Cant help but wonder on these facts?. From http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_many_America..._in_World_War_2

How many soldiers were in the American military before Pearl Harbor and how many were there at the end of the war?

First answer by 84.26.52.179. Last edit by Chris. Contributor trust: 1763 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 60 [recommend question]

Answer

Before the Pearl Harbor attack there were some 120,000 badly trained American soldiers. At the end of the war the USA had about 16 million under arms (most of them reservists); about 4 million Americans were in military action in Europe (against Germany and Italy) and half a million men were in action in the Pacific (against the Japanese). "

Does this sound possible that ony about one quarter of our troops were sent overseas?

Does this sound plausable?

One thing I have to alert everyone to, is the fact that Wikipedia can't be taken at face value. The problem is, is that it is a "community" encyclopedia, and anyone who signs up for an account can change the information, or add to it. Therefore, you should always consult other sites for historical facts.

That is not to say that all their info is faulty, but I would not count on them to be the number one source for factual data.

Actually here their numbers are darned close (16,000,000)

The World War II Museum in New Orleans is a much better source of info. Here are some U.S. stats from that period:

http://www.nationalww2museum.org/education...on_numbers.html

World War II by the Numbers

List of Casualties

Total deaths in WWII? 54,770,000

How many civilians died in WWII? 38,573,000

How many Americans died in WWII? 292,131

How many Americans died on D-Day? 3393

How many casualties (deaths, wounded and prisoners) were there on D-Day? 6,603

How many Americans died on Iwo Jima? 7,000

How Many Americans died on Okinawa? 12,000

How many Americans died in the Pacific? 51,983

How many members of the Japanese military died during WWII? 1,140,429

How many Japanese civilians died in WWII? Variously estimated from 700,000-10,000,000

How many Soviets died in WWII? 7,720,000

How many British died in WWII? 300,000

How many French died in WWII? 173,260

How many Italians died in WWII? 93,000

How many Polish died in WWII? 6,028,000

Home Front

How many boats were produced by Higgins Industries for WWII?

12,964 Navy crafts or (92%) were built by Higgins.

NOTE: 8,865 of those were built in the New Orleans plant.

How many conscientious objectors were there performing alternative service? 37,000

How many Victory Gardens were planted? 20,000,000

How many women worked in defense industries? 6,500,000

Military

How many Americans served in each branch of the military in 1944?

Army 7,994,750

Navy 2,981,365

Marines 475,604

How many Americans were drafted? 11,535,000 (61.2%)

How many Americans volunteered for service? 6,332,000 (38%)

What was the peak strength of U.S. armed forces

during WWII? 12,364,000

What was the peak strength of German armed forces

during WWII? 10,000,000

(including Austria)

What was the peak strength of French armed forces

during WWII? 5,000,000

What was the peak strength of USSR armed forces

during WWII? 12,500,000

What was the peak strength of UK armed forces

during WWII? 4,683,000

What was the peak strength of Japanese armed forces

during WWII? 6,095,000

Pearl Harbor

How many people were killed? 2,403

How many people were wounded? 1,104

How many planes and ships were destroyed or damaged? 188 planes

8 battleships

3 light cruisers

3 destroyers

4 smaller vessels

Women in the War

How many women served in the U.S. military? 350,000

How many African-American women served in the Army? 4,000

African Americans in WWII

How many African Americans served in the military in WWII? 1,200,000

How many African American Medal of Honor recipients were there? 7 total, 6 received their

awards posthumously.

The soldiers received the Medal several decades after the War due to racial disparities identified in a study of the selection methods for the Medal called

the Shaw Study.

Japanese Americans

How many Japanese were interned in the U.S. ? 110,000

How many internment camps were there? 10 Permanent Camps,

16 Temporary Camps

How many Japanese Americans served in the US military? 33,000

Hispanic Americans

How many Hispanic Americans served in the U.S. military during WWII? Between 250,000

and 500,000 .

NOTE: These estimates are rough because at the time, the military categorized Hispanics under the same heading as whites. The only racial groups to have separate stats kept were Blacks and Asians.

The Cost of War

How much did the War cost the U.S.? $288,000,000,000

How much did the War cost Germany? $212,336,000,000

How much did the War cost France? $111,272,000,000

How much did the War cost U.S.S.R.? $93,012,000,000

How much did the War cost U.K.? $49,786,000,000

How much did the War cost Japan? $41,272,000,000

Direct economic costs of WWII? $1,600,000,000,000

How much was the average base pay for:

Servicemen? $71.33 per month

Officers? $203.50 per month

Awards

How many Medals of Honor were awarded during WWII? 464 Medals

How many purple hearts were earned during WWII? 800,000 to 1,000,000

The Holocaust

How many Jews were killed under Nazi rule? 5,993,900

How many non-Jews were killed in the Holocaust? Between 16 and 20 million (including the elderly, Gypsies, Jehovah's Witnesses, Homosexuals, etc.).

How many people were killed at Auschwitz ?

How many Nazi concentration camps were there? More than 100 camps.

How many Nazi death camps were there? 26 major camps .

NOTE : There were thousands of camps and sub-camps however according to the U.S. Holocaust Museum .