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Mornin' janet and All, janet, your post stirred my memories... my grandfather served in the British Army in the Great War... i never heard him speak of war... my father went to England in the early stages of WWII and returned home in 1943... he also never spoke of the war... not trying to be morbid or grisly... just some 4AM thoughts on 55,000,000.... (let us not even think about debating exact numbers - ONE person not coming home is someones tragedy) "For today's Western societies, which are relatively unfamiliar with death, and even with the idea of death in war, it is extremely difficult to begin even to imagine the meaning of such numbers..." When I was a kid, almost everyone I knew was missing an uncle ... a father ... a brother ... someone ... World War II Fatalities - 61 Million http://www.secondworldwar.co.uk/casualty.html First World War (1914-18) Total: This is the only major bloodletting which has pretty much the same body count no matter which source I check: 8,500,000 military deaths. http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat1.htm The death toll of the Great War is well known: around 9 - 10 million, nearly all soldiers... On the first day of the British offensive on the Somme, 1 July 1916, 20,000 men from Britain and the Dominions were killed, and 40,000 men were wounded. No day in the Second World War was so deadly, even on the Eastern Front. http://www.ralphmag.org/CG/world-war-one1.html The Great War - Effects http://www.pvhs.chico.k12.ca.us/~bsilva/projects/great_war/effects.htm Second World War (1937-45) Total: It's the most intensively studied event of the 20th Century, so the margin of error is not quite as wide here as for most of the other wars and oppressions on this page. Most historians agree that the death toll was about 50 million (including wartime atrocities). Source List and Detailed Death Tolls for the Twentieth Century Hemoclysm http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat1.htm In May 1945 Germany signed articles of unconditional surrender. In August, after the deaths of 200,000 civilians when atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Japanese, too, surrendered, and the long war was over. The total number of casualties will never be known, but it is calculated that more than 50 million people lost their lives. http://www.mgtrust.org/ww2.htm "World War II also introduced the human race to the nightmarish possibility of extinction through nuclear war." "the deaths of 200,000 civilians when atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki" National Death Tolls for the Second World War http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/ww2stats.htm Death Tolls for the Man-made Megadeaths of the Twentieth Century http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstatx.htm#c Canada: First World War, 1914-18, 55,000 http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat1.htm#WW1 Second World War, 1939-45, 39,000 http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/ww2stats.htm#Canada Korean War, 1950-53, 310 http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat2.htm#Ko In a one room school in 1951 I first memorized and recited the following poem... In Flander's Fields In Flanders fields, the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row That mark our place; and in the sky The larks still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below. We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow. Loved, and were loved, and now we lie In Flanders fields. Take up our quarrel with the foe; To you from failing hands we throw The torch, be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields. Poetry Analysis of John MCCrae's "In Flander's Field's" http://www.geocities.com/sir_john_eh/flanders.html I stand proud today, proud of my father, proud of my grandfather, and their legacy ... Canada as it exists today let us never forget murray * * * World War II (1939-1945) This global conflict, which affected virtually every part of the world, was in many ways simply a continuation of the unresolved issues resulting from World War I. Principal adversaries in this war were the Axis powers--Germany, Italy, and Japan--and the Allies--France, Great Britain, the United States, the Soviet Union, and China. The war began in 1939 when Nazi Germany invaded Poland and ended with the total defeat of the Axis powers in 1945. World War II is easily the largest, and bloodiest, war in recorded history. Estimates of the total death toll range between 40 and 50 million people and because of the systematic extermination of the Jewish people by the Nazis, "genocide" is now a recognized crime against humanity. World War II also introduced the human race to the nightmarish possibility of extinction through nuclear war. http://ahc.uwyo.edu/exhibits/veterans/ww2.htm * * * On 11 Nov 2003 at 5:00, janet paterson wrote: never forget in nineteen-forty-three my dad left home to serve in the second world war in nineteen-forty-six he returned home fifty-five million others did not i no longer wonder that he would not speak of it he could not speak of it it was unspeakable it still is -- janet paterson an akinetic rigid subtype, albeit primarily perky, parky pd: 56-41-37 cd: 56-44-43 tel: 613-256-8340 http://www.janetpaterson.net/ -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn