I was reading a book of WWII trivia and one of the things they wrote (I’m paraphrasing): “Fifty thousand British soldiers were killed in the first three months of WWI. One British soldier was killed in the first three months of WWII.”
Now I know that WWII got off to a somewhat slow start after the Polish campaign. But is it really true that in three months of “fighting” only one British soldier was killed? And if so, who was he and how did he die?
Most people count the war as starting on Sept 1 1939, when Britain and France declared war on Germany as part of their guarantee to Poland. The first major confrontation between Britain and Germany would have been in April of 1940 when Germany invaded Denmark and Norway.
There was a higher than normal civilian death-rate in the first year of WW2. This wasn’t caused by enemy action, but as a consequence of the blackout which led to a steep rise in traffic accidents (especially those involving pedestrians) and drownings. The latter presumably from people falling into rivers and canals. Road deaths in 1939 were over 8,000. This compares to 3,000 in 2007.
I’m going to have to ask for a cite for that. 8,000 road deaths, when there were far fewer cars on the road? Significant numbers of people wandering blindly into canals? 1939 wasn’t even a war year until September.
I’m not sure that comparisons to 2007 are meaningful, because there are far more cars now, and we are much more safety-conscious.
Fewer cars on the roads, but plenty of trams and buses running with blackout headlights…
(Trivia: the white line along the edge of all railway platforms was a blackout precaution, which has been retained ever since.)
Edit: here’s a random cite: http://www.journallive.co.uk/north-east-news/todays-news/2008/06/27/road-deaths-at-record-low-61634-21159473/
During the period September 3, 1939 thru May 8, 1940, the Chamberlain Conservative government, strengthened by the addition of Churchill and Eden, was technically at war with Germany in alliance with France. Gen. Gamelin of France was in overall command of the Allied armies on the Continent, and his principle was to do nothing that would invite German retaliation – this while Poland, which they had ostensibly gone to war in defense of, was overrun and the Wehrmacht forces facing France were at near-skeleton levels. There was one short advance, in the Saarland, by the Allies, but they quickly withdrew after having penetrated about ten miles.
During this period, one British soldier killed himself in an accident while cleaning his rifle, the only British fatality on the French front. There were, however, casualties including fatalities in the war at sea and during April-May in Norway after it was invaded and Allied troops were sent in to aid the Norwegians.
On May 9-10, however, things changed: the Chamberlain government resigned and Churchill formed a National (all-party) government; Germany invaded the Low Countries and France in force, leading to French surrender and Petain taking control of a near-puppet state headquartered at Vichy.
But the odd factoid in the OP is more or less true – it depends on noting the time period, excluding “sailor” from “soldier,” and a couple of other technicalities, but given them it’s factual.
Wiki on the “Phoney War” AKA Sitzkrieg. As Polycarp said, there just wasn’t much fighting going on the western front until May, 1940
Thanks. It does seem that Rayne Man’s figures are plausible, then, although it’s not clear from that exactly how much the blackout had to do with it. I mean, it says there that there were 4,886 deaths in 1926, when the number of cars around must have been tiny compared to now. British roads were dangerous places in those days!
Yes! The 30mph urban speed limit was only introduced during the 1930s, with no limits outside of that - the latter indicated by what is now the ‘national speed limit’ sign. (A good pub quiz trick-question is to ask what the speed limit was on the M1 when it first opened 
) Safety features in cars were non-existent, and the roads hadn’t been laid out with motor vehicles in mind. Wealthy young men were free to chuck open-seater sports cars around the countryside with nothing except mechanical failure or driver error to stop them.
More importantly, I also wonder if that figure includes deaths not involving vehicles at all - incidents involving cyclists, horse riders, etc.?
To add to the above. There was no driving test till the mid 30’s, very few traffic lights and pedestrian crossings, and even before the blackout many urban roads were poorly lit, usually only by gas lamps which turned themselves off around midnight.
Nitpick: Sept 1 was when Germany invaded Poland. Britain and France didn’t actually declare war until Sept 3.
It wasn’t until 9th December 1940 that Corporal Priday died in a brief patrol clash.
Of course the Navy and the Air Force has taken numerous casualties by then.
So the French and British could have invaded Germany easily at this point?
both nations were of the opinion that there was serious deficiencies in their preparedness that would require time to remedy. France wasn’t contemplating taking the offensive until 1942.
And surgeons were nowhere near as good at putting people back together again nor were there any antibiotics to combat infections.
British roads, in those days, hadn’t changed much since the horse-and-cart era apart from acquiring a layer of macadam. They invariably went through the centre of town, rather than bypassing it, so that through traffic and local traffic necessarily had to mingle in lengthy traffic jams and there was little attempt to remodel dangerous bends or junctions. It wasn’t until the late 1950s, with the first section of the motorways (the Preston bypass) being opened that Britain started to acquire something resembling a modern road system.
For all Germany could have done about it, it certainly seems so. But the 1930s had left France and Britain ill-prepared for a modern war. To look at aircraft, for instance, our best planes were the Spitfire and Hurricane, easily the equal of the best the Luftwaffe had - but we had few of them, and too many obsolete types or just plain bad designs. Our idea of a tactical light bomber was the Fairey Battle, living proof that a single Merlin engine wasn’t enough for a three-man bomber and with miserably weak armament besides (though, remarkably, it scored the RAF’s first kill of the war, and against a Me109 at that).
Also, no-one seems to have anticipated how quickly Poland would fall. We might have geed ourselves up a bit if we’d realized the Poles couldn’t hold out for even a month.
To be fair, a fair few between-the-wars sections of road still operate quite effectively in their original role. I can think of two within a few minutes drive of me that were built as (no doubt extravagent) bypasses at that time, and still do that job fine. The biggest problem with improving on the original design would be that to make things safer, the now-established rows of trees alongside would need go.