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Old 04-20-2011, 12:21 PM
Sanjuro Sanjuro is offline
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the damned British threw away tens of thousands of Australian and New Zealand lives during WWII
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AND they did the same in WWI.
Australia and New Zealand had the highest casualty rates of all the combatant nations in WW1, and many Ozmates have taken this to be because the British High Command considered ANZAC troops particularly expendable. However, when the casualty rates per unit are examined, they are similar to British losses.
The reason for this was the unique nature of the ANZAC contribution- all teeth and no tail. The ANZACs relied entirely on British logistical, engineering, administrative and medical support, all of which were manpower-intensive; had the Australian and NZ governments insisted on a proportion of their troops being used for these functions, ANZAC casualties would have been similar overall to British ones.
This is not to say that British generals cared about ANZAC troops- just that their callous acceptance of losses, and contempt for the lives of their troops, did not differentiate between nationalities.
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