will the German
1939 census help figure out a number everybody can agree on?
"At the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the population of Germany had reached about 68 million. A major demographic catastrophe, the war claimed 2.8 million lives and caused a steep decline in the birth rate. In addition, the 1919 Treaty of Versailles awarded territories containing approximately 7 million German inhabitants to the victors and to newly independent or reconstituted countries in Eastern Europe.
"In the 1930s, during the regime of Adolf Hitler, a period of expansion added both territory and population to the Third Reich. Following the annexation of Austria in 1938 and the Sudetenland (part of Czechoslovakia) in 1939, German territory and population encompassed 586,126 square kilometers and 79.7 million people, according to the 1939 census. The census found that women still outnumbered men (40.4 million to 38.7 million), despite a leveling trend in the interwar period.
"By 1950 the newly established Federal Republic of Germany had a population of about 50 million, more than 9 million of whom were "expellees." The German Democratic Republic had about 4 million newcomers and 14 million natives (see table 6, Appendix)."
From:
Germany - Population
Another thing to keep in mind is that during both our Civil War and the Spanish-American the use of "drummer boys" was still an accepted standard, not an exception really. This could put boys as young as ten in "official" service. So it isn't completely OUT of the realm of possibility that some of these boys were alive well into the 20th Century.
There was a story about the last surviving Confederate Widow awhile back, she married this old guy who had been a drummer boy and was in his seventies when she married him. She was in her twenties, but the "laws" concerning veteran benefits had changed to extend to any and all surviving family members by blood or marriage. She managed to collect veteran benefits for nearly sixty years after his demise, and before her own!
But, this is a
LONG way from the number of Nazi troops in Italy which started this original disagreement. The number of a million men is believeable in some respects, but certainly not as front-line troops. The logistics trail behind an army usually is about a ratio of three or four to one in the Nazi Heer in the later years. Whereas the American ratio was one man on the line, and nearly twelve men in the "rear with the gear" making sure of bullets, butter, and beans.
So perhaps that "total" Nazis in Italy included not only their Quartermaster Corps, but the Military police, the Gestapo, the SD, the SS, ect. who may or may NOT have been on the frontlines.
Just my opinion on this of course!