..Summer 1944 German Allied
..
..Fall 1944
GOTHIC LINE
German
Allied
..
[ 5 ITALIAN]
.
Spring 1945
German
Allied..
[ 5 ITALIAN]
..
[ + SEVERAL INDEPENDANT REGIMENTS & BRIGADES]
Spring 1945, Allies strength was equal to the Germans and Italians but the Allies had the
advantage of armor, air power and fresh troops.REFERENCES:
"War in Italy, 1943-1945" - by Field Marshall Lord Carver.
"15th Army Group History: 16 December 1944 - 2 May 1945" - Battery Press, 1989.
"Cassino to the Alps", by Ernest F. Fisher, Jr.; US Army in WW2 History Series, 1977
Casualties
The Italian Campaign - 9 Sept 1943 -- 2 May 1945
Days in Combat = 601
27 Divisions served under the 5th Army command at one time or another.
Enemy POW's = 212,112
5th Army Casualties in Italy - 9 Sept 1943 -- 2 May 1945Notes: This data is for only the US and foriegn troops that served under the command of the 5th Army.
KIA WIA MIA Sub-Total Effecitve
Strength 1
Replacements
2
USA
19,475 80,530 9,637 109,642 179,312 144,879 British 6,605 29,977 10,870 47,452 48,818 67,451 Brazilian 275 1,901 235 2,211 14,841 3,989 Italian
290 770 510 1,570 31,134 1,909 French 3 5,241 20,847 1,583 27,671 ----
----
TOTALs
31,886 133,825 22,835 188,546 274,105 218,228
1 Effective Strength as of 2 May 1945.
2 Total Replacements during this period.
3 French troops were transferred out of the Italian Campaign.
Operation DIADEM May 11 - May 16, 1944 SYMBOL = 1000 MENPWs = Prisoners of War
US Fifth Army 17,931 .. British 8th Army 11,639 . . German Army 38,000 ..
. .German PWs 15,606 . .
Losses of II Corps - 3,000 men; 1,100 were from 85th 'Custer' Division.
Casualty Facts & Figures
Salerno
Landing - Sept 9 -16, 1943
British X
Corps
531 KIA 1,915 WIA
1,561 MIA
U.S. VI
Corps
225 KIA 835
WIA
589 MIA
British deployed twice as many troops as the Americans
Rapido
River - Jan 1944. In forty-eight hours the 141st
and
143d Infantry regiments of the 36th "Texas" Division had suffered 2,128
casualties: 155 KIA, 1,052 WIA, and 921 MIA. Enemy losses were
negligible.
Anzio Landing
- Jan 22, 1944
Amphibious
Force: 50,000 men and 5,200 vehicles
27 Infantry Battalions (or about the size at Salerno)
Total Landed by Midnight: 36,034 troops and
3,067 vehicles.
Allied Casualties - 1st Day: KIA 13,
WIA 97, MIA 47.
Anzio Campaign Jan - March 1944
Statistics for British 1st
Division
at Anzio, over 6 months
Officers
100 KIA 295 WIA
Enlisted Men
1,030 KIA 4,653 WIA
Statistics for casualties in 4 months among Medical personnel: KIA 92 (including 6 nurses); WIA 367; MIA or PW 79.
German
losses
after 2 days of heavy fighting for control of Anzio.
KIA 188,
WIA 465, MIA 443 (mostly from Herman Goering Division)
Cassino
- Allies intelligence estimated the casualty rate for one
month(Jan?)
as 800 Officers & 1480 men.
For month of April & May: 10,000 men per month.
Sicily
Friendly Fire - July 11, 1943 - 144 C-47 troop a/c carrying
2,060 paratroopers of the US 82nd Airborne Division was fired on by
about
5000 guns from friendly ships off the coast. Resulted in 229
casualties,
23 a/c destroyed and 37 a/c badly damaged.
Same period,
the British sent 144 gliders into Sicily. 70 gliders fell short
of
coast into the sea. Only 87 paratroopers reached their objective.
German
Cemeteries - German troops buried at these
cemeteries:
Pomezia German
Cemetery
27,432 buried
Cassino
Cemetery
20,043 buried
Logistics
Support Ships for amphibious landings
Salerno Sept 9 1943 | Anzio Jan 23, 1944 |
33
British LCT's 56th British Div 33 American LCT's 45th British Div 34 LCI's VI
Corps &
36th Div
3 Light
Cruisers |
2 Command ships 5 Cruisers 24 Destroyers 2 Anti-A/C ship 2 Gunboats 23 Mine-sweepers 32 Sub-chasers 6 Repair Ships 16 Landing Craft 4 Liberty Ships 8 LSI 84 LST 96 LCI 50 LCT |
General
- An army of 1/2 Million men required 68 Liberty ships of
supplies to support it each Month.
Sicily
Landings - July 1943 Allied
landing
employed
7 Divisions with 3000 ships.
During
121
days at Anzio, 3,801 Tons of
supplies
were lost due to shelling or 31.4 tons
per
day.
Anzio was
supplied by 1,500 Trucks(1/2-ton), or 350-400 trucks per day
carriying
1750-2000 tons.
ULTRA
intercepted
Gen. Kesselring's orders to Gen Mackensen on Jan
28. From this intelligence, the Allies could gain an idea
of the German armor strength at Anzio:
25 Mark III
Tanks
20 Mark VI Tiger Tanks
25 Assault
Guns
90 Anti-Tank Guns
XII
Air Command air power in December 1943 for use in ground attack
included:
72 B-25 and 24 A-20
bombers plus 130 A-36
and
48 P-40 fighter-bombers.
Bombing
of Cassino -
Feb
15-20, 1944
B-17 142 a/c dropped 287 Tons of 500-lb bombs & 600
Tons
of 100-lb incendary bombs.
B-25 47 a/c and B-26 40
a/c
dropped 100 Tons of High Explosives.
Bombing
of town of Cassino
- March 15, 1944
338 Heavy bombers and 176 Medium bombers dropped 1,100 Tons of bombs.
300 Fighter Bombers
280 Fighters flew cover
610 Artillery guns fired 1200 tons of shells.
Artillery Barrage
of Cassino-
Feb
15-20, 1944 - 2500 Tons of Artillery fired
or 3 Tons of bombs for each German paratrooper killed defending Cassino.
(This
ratio may be mis-leading. I don't know if this figure covers the
bombs dropped on the Abbey of Cassino, the town of Cassino or the
entire
front. If it included the bombs dropped on the Abbey, then that
is
why the ratio is so large; the intent of the bombing of the Abbey was
to
destroy the structure and not enemy troops.)
Support
for Anzio Beach - The critical factor of the Anzio landing
was the availability of landing craft, such as LST's and LCI's.
The
landing craft were needed for the up-coming Normandy invasion.
The
commanders tried to predict the number of LST's required to maintain
the
supplies on to the Anzio beachead. During the Tunis Conference,
the
commanders promised to release 56 LST's back to UK by 15 January.
The Anzio landing was 22 January, which was resulted in losses of
several
ships and continued re-supply for a few weeks.
Required 3000 Tons per Day
Limited to 2500 Tons per Day based on available LST.
Rushed 7000 Tons per Day in order to
build
up the supplies before LSTs returned back to UK.
Decrease 4225 Tons per Day due to weather.
Cassino - After multiple air assaults and the firing of 600,000 artillery shells, the assaults on Cassino by the New Zealand Corps was halted on 23 March, 1944 that resulted in 1,316 New Zealander casualties and 3,000 Indian casualties,
Operation DIADEM- May 11, 1944 - 3,500 Tons of Artillery fired along the GUSTAV Line.
REFERENCES:
Some data is from the Center for Military History website which is a
summary
of the US Army in WW2 publications.
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