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Is it possible that taller men were selected for the first war? (I have no particular position on this, but if we're asking the question, let's think seriously
by Twisol 8y ago
Is it possible that taller men were selected for the first war? (I have no particular position on this, but if we're asking the question, let's think seriously about it.) World War I and II were about 20 years apart, so it seems just barely plausible that, if soldiers from the first war did not pass on their genes, and taller men were selected as soldiers, then the average height might have decreased based on genetic factors alone.
- WalterBright 8y agoThat was the theory. The fittest were selected for combat, and as they got ground into hamburger the less selective the drafting went. For a similar example, initially WW1 pilots were selected from the nobility. Once those got massacred, the various Air Forces had to abandon that idea, and allow commoners in. The subtext of the movie "The Blue Max" was about that transition. (The life expectancy of a British WW1 RAF pilot was 6 weeks. There's also a movie about that, "The Dawn Patrol".) This also happened to the officers, which ended the notion of officers being restricted to nobility.