I've been looking around trying to find out the average age of WW2 infantrymen killed in action, but haven't been able to find a definitive answer yet. Most of the stories I've found so far mention soldiers between 15-19, which is pretty far off from what I had originally thought. I was under the impression that most infantrymen that were KIA would have been 20-24, with the average being 22. Thoughts?
Cal 89 very difficult to ascertain the average age of Infantrymen - but 15 has to be way too young however 17 might be close for the low end and 35 to top end making an average of closer to 25/26 - with senior N.C.O's way higher plus officers up to the 40's. It was held in Armoured that 35 was the top end for Tank crew and what with longer training the average age for tank crew was around 27/28 - much less physical activity BUT we did have a few crewmen over 35 - the Nelson touch came into it a fair bit to keep a good crew to-gether. Cheers
Ah, I see. I'm not sure whether a low end of 17 and top end of 35 would necessarily mean that the average age of soldiers serving would have been 25-26. Perhaps the younger and unmarried men were more available or eager to serve and therefore accounted for most of the fighting force? At any rate, what I'm more interested in though is the average age of those who were killed in action. Currently, I'm thinking that this would be around 21-23, but I'm still uncertain.
Interesting question. For one Canadian infantry battalion, recruited in 1940 and in action from D-Day to VE Day: 431 fatal combat casualties 329 of those have known ages Average age of fatal casualty: 25.1 Median age of fatal casualty: 24.0 Age groups < 20: 26 20-24: 156 25-29: 93 30-34: 33 35-39: 18 40-45: 3 The under 20 group is probably undercounted, as this is based largely on CWGC/official records data, and there are almost certainly some fibbers that have got into the 20-24 group. That said, there could also be a few over 35 that have fibbed their way into the 30-34 group. I'm not a statistition, but I doubt that sample is representative for the question of the typical age of those killed in action. Definitely not representative for all soldiers. But supports my hunch that the typical infantryman wasn;t quite as young as is often thought.
Cal89 perhaps you are quite right and that the average age of those killed might be lower but I would not put that down to an eagerness to serve but - possibly a lack of training - too often I have seen- especially in the NWE campaign - service numbers in the 144/5/6/7 range indicating that these people were called up in 1943 for landings on D Day - the old sweats didn't possibly die at the same rate as the young 'uns - telling me that experience in Battle is a longer learning curve than might be realised - perhaps the casualty lists of 50th Div and the 3rd Div/ 43rd /49th / 53rd/ might show some advantage of experience of the 50th - who had seen it all in the BEF - Desert - Sicily and the 3rd which had seen no action since the BEF.....even replaced by 1st Canadian for Sicily ... Cheers
The original question doesn't state for which army and there would have been a variation as the war progressed. Lots of very young and very old in the German forces at the end. With the British army, it might be the other way round. The 1940 servicemen were often pre-war regulars or Territiorials called back at the end of their reserve service, added to which a lot of the casualties were in the labour battalions and they were often older men.
I've been looking around trying to find out the average age of WW2 infantrymen killed in action, but haven't been able to find a definitive answer yet. Most of the stories I've found so far mention soldiers between 15-19, which is pretty far off from what I had originally thought. I was under the impression that most infantrymen that were KIA would have been 20-24, with the average being 22. Hi, If you're referring to the British Army, then the median age of servicemen during the war was about 25-26. The infantry, which made up about 20% of the total by the end of the war, would have been slightly lower. I'm not sure if detailed statistics breaking down fatalities by age exist for the period. 15-19 is definitely too low for Britain, however. IIRC men under 18-and-a-half were not normally sent overseas. Best, Alan
I would suggest that Rich is correct. Each Army would have different factors giving different results
I would suggest that Rich is correct. Each Army would have different factors giving different results Sorry, I should have cleared that up at the beginning. I didn't mean to ask for one single average across all armies that took part in the war, because that would be useless due to what Rich pointed out. What I meant to ask for was a set of averages or any other relevant statistics for each army in any given time of the war.
Reminds me of the Paul Hardcastle tune 19, I seem to remember in the lyrics " the average age of a combat soldier in vietnam was 19 in world war 2 he was 26 " that would right for the Americans I guess?
In Burma the average eventually settled down to the mid-twenties, which seems to be the all-theatre contstant by the end of WW2. However, there were some real shifts in the average at certain times. Chindit 1 for instance struck both poles in 1943, with the 13th Kings average age being 32 ish and the boys of 3/2 Gurkha Rifles mostly in their late teens.
