Neilhalloran

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WW2 Casualties, by month

I am looking for a researcher to assist in a data visualization project I am working on. The work will be compensated. I would like to create a spreadsheet that breaks down the WW2 casualties by month, as well as by country and civilian/combatant. Below are some comments by Woogie10w on the project:

--Neilhalloran (talk) 18:39, 29 November 2012 (UTC)

1-Me: Ideally, the breakdown would match the table on the wikipedia page, i.e. county, combatant/civilian.

There is data by month for US Army and Italian military casualties. Annual totals for Germany, Japan and US Navy casualties. I have done original research on British Empire military losses that cannot be posted on Wikipedia. USSR military casualties per official sources are broken out by quarter. The huge losses in China and Yugoslavia are demographic estimates. However in the case Poland of there is a breakout by year for non Jewish dead.

2- Me: I would like to develop a spreadsheet that shows how the numbers were distributed over time, to the nearest month (the month breakdown can be a rough estimate, provided the sources are strong).

Such a spreadsheet could be done, however it can never ever be posted here on Wikipedia since it would be original research. Off Wiki the sky is the limit.

3-Me: Do you have a sense of how difficult it would be to produce such a spreadsheet?

Excel will do a good job for you.

4- Me: Would you or anybody you know be willing to do this research?

The sources for the statistics are posted here on the WW2 Casualties page. You can track them down on World cat. The job could be done if you are willing to put in a solid days work of crunching the numbers.

--Woogie10w (talk) 13:41, 31 July 2012 (UTC)

Hi Woogie - Apologies, I didn't see that you replied here. Would you have any interest in taking on this project? The work would be compensated. Also, do you think it would be possible to break down the civilian casualties in these two additional counts:

(1) Number of civilians who were killed unintentionally, i.e. today's term "collateral damage," versus who were directly targeted.

(2) Number of civilians who were killed on the ground, versus killed from aerial bombing.

These two don't have two be broken down by country+date - they can be a grand estimate for the whole war. --Neilhalloran (talk) 12:23, 13 November 2012 (UTC)

I suggest that you approach the topic by using a timeline that treats each incident separately with appropriate graphics and statistics that are backed up with sources. For example the bombing of London during WW1, Ethiopia 1935, Spain 1936-39, The Nazi bombing of Warsaw, Rotterdam, London, Belgrade, Stalingrad, Leningrad, the Japanese bombing of China, the Allied Bombing of Germany, France, Italy, Romania, Hungary, Japan, the Korean war and the Big Enchilada of Vietnam and Cambodia.--Woogie10w (talk) 14:26, 13 November 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for your suggestion Woogie. We actually already have the visual planned out, which shows casualty figures by month. Would you be interested in doing this research? --Neilhalloran (talk) 14:47, 14 November 2012 (UTC)

Re your request. There is no breakout by month for WW2 casualties by month. A spreadsheet could be done that estimates losses by month, but it would have notional not actual figures. Before you sign off on payments to a researcher I suggest that you verify the sources of the data that is presented on the spreadsheet. I still reccomend treating each incident separately with appropriate graphics and statistics. Regards--Woogie10w (talk) 21:39, 29 November 2012 (UTC)

As for treating each incident separately: I could take a table of incidents and use that to extrapolate the numbers by month, if each incident had a date range and death count. That would be no problem. But I figured such an incident list would be more challenging to produce. Take the U.S. firebombing of cities in Japan: There were about 60 cities involved, and some were re-bombed; it may be difficult to determine what an "incident" should be defined as. Also, this work would be outside of wiki. As long as the totals add up to the numbers on the ( your :) ) wiki page, I would be ok with them being estimates. I am sorry you are not interested - I'd be happy to tell you more about the project if you like. Feel free to email me at neil at-symbol highermedia.com. Neilhalloran (talk) 22:13, 29 November 2012 (UTC)

Back in 1965 I was a high school student interested in the war in Vietnam. Starting in February 1965 I kept a log of the daily bombing raids on N. Vietnam based on the reports in the NY Times. By mid 1966 I gave this up and spent the time to study French that was falling behind, back in those days failure was not an option. I wanted to go to college get a student deferment rather than go to Vietnam. Today who cares about the details of the raids on N. Vietnam on November 29, 1966?--Woogie10w (talk) 00:15, 30 November 2012 (UTC)