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There were sixteen million Americans in uniform during WWII. This was ten per cent of the population. Over half, more than eight million, were soldiers in the US Army. Another three million served in the US Army Air Force (the Air Force did not become an independent service until after the war - during WWII it was still part of the army). The rest were sailors and Marines.

Not all these men were sent overseas, and of the men overseas nowhere near all saw combat, and of those who did actually fight, some jobs were much more dangerous than others. Well under 5% of the WWII US servicemen were riflemen in infantry units, but this was who had to do the actual close fighting of the enemy. Over half of the US men killed were from this category though.

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15y ago

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