Highest casualty rate in any conflict?

[ShotOne]

115 Sqn RAF Bomber Command during WW 2 had a magnificent record which included the highest losses of any RAF squadron, 208 aircraft. By my reckoning that makes a casualty rate of 1,733 per cent of its original strength! (based on 12 ac). I'm fully prepared to be corrected but is this the highest casualty rate of any military unit in any conflict in history?

[TBM-Legend]

Wikipedia has two squadron 115 and RAAF 460 as both having the highest tonnages of bombs dropped???
No 460 Sqn RAAF: The squadron flew the most sorties of any Australian bomber squadron and dropped more bomb tonnage than any squadron in the whole of Bomber Command—24,856 tons, which it dropped over 6,262 sorties. In doing that it lost 188 aircraft and suffered 1,018 combat deaths (589 of whom were Australian).[10] This was the most of any Australian squadron during the war,[8] with No. 460 Squadron effectively wiped out five times over its existence. RAF Bomber Command represented only two percent of total Australian enlistments during World War II, but accounted for almost 20 percent of personnel killed in action.[11] Total Bomber Command losses were 55,573 for all nationalities.

[Wensleydale]

I read somewhere that RAF Waddington lost more aircraft than any other station in Bomber Command during the war. Not because of the high loss rate however but due to flying almost throughout the entire war period with two squadrons. The official figure is 325 aircraft but my research has found 384 to press. This breaks down to 1,639 KIA and 309 POW. (If I was really sad then I would count up the number of sorties flown during the war to calculate the actual loss rate).

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

Highest rate would presumably belong to one of the Japanese kamikaze units

[kbrockman]

The Germans suffered the highest losses in the air by far of all nations included the USSR so it would be a fair bet that some of their squadrons suffered the highest loss rates also.

[ancientaviator62]

The German Navy U boat arm of WW2 arm may well be near the top of any such list.
Depends how far you wish to go back but the Spartans defending the famous pass seemed to have sustained a 100% casualty rate.

[ShotOne]

Which is exactly my point. The famous Spartans were only wiped out once, not seventeen times over! And while I don't have figures to hand, the survival rate for Imperial Japanese Navy kamikaze pilots compares favourably. Firstly, the plan was implemented quite late in the war and many did fly several missions; if they failed to find a target they didn't just commit suicide!

[SASless]

The US Army 116th Infantry Regiment.....95% casualties in 15 minutes....First Wave Omaha Beach....D-Day.

USS Arizona, Pearl Harbor....Dec. 7th, 1941....1,200 Men in less than a minute.

[racedo]

I think combined losses of men and machines has got to be Marianas Turkey Shoot .......Japanese Naval Air Arm effectively ceased to exist.

Japanese aircraft losses in order of 600 plus aircraft where US was 100 plus.

[ShyTorque]

Highest rate would presumably belong to one of the Japanese kamikaze units

That's not what they said at the last re-union dinner.

[charliegolf]

Marriage?

CG

[Bob Viking]

Shotone.
I think people are missing your intended point a little. Whilst there are many good (!) examples of high casualty rates mentioned they pale in comparison to your example.
However, the wording of your title is slightly misleading. Casualty rate suggests a ratio between numbers and a given period of time. Whilst 208 aircraft and crews is a massive number, when spread over several years it may not be the highest rate. After all they will have only had 12 aircraft at any given time.
SASLESS' example gives a good example of a very high rate being that it is over such a short time period.
Trying to find a number of overall casualties against baseline unit strength over the period of a conflict is quite a challenge. The example you have given may prove to be the worst/best example out there.
Just my two penn'orth of course.
BV

[con-pilot]

The US 8th Air Force in Europe had a higher causality rate than the US Marines in the entire Pacific Theater. Bomber crews in the 8th Air Force had a 30% chance of completing their tour, without being killed, wounded or being taken prisoner.

Only after the arrival of the P-51, for escort duty, did the causality rate improve.

[barnstormer1968]

Surprisingly, bomber command losses were consistently higher than Japanese kamikaze units. Quite a scary thought really.

[Rakshasa]

The 116th didn't suffer 95% casualties on D-Day. Even A Company at Dog Green, which was considered 'wiped out', didn't loose that many men.

[VX275]

The unit with the highest percentage of casualties during Operation Market Garden was the Royal Army Service Corps air despatchers.

[newt]

Battle of the Somme!

[ShotOne]

Nine million men served in British Empire forces in WWI, of whom just over 900,000 gave their lives. Most bomber command crew members would have jumped at those odds.

[Brian Abraham]

1842 retreat from Kabul?

[Bigpants]

Well said Brian clearly our politicians and military leaders really learned something from the 1842 expedition...

The champagne socialist former communist idiot Reid said something to the effect that our presence in Afghanistan was a peace keeping mission and hopefully not a shot would be fired....

[dctyke]

Battle of Towton - and I'd wager a lot of you don't know of it.

[SASless]

You might bring up the Zulu Wars.....less Rourke's Drift!

[Big Pistons Forever]

By the end of WW2, the German submarine fleet had 80 % of its sailors KIA/MIA. I hope we will never again see such carnage in any service....

[diesel addict]

<< Battle of Towton - and I'd wager a lot of you don't know of it. >>

I seem to remember 28,000 odd killed - but as a percentage of total engaged forces ???

[dctyke]

It's all here, a good read:

Towton was our worst ever battle, so why have we forgotten this bloodbath in the snow? | Mail Online (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2122067/Towton-worst-battle-forgotten-bloodbath-snow.html)

[Satellite_Driver]

The most devastating war in recent times was the Paraguayan War (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraguayan_War) (1864-70) fought between Paraguay and an alliance of Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. Estimates suggest that somewhere between 60% and 90% of Paraguay's pre-war population died.

In terms of devastating and sudden losses, the Battle of Jutland (31st May 1916) involved the sinking after magazine explosions of three Royal Navy battlecruisers (HMS Indefatigable, HMS Queen Mary and HMS Invincible) and two heavy armoured cruisers (HMS Black Prince and HMS Defence), each with 99%+ crew fatalities - 100% in the case of Black Prince and Defence. Of their combined crew of more than 5,000, only 26 survived.

[ShotOne]

"Towton..wager a lot of you don't know of it" ...I do, dctyke, used to run by the site while based at Church Fenton lots of years ago. 28,000 dead out of 70-80,000 represents a horrendous toll, but many WWII aviators on both sides would have been delighted to accept those odds!

[Lonewolf_50]

Have we forgotten how many Romans perished at Cannae?

[AtomKraft]

How about the F-105s encounter with the VPAF?

The US had to withdraw the fleet as there were not enough left,

Most of the fleet is still in theatre......