OT RE: [Leica] There's something about German design ...

[firkin at ncable.net.au (Alastair Firkin)]

On 16/01/2007, at 16:07, G Hopkinson wrote:

> Marc for your interest, some figures provided by the Australian War  
> Memorial.
> I referred to numbers serving, rather than per capita, which you  
> have mentioned in your response.
>
> "Australian population 1914-1918: four million.
>
> 416, 809 Australians enlisted for service in the First World War,  
> representing 38.7% of the total male population aged between 18 to
> 44.
>
> At end of war:
>
> Outcome Number affected
> died 58,961
> wounded 166,811
> missing or prisoners of war 4,098
> suffered from sickness 87,865
>
> At almost 65%, the Australian casualty rate (proportionate to total  
> embarkations) was the highest of the war."
>
> Appalling statistics by any measure

Indeed: I have just finished "Year of Wonders" by Geraldine Brooks: I  
recommend it to anyone, but it is a bit bleak, being about the plague  
in 1665/6. So with this happy novel under the belt for 2007, I've  
started Carlyon's "the Great war", WWI from an Australian  
perspective, and grim if not for the humour those guys managed to  
maintain.