The Human Machinery of War | eHISTORY

Devastating in its magnitude, the Second World War brought terrible destruction and left 306,005 American soldiers dead as the result of combat.  Another 571,822 sustained non-fatal wounds during the conflict.  Typically when we think of WWII, we think of these soldiers, killed or injured on foreign soil, but America’s production soldiers, the men and women who manned the nation’s factories, mills, and mines, also suffered heavy physical losses during the conflict.  The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that each year between 1942 and 1945 there were some two million disabling or deadly industrial accidents, a total of more than six million.  More than 75,000 Americans died or became permanently and totally disabled in industry during the war. Additionally, some 378,000 industrial workers suffered a permanent partial disability.  This website explores both the experiences of disabled soldiers and industrial workers during WWII, battlefield medicine, industrial safety campaigns, and rehabilitation programs..

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