Of course I read it, David, and carefully too -- one wonders why you could not have been more polite. This is not an area that I know much about, but I was surprised that the figure would be so high for the RAAF and it did not seem entirely consistent with Ted's last para which talks about "thousands" of non-Brits. I was also conscious that many Australians (including one of my uncles) served in the RAF, not the RAAF. I think my question was reasonable, even though I did not explain my background thinking. From subsequent responses, I am very happy to stand corrected as to the facts. I may be in Canberra, but I have not done any research in things military, although I have a peripheral interest in the area -- nor, at the time of my question (or now), did I have the time to research the issue myself. And as I leave for Europe in a few days, this is likely to be my last contribution to this list until next year. Lindsay Graham Canberra, Australia ----------------------------------- Please reply via the newsgroup/mailing list, so that all may benefit from the discussion. ----- Original Message ----- From: "J. David Grierson" <grierson@melbpc.org.au> To: <AUS-MILITARY-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Monday, May 08, 2006 8:03 PM Subject: Re: [AUS-MIL] Re: WW2-Air Force > Lindsay, > One wonders, with this comment, whether you actually read Ted's post. And > you apparently live in Canberra, too, where your capacity to research > things military is enormous. > For your information: > During WWII, the RAAF lost 5397 killed or died in Europe, with 947 > injured. The total killed or died for all other areas was 5165, with 2245 > injured. > To give you some perspective, I quote AIRCDRE Keith Parsons, "Only three > percent of the men who enlisted during WWII were trained as aircrew and > posted to the UK or the Middle East, yet from this small group 39 percent > of all Australian casualties occurred..." From the above figures, that > could be read as 46%, but Parsons may have taken other aspects into > account, eg, deaths from sickness (context RAAF). > Happy researching > David Grierson > > > > Lindsay Graham wrote: > >> "RAAF lost 5,000 men over Germany." >> >> Do you mean RAF, Ted? >>