What weapons cause the most casualties in a war? Specifically WW2 or WW1...

What weapons cause the most casualties in a war? Specifically WW2 or WW1. I have always been curious about the main causes of death in battle. Is it mostly small arms fire or machine gunners?

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WWI artillery overall. Same as WWII. More important is what causes the most disabling injuries.

In a word?

Artillery

Artillery

Artillery caused the most casualties in WWII? I never knew that, I would figure regular infantry fighting and machine guns did the most

German hospital records show this to be true. In WWII it was usually around 60%, and air attack (bombs, rockets, straffing) around 25%. Small arms made up the rest. These are combat related, and do not include disease and accidents.

Artillery and mortar casualties are often lumped together because it is difficult to see from the wound or shrapnel what caused the death. Most estimates however gives a 25% / 75% split in favor of mortars.

Another factor would be size. Man portable mortars are small arms, while vehicle mounted/transported mortars are artillery.

>dat captured SVT

Artillery with MGs following behind.

>I would figure regular infantry fighting and machine guns did the most
It was artillery which is why poorly equipped armies fared didn't fare so well
Gerhard Schreiber states that an Italian division had 25% of the firepower of French division and 10% of the firepower of a German division

Artillery causes the most casualties because it is very easily to get wounded by it, but I'm not sure it caused the most deaths, i think being shot is that

I love seeing unusual little details in historic photographs like these.

The guy on the right has a fairly rare (captured) SVT-38

Oh damn you're right, I had forgotten how to tell the 40 from the 38.
It's even more noticeable then.

As cool as the 38 is, I don't think that I would prefer to have a 38 over my 40 except for the sole reason of collectability and the massive price difference. I think the 40 looks cooler and more refined

>trusting kraut records

Agreed but then you can't get picky when you're capturing weapons obviously...

whoops forgot I'm not posting in /k/

The records were used by the German military command to determine how best to avoid future casualties.

If you read some of the testimonies from the front during WWI you'll realise how truly horrible being on the recieving side of an artillery barrage could be. The term 'Shell Shock' is derived from the people who cracked as a result of it.

Artillery is definitely what kills the most. In WW2, unless you got shot by a machine gun (even then, actually), you had a pretty good chance of getting treated and survive. Now, artillery on the other hand...

>rip right ear

>the ting goes braaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaap
>ka ka ka ka

Artillery.

I used to think the same. But it's not like in the movies. Artillery generally causes the most casualties in pretty much every modern war.

The B-52
I talked with an old South-Vietnamese paratrooper, he was in Dien Bien Phu and An Loc
In An Loc the US Air forces used B-52 as tactical bombers, the Vietnamese paratrooper saw it and they destroyed everything, he said the B-52 bombers could kill anything within 2km (1miles) the bombs also caused heavy physical and/or psychological injuries, in An Loc entire VC divisions were stopped by few B-52

artillery, there is no contest.

1. when bomber harris misses his target he has to try again the next day. when an artillery battery misses its target, it can try again and again, getting closer and closer with each barrage, 100-300 meters at a time.

2. orders of magnitude cheaper than bombers to produce, maintain, and train new crews (10 artillery pieces 1 plane, 100 shells for 1 bomb, a few days)

3. the other side to "blitzkrieg" or "maneuver warfare" or "deep battle strategy" is the static defense that's left behind in the wake of the pincer attack lead by tanks. what is the static defense primarily made of? you guessed it, fuckloads of artillery.

4. explosions have a kill radius far large than whatever fireball, puff of smoke, or shockwave you witness. if artillery lands within 25m - 75m of you there's a good chance shrapnel will hit you and an all but guaranteed chance of collapsing your lungs.

youtu.be/326I8M-Ji_E?t=21

on a side note, the title "King of battle" doesn't belong to tanks,it belongs to artillery.

why is this a thread?
there is no discussion to be had on this. next time you have a question like this, google it.

>explosions have a kill radius far large than whatever fireball, puff of smoke, or shockwave you witness.

not if you time your jump right

the kill radius is always one foot further than the distance you can jump

Disease, cold, arty

if you jump then the explosion will push you instead of killing you