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In WW1 the British upper classes, who made up the officer class, were killed at a substantially higher rate than the largely working class enlisted men.
by DC-3 5y ago
In WW1 the British upper classes, who made up the officer class, were killed at a substantially higher rate than the largely working class enlisted men.
- gruez 5y ago1. what was the army participation rate of the upper class vs the lower class? A cursory search seems to suggest the differential was 17% ("officer class") vs 12% ("largely working class enlisted men"). That's close enough that differences in army participation can drown the two out. 2. also relative to the army participation rate, is the suffering of civilians. If working civilians had to suffer rationing, starvation, and disease, while the nobility just chilled in their country side estates tended to be servants, that could more than make up for 1% (or whatever) of nobility dying in battle.