Wikipedia

American units with the highest percentage of casualties per conflict

(Redirected from Surviving American units with the highest percentage of casualties per conflict)

During warfare, some units take more casualties than other units. Sometimes, the casualty rate is disproportionately high. This article displays the highest percentage of casualties among American units, including those wiped out as an effective force.

The term casualty in warfare can often be confusing. It often refers not to those that are killed on the battlefield but to those who can no longer fight. That can include disabled by injuries, disabled by psychological trauma, captured, deserted, or missing. A casualty is just a soldier who is no longer available for the immediate battle or campaign, the major consideration in combat. The number of casualties is simply the number of members of a unit who are not available for duty. For example, during the Seven Days Battles in the American Civil War (June 25 to July 1, 1862) there were 5,228 killed, 23,824 wounded and 7,007 missing or taken prisoner for a total of 36,059 casualties.[1][note 1] The word casualty has been used in a military context since at least 1513.[2]

Battles edit

Unit Conflict Deployment Unit size KIA WIA MIA POW Total Casualty rate (%) Opposing force Fate
1st Infantry Regiment 1791 Battle of Wabash November 4, 1791
(1 day of combat) 		900 632 264 896[3] 99.56 Northwestern Confederacy
inclu. Cherokee, Delaware and others 		Unit effectively destroyed, later replenished. A House of Representatives investigation was carried out to investigate the disaster, being the first Congressional Special Committee investigation.[4]
1st Minnesota Infantry Regiment 2nd day of Battle of Gettysburg July 2, 1863 262 0 0 215 [5] [note 2] 82   Confederacy Survivors reinforced by remaining companies of the regiment. Captured the 28th Virginia Colors at Picketts Charge the next day. Continued to serve in the Army of the Potomac until completion of enlistment on April 29, 1864. Majority of veterans formed the core of the new 1st Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Battalion.[9][10]
7th Cavalry Regiment Battle of the Little Bighorn June 25–26, 1876 700~ 268 59 0 0 327 [11] 45~ Combined Native American Army

  Arapaho tribe
  Cheyenne tribe
Lakota tribes

 Unit effectively destroyed as a fighting force on 26 June 1876. Later replenished
4th Marine Regiment Battle of Corregidor May 5–6, 1942
(2 days of combat) 		~4,000 315[12] 357[12] 15[12] 1,388[13] ~4,000[14] Nearly Total[14]   Japan 4th Marine Regiment was destroyed only a few surviving Marines and personnel made up what was left of the regiment.[14]The regiment was dissolved by Gen. Wainwright by his own will. Unit re-established in February 1944.
36th Infantry Division Attack across the Gari River January 22–24, 1944
(2 days of combat)[15] 		6,000 143 663 875 1,681[16] 28.01   Germany 141st and 143rd Infantry Regiments destroyed as a fighting force.[15] US Congress investigation to establish responsibility for the disaster in 1946.[17]
1st, 3rd and 4th Ranger Battalion Battle of Cisterna January 30, 1944
(1 day of combat) 		767 311 450 761[18][19] 99   Germany 1st, 3rd and 4th Ranger Battalions destroyed.[20]1st Ranger Battalion reconstituted on 1 September 1948.[21]3rd Ranger Battalion redesignated on 21 June 1954. 4th Ranger Battalion disbanded.[20]
1st Marine Regiment Battle of Peleliu September 15–21, 1944
(7 days of combat)[15] 		~3,000 1,749[22][15] 58[15]   Japan Regiment relieved from combat, ineffective as a fighting force but not broken.[15]
28th Infantry Division Battle of Hürtgen Forest September 19, 1944 16,266 6,184[15] 38.01   Germany 28th Infantry Division destroyed as a fighting force. Unit withdrawn for action. Later replentished.[15]
2nd Infantry Division Battle of the Ch'ongch'on River November 26–30, 1950
(4 days of combat)[15] 		~14,000 4,163[15] 30[15]   China
  North Korea 		Major General Laurence B. Keiser commander of 2nd Infantry Division was relieved from command by the end of the battle.[23]

US units with most casualties per conflict edit

Unit Conflict Deployment Unit size KIA WIA MIA POW Total Casualty rate (%) Opposing force
1st Minnesota Volunteer Infantry American Civil War Apr 29, 1861 - Apr 28, 1864 286 609 895   Confederacy
1st Infantry Division (United States) World War I October 23, 1917 - Nov 11, 1918
 4,964 17,201 1,056 23,221   German Empire
Harlem Hellfighters World War I Apr 8 - Nov 11, 1918
(191 days at the front) 		3,832 [note 3] 1500 [25] 40~   German Empire
3rd Infantry Division World War II Nov 8, 1942-May 8, 1945
(553 days of combat) 		6,000 4,922 18,766 554 1735 25,977[26]   Germany

  Vichy France
 Italian Social Republic
1943–1945
  Kingdom of Italy
1942–1943

1st Marine Division[note 4][27] Korean War 1950-1953 4,004[27] 25,864[27] 29,868[27]   China
  North Korea
1st Cavalry Division[28][note 5][29] Vietnam War Aug 1965 - Aug 1972 [note 6] 5,444 26,592 32,036 [31]   North Vietnam

  Viet Cong

14th Quartermaster Detachment[note 7] Gulf War 1990-1991 69 13 43 0 0 56 81.0   Iraq
3rd Battalion, 5th Marines War in Afghanistan 2001-2011 950 25 150 175 [32] 18.4   Taliban

See also edit

Notes edit

  1. ^ Union and Confederate numbers added together
  2. ^ The 215 casualty figure is disputed. Morning muster on July 2 for the eight companies (A,B,D,E,G,H,I & K) involved in the suicidal attack was 262, and evening muster on the same day was 47. To arrive at the casualty figure of 215, the Regimental Historian (Lt. Wm. Lochren) subtracted the muster figures (262-47=215)(82.1%) and asserted that "[every one of the] 215 [missing men] lay upon the field."[5] Conducting an enumeration by individual names in 1982, Robert W. Meinhard of Winona State University accounted for only 179 (68.3%) casualties for the single day of July 2, 1863.[6][7] Presumably, Meinhard's and Lochren's conclusions are each based upon the same handwritten records from the regiment; accounting for the disputed 36 (=215-179) soldiers is the prerogative of the reader.[8]
  3. ^ 1915 to 1917 infantry regiments grew from 959 to 3,720 men and 112 officers [24]
  4. ^ 1st Marine Division was the unit with most casualties suffered during the Korean War with 29,868; including 4,004 KIA and 25,864 wounded. Regarding killed in action the 2nd Infantry Division was the unit with the highest ratio with 7,094 KIA and 16,575 wounded.
  5. ^ 1st Cavalry Division was the unit with most casualties suffered during the Vietnam War with 32,036; including 5,444 KIA and 26,592 wounded. Regarding killed in action the 1st Marine Division was the unit with the highest ratio with 7,012 KIA.
  6. ^ 1/9 Cavalry Major Donald Radcliff, the 1st Cavalry's first combat death, who was killed on 18 August 1965 while supporting U.S. Marines in his helicopter gunship during Operation Starlite.[30]
  7. ^ The 14th Quartermaster Detachment suffered the greatest number of casualties of any allied unit during Operation Desert Storm when an Iraqi Al Hussein Scud missile destroyed the installations the unit was located, after the failure in a Patriot air defense system that did not tracked the Iraqi missile location.

References edit

  1. ^ Tucker 2013, p. 892
  2. ^ Oxford English Dictionary, Second Edition, gives a 1513 reference for military casualty, and an 1844 reference for civilian use.
  3. ^ "The Old Northwest Territory: America's First Great Westward Expansion". Norfolk Towne Assembly. 7 May 2021. Retrieved 30 August 2021.
  4. ^ Buffenbarger, Thomas E. (15 September 2011). "St. Clair's Campaign of 1791: A Defeat in the Wilderness That Helped Forge Today's U.S. Army". U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center. Retrieved 21 November 2015.
  5. ^ a b Holcombe & Searles 1916, p. 345
  6. ^ Maciejewski 2011, p. 50
  7. ^ Meinhard, Robert W. (20 May 1982). "Letter to Tom Harrison, Chief Historian, Gettysburg National Military Park". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help) cited in Moe, Richard (1993). The Last Full Measure: The Life and Death of the First Minnesota Volunteers. St. Paul, MN: Minnesota Historical Society Press. p. 275. ISBN 978-087351406-4.
  8. ^ Meinhard 1991
  9. ^ "History - Minnesota Infantry (Part 1)". www.civilwararchive.com. Retrieved 2022-07-10.
  10. ^ "The First Minnesota At Gettysburg". www.gdg.org. Retrieved 2022-07-10.
  11. ^ Murray 2004, p. 113
  12. ^ a b c Hough, Frank O. "Chapter 3: The Siege and Capture of Corregidor". Pearl Harbor to Guadalcanal History of U.S. Marine Corps Operations in World War II Volume I.
  13. ^ Hough, Frank O. "Chapter 3: The Siege and Capture of Corregidor". Pearl Harbor to Guadalcanal History of U.S. Marine Corps Operations in World War II Volume I.
  14. ^ a b c Leatherneck Magazine, 4th Marines explore historic Philippine battle site, 1 February 2007.
  15. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wainstein, Leonard (1 April 1986). THE RELATIONSHIP OF BATTLE DAMAGE AND UNIT COMBAT PERFORMANCE (PDF). Institute for Defense Analyses, elaborated for US DOD.
  16. ^ Whiting, Charles (2001). America's Forgotten Army: The True Story of the U.S. Seventh Army in WWII. New York City: MacMillan. pp. 54–55.
  17. ^ Schultz, Duane (2012). "Rage Over the Rapido". History Net.
  18. ^ Zaloga S. (2005), p. 44
  19. ^ Gerolymatos, André (25 October 2016). An International Civil War: Greece, 1943-1949. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-18230-9.
  20. ^ a b Cawthorne, Nigel, The Mammoth Book of Inside the Elite Forces, Robinson, 2008 ISBN 1845298217 ISBN 978-1845298210
  21. ^ "Department of the Army, Lineage and Honors, 1st Battalion 75th Ranger Regiment". Lineage And Honors Information. Army Center of Military History. 26 March 2013. Retrieved 25 March 2014.
  22. ^ Sledge, Eugene B. (1990). With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa. Oxford University Press. p. 155. ISBN 0-19-506714-2.
  23. ^ Appleman, Roy (1989). Disaster in Korea: The Chinese Confront MacArthur. Vol. 11. College Station, TX: Texas A and M University Military History Series. pp. 290–291. ISBN 978-1-60344-128-5.
  24. ^ Woodward 2014, p. 108
  25. ^ Nelson 2009, pp. 203–4.
  26. ^ Army Battle Casualties and Nonbattle Deaths (Statistical and Accounting Branch, Office of the Adjutant General), 1 June 1953
  27. ^ a b c d L. Collier, Rebecca (2003). "The Korean War. Reference Information Paper 103" (PDF). National Archives Records. Appendix C p. 228
  28. ^ Stanton, Shelby, L., Anatomy of a Division: The 1st Cav in Vietnam, Presidio Press, CA (1987).
  29. ^ Harrison, Scott (29 April 2019). "From the Archives: President Nixon welcomes Marines home from Vietnam". Los Angeles Times.
  30. ^ Kelley, Michael (2002). Where we were in Vietnam. Hellgate Press. pp. 5–434. ISBN 978-1555716257.
  31. ^ Willbanks 2013, p. 530
  32. ^ Walker 2011

Sources edit

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=American_units_with_the_highest_percentage_of_casualties_per_conflict&oldid=1206435978"