WW2 numbers

[Devildoc]

At work, kinda bored. Oh, I have things to do, I just don't want to do them. So I am playing around. I find the sheer size of WW2 just incredible, so here are some numbers:

The army was at 190,000 in 1939, swelled to 1.4 million by December, 1941. By the end of WW2 the army was 8.2 million. I wonder how many basic training bases there were to handle the throughput. Anyone know?

The navy started out at 125,000 in 1939, 337,000 in December, 1941. By the end of WW2, almost 3.4 million.

The navy started with 790 ships (all types) in December, 1941, in August, 1945 they had 6,768.

16 million people serves in WW2.

I cannot fathom the production explosion in facilities, camps, bases, plants, shipyards, etc., that happened so quickly.

 

[Gunz]

Research Starters: US Military by the Numbers | The National WWII Museum | New Orleans

 

[Devildoc]

Research Starters: US Military by the Numbers | The National WWII Museum | New Orleans

@Gunz I got some of my info there.

More:

By 1940, 4 weeks of basic training and additional occupational training was given to recruits by their assigned regiment. (fascinating).

In March 1941, replacement training centers assumed the basic training responsibilities.

By June of 1941, there were 21 replacement training centers giving 13 weeks of basic training to recruits in order that regiments and divisions could carry on training for combat unburdened by giving individual instruction to new men.

Immediately after Pearl Harbor, all units except Armor, Infantry, and Signal Corps cut their replacement training programs from 13 to 8 weeks.

In February 1942, Field Artillery and Cavalry replacement training centers staggered training to get on a 13-week basis after 15 July 1942.

All replacement training center courses were standardized at 13 weeks late in 1942.

The 13-week cycle was broken down into 3 weeks of basic training and 10 weeks of technical training for all specialists in Infantry, Field Artillery, and Cavalry replacement training centers.

A 14-week cycle was approved in June 1943. The additional week was used for tactical training in the field.

In August 1943, the training cycle was established as 17 weeks with the 3 added weeks of instruction devoted to small unit training.

Heavy losses in the Battle of the Bulge caused the training program to be cut from 17 to 15 weeks in December 1944, but the 17-week cycle was reestablished in May 1945 and remained standard until the end of the war with Japan.

-Extracts from The Personnel Replacement System in the United States Army (1954).


USMC boot camp was always at Parris Island or San Diego, 16 weeks long, 8 weeks 'in garrison', 8 weeks in training. At the beginning of WW2, boot camp was 4 weeks at Parris Island and 6 weeks at San Diego, increasing to 8 weeks (prior to moving to the field).

Navy boot camps were at Great Lakes, Il., San Diego, Bainbridge, MD., Newport, RI., then added Norfolk, VA., Samson, NY., and Farragut, ID. for the war.

 

[Devildoc]

Looking at more WW2 info, the Marine Corps had a special school at Parris Island, to bring the, ah, less intellectual recruits up to a 6th grade level. The pushed 1,000 recruits through the program.

So when we're talking about recruitment/retention (cross thread points) and lowering standards, we still have a long way to go until we hit bottom.

 

[Gunz]

…the Marine Corps had a special school at Parris Island, to bring the, ah, less intellectual recruits up to a 6th grade level.

And that is why Krayons were invented.

 

[Gunz]

At work, kinda bored. Oh, I have things to do, I just don't want to do them. So I am playing around. I find the sheer size of WW2 just incredible, so here are some numbers:

The army was at 190,000 in 1939, swelled to 1.4 million by December, 1941. By the end of WW2 the army was 8.2 million. I wonder how many basic training bases there were to handle the throughput. Anyone know?

The navy started out at 125,000 in 1939, 337,000 in December, 1941. By the end of WW2, almost 3.4 million.

The navy started with 790 ships (all types) in December, 1941, in August, 1945 they had 6,768.

16 million people serves in WW2.

I cannot fathom the production explosion in facilities, camps, bases, plants, shipyards, etc., that happened so quickly.

Seriously, the sheer scale of everything is mind-boggling. The media makes a big deal out of D-Day—and it was a big deal—but there were D-Days all over the Pacific and Okinowa eclipsed even Normandy.

What has always struck me are the insane casualty numbers when compared to our more recent wars and conflicts. The Marines had some 5000 KIA’s in just 28 days on Iwo Jima.

 

[Devildoc]

Seriously, the sheer scale of everything is mind-boggling. The media makes a big deal out of D-Day—and it was a big deal—but there were D-Days all over the Pacific and Okinowa eclipsed even Normandy.

What has always struck me are the insane casualty numbers when compared to our more recent wars and conflicts. The Marines had some 5000 KIA’s in just 28 days on Iwo Jima.

70 million people died. I cannot even comprehend that number.

Regarding D-Day, I think a lot of people forget that we had already been fighting in North Africa and in Italy and the Mediterranean, and we had been fighting the Pacific for 2 1/2 years.

 

[Gunz]

70 million people died. I cannot even comprehend that number.

Regarding D-Day, I think a lot of people forget that we had already been fighting in North Africa and in Italy and the Mediterranean, and we had been fighting the Pacific for 2 1/2 years.

Given the state of education today I suspect most people think D-Day, the Holocaust and Hiroshima were the War.

 

[Johca]

Looking at more WW2 info, the Marine Corps had a special school at Parris Island, to bring the, ah, less intellectual recruits up to a 6th grade level. The pushed 1,000 recruits through the program.

So when we're talking about recruitment/retention (cross thread points) and lowering standards, we still have a long way to go until we hit bottom.

Intellect and grade level completed aren't the same. Not having the opportunity to learn to grade level doesn't mean stupidity or lacking ability to learn.

A study conducted in 1930 revealed only 47% of the nation's children were actively enrolled in high school. This contributed to the Civilian Conservation Corps having an education purpose to reduce illiteracy and improve mathematics and other knowledge based skills.

According to the 1940 census, just half of America’s population (132 million plus) had finished eighth grade. Six and four percent of men and women were college graduates.

The Army Air Force expressed concern in the lack of active enrollment in universities and colleges being a problem for generating needed numbers of officers combined with the length of time to get the degrees being a problem. This contributed to Flight Officer and Warrant officer numbers increasing significantly. The situation was a bit more complicated than I disclose, but the remedial training given to get up to grade level was only doable if the capacity to learn quicky (intelligence) was within the person's ability.

Although physical fitness was also a problem existing within the manpower generated by selective service act (conscription/draft) it was quickly determined 8-weeks of rigorous and vigorous physical fitness training resolved that problem.

Both the Army and Army Air Force established remedial training units to get the lesser educated into a productive to the war effort use. Reference: The Army Ground Forces-THE PROCUREMENT AND TRAINING OF GROUND COMBAT TROOPS and other documents written during that war.

 

[Devildoc]

Intellect and grade level completed aren't the same. Not having the opportunity to learn to grade level doesn't mean stupidity or lacking ability to learn.

A study conducted in 1930 revealed only 47% of the nation's children were actively enrolled in high school. This contributed to the Civilian Conservation Corps having an education purpose to reduce illiteracy and improve mathematics and other knowledge based skills.

According to the 1940 census, just half of America’s population (132 million plus) had finished eighth grade. Six and four percent of men and women were college graduates.

The Army Air Force expressed concern in the lack of active enrollment in universities and colleges being a problem for generating needed numbers of officers combined with the length of time to get the degrees being a problem. This contributed to Flight Officer and Warrant officer numbers increasing significantly. The situation was a bit more complicated than I disclose, but the remedial training given to get up to grade level was only doable if the capacity to learn quicky (intelligence) was within the person's ability.

Although physical fitness was also a problem existing within the manpower generated by selective service act (conscription/draft) it was quickly determined 8-weeks of rigorous and vigorous physical fitness training resolved that problem.

Both the Army and Army Air Force established remedial training units to get the lesser educated into a productive to the war effort use. Reference: The Army Ground Forces-THE PROCUREMENT AND TRAINING OF GROUND COMBAT TROOPS and other documents written during that war.

My only reason for bringing it up was compared to the chicken little syndrome today regarding recruiting people who don't have a high school diploma.

My grandfather was not formally educated beyond about 6th grade, drafted for WWI, but was an exceptionally gifted farmer.

 

[Raptor]

The navy started with 790 ships (all types) in December, 1941, in August, 1945 they had 6,768.

“In 1944 alone the Americans launched a force that rivaled in strength the Combined Fleet of December 1941. Such was the scale of the American industrial power that if during the Pearl Harbor attack the Imperial Navy had been able to sink every sink every major unit of if the entire U.S. Navy and then complete its own construction programs without losing a single unit, by mid-1944 it would still not have been able to put to sea a fleet equal to the one that Americans could have assembled in the intervening thirty months.”
– H.P. Willmott

That's not even mentioning the fact that we started slowing down production by that point.