What the record shows

 

World War II vets are almost all gone now, as is, some might say, their spirit and service. We do well to remember them, and the horrors of the war they fought. 

A friend of mine sent me a mime a few days ago--about a dozen pictures from World War II, each of them accompanied by a startling fact about that war. Several concerned what is now often called Germany's "Eastern Front." Historians often claim that the Wehrmacht never really recovered from immense losses they took from the Russian bear. Numbers were beyond imagination. Here are a few of the pics--and the shocking facts.

 Four out of every five Germans killed in World War II died on the Eastern Front.

The Siege of Stalingrad resulted in more Russian deaths (military and civilian) 
than the United States and Britain sustained, combined, in all of World War II. 

Only 20 percent of the males born in the Soviet Union in 1923 survived the war. 

The mortality rate for Russian POWs in German camps was 85 percent.

Total casualties for World War II totaled between 50 - 70 million people, 
80 percent of which came from only four countries - Russia, China, Germany and Poland.  Over 50 percent of the casualties were civilians, with the majority of those being women and children. 

One can't help but wonder about the Ukraine today. The carnage simply continues and will, one can safely assume, until the Russians or the Ukrainians simply decide there has been enough destruction and death.

These withering reminders of death in war show both sides of the war in the Ukraine know a whole lot more about death and destruction, more than we do.