Mobilization & Manpower figures of WWII

[newaxis]

http://www.emayzine.com/lectures/WWII.html

A total of 110 million persons were mobilized for military service, more than half of those by three countries: the USSR (22-30 million), Germany (17 million), and the United States (16 million). For the major participants the largest numbers on duty at any one time were as follows: USSR (12,500,000); U.S. (12,245,000); Germany (10,938,000); British Empire and Commonwealth (8,720,000); Japan (7,193,000); and China (5,000,000).

[MrWeasely]

What about China? I heard the nationalist forces had 300 divisions... not that they used them much.

[newaxis]

The figures for China are hard to know for several reasons including 1) the civil unrest/factional fighting 2) the fluid nature of the armies. Somewhat like present day Iraq, some people in the army melted back into the civilian population when a hostile force came into town in order to preserve their lives. 3) Lack of record keeping 4) Scale of conflict. Japanese soldiers killed an enormous number of Chinese 5) Poorly equipped A man that owns a musket does not necessarily count as a soldier all the time. Much like the "Minute Men" of the American Revolutionary War, China had people that owned guns and were more like a militia than an army, which makes counting figures hard to calculate.

[Caractacus]

Why have you posted this, Newaxis? Is it in response to something, or are you wanting us to contribute further figures, or what?

[newaxis]

General information. I see a lot of people spouting off really bad figures, and would like to see some basic information known to all about WWII.

[Maj.Striker]

That seems about right overall for figures...coincides with about every number I've seen on WW2. More important that the numbers mobilized are the numbers lost however....