Surviving American units with the highest percentage of casualties per conflict

During warfare, circumstances dictate that some units take more casualties than other units. Sometimes the casualty rate is disproportionately high. This article displays the highest percentage of casualties of American units that weren't totally wiped out.

The term casualty in warfare can often be confusing. It often does not refer to those that are killed on the battlefield; rather, it refers to those who can no longer fight. This 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][A 1] The word casualty has been used in a military context since at least 1513.[2]

Battles
Unit Conflict Deployment Unit size KIA WIA MIA POW Total Casualty rate (%) Opposing force
1st Minnesota Volunteer Infantry 2nd day of Battle of Gettysburg July 2, 1863 262 0 0 215 [3] [A 2] 82 Confederacy
7th Cavalry Regiment Battle of the Little Bighorn June 25–26, 1876 700~ 268 59 0 0 327 [7] 45~ Combined Native American Army

Arapaho tribe
Cheyenne tribe
Lakota tribes

3rd Infantry Division Anzio Breakout May 24, 1944 995 [8]  Germany

Italian Social Republic

Conflicts
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
Harlem Hellfighters World War I Apr 8 - Nov 11, 1918
(191 days at the front)		 3,832 [A 3] 1500 [10] 40~ German Empire
3rd Infantry Division World War II Nov 8, 1942-May 8, 1945
(553 days of combat)		 24,878 [8]  Germany

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

1st Cavalry Division Vietnam War Aug 1965 - Aug 1972 [A 4] 5,444 26,592 32,036 [12]  North Vietnam

Viet Cong

3rd Battalion, 5th Marines War in Afghanistan 2001-2011 950 25 150 175 [13] 18.4 Taliban

See also

Annotations
  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."[3] 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. [4] [5] 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.[6]
  3. 1915 to 1917 infantry regiments grew from 959 to 3,720 men and 112 officers [9]
  4. 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.[11]

Bibliography

Notes

  1. Tucker 2013, p. 892
  2. Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed gives a 1513 reference for military casualty, and an 1844 reference for civilian use
  3. Holcombe & Searles 1916, p. 345
  4. Maciejewski 2011, p. 50
  5. Meinhard, Robert W. (20 May 1982). "Letter to Tom Harrison, Chief Historian, Gettysburg National Military Park". 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.
  6. Meinhard 1991
  7. Murray 2004, p. 113
  8. Brown 2012, p. 2
  9. Woodward 2014, p. 108
  10. Nelson 2009, pp. 203–4.
  11. Kelley, Michael (2002). Where we were in Vietnam. Hellgate Press. pp. 5–434. ISBN 978-1555716257.
  12. Willbanks 2013, p. 530
  13. Walker 2011

References

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