Casualty figures
To the editor:
An AP article in the Dec. 19 paper included a serious error in the number of deaths in the Battle of the Bulge. It said the “fight claimed 120,000 German lives.” That figure is an estimate of casualties, a term that includes dead, wounded and missing. German dead were somewhere above 13,000. Quick Read took that large total and added American dead to come up with 140,000 deaths. The correct number killed on both sides was awful at somewhere around 35,000 but not the high total given. Some continue incorrectly to believe that casualty is a synonym for fatality. It is not.
Al Sellen,
Lawrence