I have read that the RA peaked at around 700,000 men during WW2. I have also read that Larkhill trained around 1,000,000 men during WW2. Can anyone confirm these numbers and/or explain the difference? Surely there were not 300,000 casualties, and these numbers do not include those men already serving at the start of WW2.
Basically the only people who attended courses at Larkhill were officers and some NCOs, and few very specialised skills such as air photo interpretation. Gunners left their training regt fully qualified in an RA employment, eg gun number, driver operator, etc. I think the 1 mil number is rubbish. Even if you added up the numbers for all the units who fired on Larkhill/Westdown ranges, including the US, I reckon it would be hard to reach a million.
Larkhill Ranges are a big section of Salisbury Plain Training Area and were used by more than just the students on RSA Course students. it is not impossible that one million men may have trained on on Larkhill ranges at some point, even if their training might have just been been a night march across the Impact area!.
