Talk:World War II casualties/Archives/2015/February

Foreign Nationals in UK commemorated by CWGC
I don't know if this has already been raised, but having read the CWGC roll of honour entries in depth, there are a number of expatriates of other nations who died by enemy action (chiefly the Blitz). It would be interesting for someone to analyse and mention on this page. The nationalities cited include (from my memory) Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Baltic states, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, as well as Irish Free State (then part of British Commonwealth but neutral). They were chiefly refugees, migrant workers, merchant seamen.Cloptonson (talk) 06:59, 23 February 2015 (UTC)

Good point, we really need a published source that analyses the CWGC roll of honour entries. BTW the Irish Free State left the British Commonwealth in 1937.--Woogie10w (talk) 12:18, 23 February 2015 (UTC)


 * The Irish Free State did not formally secede from the Commonwealth until 1949 following the passing of an Act of their parliament in 1948. What happened in 1937, following a plebiscite, was that the country ceased to be titled the Irish Free State but adopted Eire as its official name.  Eire's refusal to line up with the rest of the Commonwealth when WWII broke out, in favour of neutrality pursued by De Valera, caused Churchill to deride it as "a stab in the back" to Britain, and it pleased Nazi German propagandists who used that as an example of how, they considered, "the [British] Empire is crumbling". (Signal magazine).Cloptonson (talk) 21:34, 23 February 2015 (UTC)

Republic of San Marino
It would be worth someone looking into San Marino and adding it to the charts. It was occupied by Nazi Germany, along with mainland Italy (the Vatican State stayed unoccupied) in WWII. San Marino consequently was hit in Allied air raids and 63 residents were killed. (Source, The People's Almanac Book of Lists 2 by David Wallechinsky, and Irving and Amy Wallace, published 1983, under List "The 6 Smallest Countries on Earth".)Cloptonson (talk) 21:44, 23 February 2015 (UTC)

Eagle Squadron dead
The statistics on US deaths do not acknowledge the number of US citizens who died serving in the Eagle Squadrons of the British RAF while the US was neutral (the squadrons transferred to US command after Pearl Harbor), I am aware of four who were killed (3 of them Battle of Britain participants), who are articled in wikipedia. Are these known (likely source unit histories)? Also many served in the Royal Canadian Air Force pre-Pearl Harbor, some of them being killed or dying of other causes. Cloptonson (talk) 06:38, 25 February 2015 (UTC)

These casualties are included with the U.K and Canada, they cannot be included with U.S. casualties. Using this logic would lead to absurd results. For example there were German Jews serving in the U.S. armed forces, their casualties cannot be included with Germany.--Woogie10w (talk) 12:24, 25 February 2015 (UTC)


 * I wrote this question (which may also occur to the minds of some American readers today) in case such figures had already been analysed and on record. The German Jews serving in the US forces (I say not without respect) do not quite make a relevant analogy; they were generally refugees from/opponents of the Nazi regime, and they generally took up US citizenship (Henry Kissinger most famous example).  The US citizens serving with UK and Canadian forces were not refugees, were not at war with their own country and did not permanently opt into UK/Canadian nationality.Cloptonson (talk) 06:51, 26 February 2015 (UTC)


 * I have added a civil comment in the footnotes to the main table about US dead in the Canadian/British forces that are counted under Commonwealth war dead in order to acknowledge their presence in those forces.Cloptonson (talk) 20:49, 26 February 2015 (UTC)