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MortalWombat1974 t1_itfjgpl wrote

Reply to comment by terratrema in TIL the Port Chicago disaster accounted for 15% of all African American casualties in World War II by Butthole_Alamo

I was wondering about this as well. If it's right, that means "only" around 2000 black Americans were killed in WW2.

That seems unlikely, considering google says around 400 thousand Americans died in that war..

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IrrelephantAU t1_itfwjsp wrote

The US military in WW2 was still segregated - black soldiers were primarily used as labor, not as combat troops.

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big_sugi t1_itggs55 wrote

It might be much lower; the OP references “casualties,” not KIA. According to Wikipedia, “A total of 708 African Americans were killed in combat during World War II.” The cited source is not online, however: Micheal Clodfelter. Warfare and Armed Conflicts- A Statistical Reference to Casualty and Other Figures, 1500–2000. 2nd Ed. 2002 p. 584 ISBN 0-7864-1204-6.

Given that the rate of wounded to killed is typically 3:1, that death toll may be about right. Hard to say without knowing about other non-combat fatalities, though.

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