how much did ww2 cost britain

The tide of the war in Europe shifted with the Soviet victory at the Battle of Stalingrad (February 1943). A majority of nations, including most of the worlds great powers, fought on two sides consisting of military alliances. France estimated the total cost at an amount equivalent to three times the total French annual national income. Has the cause of a rocket failure ever been mis-identified, such that another launch failed due to the same problem? During World War II the government was again forced to borrow heavily in order to finance war with the Axis powers. The debt was to be paid off in 50 annual repayments commencing in 1950. Updates? It's a site that collects all the most frequently asked questions and answers, so you don't have to spend hours on searching anywhere else. Only for the United States and the British Commonwealth can official figures showing killed, wounded, prisoners or missing for the armed forces be cited with any degree of assurance. The deficit continued to grow and, following the Great Recession beginning in early 2008, both government borrowing and the national debt have risen dramatically, reaching around 70% of GDP by the end of 2012. Few have ventured even to try to calculate the total number of persons who were wounded or permanently disabled. Allied Powers. Latest estimates suggest this will be just under 40 billion. Thus, 2.50 reichsmark was equivalent to 1/4.03 (0.2481) British pounds during WW II. The Thompson, which was the gold standard of . The Allied armies converged on Berlin. Though it lasted fewer than four years, World War II was the most expensive war in United States history. Why are players required to record the moves in World Championship Classical games? Cheers But it hasn't always been so fastidious. English version of Russian proverb "The hedgehogs got pricked, cried, but continued to eat the cactus". Following the encirclement and fall of Berlin by the Soviet army in April of 1945 and the resultant suicide of Hitler, Germany surrendered on May 7th in Rheims, France. (If you do know of a source for this, please get in touch.) It was under air raid alert for 1,000 hours. RATIONING & SHORTAGES. The history of the British national debt can be traced back to the reign of William III, who engaged a syndicate of City traders and merchants to offer for sale an issue of government debt, which evolved into the Bank of England. Shopping . During World War II, the reichsmark had a nominal exchange rate of 2.50 rm to US $1. Home | About | Contact | Copyright | Report Content | Privacy | Cookie Policy | Terms & Conditions | Sitemap. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). BBC didnt censor footage of Brexit march, Rishi Sunak pledge to review 2,400 remaining EU laws doesnt tell the full story, Poll saying 5% of Northern Ireland trusts UK government is about protocol specifically, Boris Johnson repeats false claim about Keir Starmer voting 48 times to take us back into the EU, The EU did not completely outlaw use of imperial measures in the UK. The Blitz on London from September 1940 to May 1941 and the V1 flying bomb and V2 rocket attacks in 1944 caused a massive amount of damage. This is the only source weve been able to find that matches the 3.7 trillion figure referenced in the viral image. The Allies had much more potential wealth they could spend on the war. Mainly for this reason, estimates of total dead in World War II vary anywhere from 35,000,000 to 60,000,000a statistical difference of no small import. The establishment of the bank was devised by Charles Montagu, 1st Earl of Halifax, in 1694, to the plan which had been proposed by William Paterson three years before, but had not been acted upon. Britain was indeed, in a 'financial Dunkirk.' In 1945, following a number of meetings and lots of paperwork, the UK received a total of 4.33 billion dollars from the US. Being able to produce more material might not always be enough. Man hour numbers are accurate for aircraft production, The cost in motorization should be taken into account and could explain "gaps" between German and British production. rev2023.4.21.43403. Adjusted for inflation to today's dollars, the war cost over $4 trillion and in 1945, the war's last year, defense spending comprised about 40% of gross domestic product (GDP). Resulting in 1 reichsmark being equivalent to 0.0992556 British pounds, or 1 British pound being equivalent to 10.075 reichsmark. Wartime Expenditures during the Second World War 1939-1945 in Billions USD. The Conservative MP Daniel Kawczynski wrote in 2018 that the "cost of the damage caused to Britain during the war was an incredible 120bn - equivalent to 3,620bn today". Plus, the BF109's narrow landing gear led to a high number of takeoff and landing accidents. Civilian deaths from land battles, aerial bombardment, political and racial executions, war-induced disease and famine, and the sinking of ships probably exceeded battle casualties. Cost Benefit Analysis of Everything in Life, Ballpark Estimate:$288 Billion (1940 dollars). Learn about the horrible conditions of German and Soviet prisoners of war during World War II, Witness the sinking of the German cruise liner MV, Forces and resources of the European combatants, 1939, The Baltic states and the Russo-Finnish War, 193940, The war in the west, September 1939June 1940, The invasion of the Low Countries and France, Italys entry into the war and the French Armistice, The Atlantic and the Mediterranean, 194041, Pearl Harbor and the Japanese expansion, to July 1942, Developments from autumn 1941 to spring 1942, Allied strategy and controversies, 194042, The Germans summer offensive in southern Russia, 1942, The Solomons, Papua, Madagascar, the Aleutians, and Burma, July 1942May 1943, Montgomerys Battle of el-Alamein and Rommels retreat, 194243, Stalingrad and the German retreat, summer 1942February 1943, The invasion of northwest Africa, NovemberDecember 1942, The Atlantic, the Mediterranean, and the North Sea, 194245, The Eastern Front, FebruarySeptember 1943, The Southwest and South Pacific, JuneOctober 1943, The Allied landings in Europe and the defeat of the Axis powers, Developments from autumn 1943 to summer 1944, Sicily and the fall of Mussolini, JulyAugust 1943, The Allies invasion of Italy and the Italian volte-face, 1943, The western Allies and Stalin: Cairo and Tehrn, 1943, The Eastern Front, October 1943April 1944, The war in the Pacific, October 1943August 1944, The Burmese frontier and China, November 1943summer 1944, Developments from summer 1944 to autumn 1945, The Allied invasions of western Europe, JuneNovember 1944, Allied policy and strategy: Octagon (Quebec II) and Moscow, 1944, The Philippines and Borneo, from September 1944, The German offensive in the west, winter 194445, The Soviet advance to the Oder, JanuaryFebruary 1945, The end of the Japanese war, FebruarySeptember 1945. Adjusted for inflation to today's dollars, the war cost over $4 trillion and in 1945, the war's last year, defense spending comprised about 40% of gross domestic product (GDP). German losses, of which the greater proportion occurred on the Eastern Front, were only slightly less severe. The image seems to be referring to the UKs EU divorce bill. Cost in Money and Lives Monetarily, in 1940 dollars, the estimated cost was $288 Billion. HAMBURG (SEPTEMBER 1939-APRIL 1945) 42,600 deaths. harvp error: no target: CITEREFFerguson2012 (. In the middle between the most expensive and least expensive aircraft produced between 1939-1941 is the "Boeing B-17", priced at $301,221, costing about $4,677,477 in today's money. One in ten of all deaths that occurred during the war were children. That might be a noticeable exception, as the Germans overengineered just about everything. The U.S.A. spent the most on the war, just over 340 billion dollars. It is unclear if the Tiger's alleged exceptional performance justified its exorbitant cost Keep in mind that you need men to crew the machines. Have the Conservative party shot themselves in the foot over voter ID? Industry and agriculture in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Norway were forced to produce to meet German needs with a resulting deprivation of their own peoples. @Jos, Yes, same about Tiger. How is white allowed to castle 0-0-0 in this position? International Encyclopedia of the First World War, ed. Background . The Studebaker unit was only moderately higher, and over 200,000 of these were produced. For the purpose that it ended up being used for - ground attack - it was far better than the BF109, due to its ability to absorb ground fire, and its heavy armament and bomb load. 7.9 million bombs dropped overseas, 1943-1945. This is, of course, too broad, so I will limit the question to fighter aircraft of WW2. How many Londoners died in ww2? [11] The crisis was depicted by the right-wing press as a national humiliation, with Chancellor Denis Healey being forced to go "cap in hand" to the IMF.[12]. Nominally, this was a trading company, but its main activity was the funding of government debt. Note that this describes the situation still current after Victory-in-Europe Day . Before the war, Britain maintained colonies all over the world, which provided valuable raw materials, manpower and strategic bases. What places in England were bombed in ww2? This was due to extra government borrowing, largely caused by increased spending on health, education, and social security benefits. Still, the Great War is estimated to have cost the UK around 3.25 billion. Some automated-tools could help already in 1940s' industry, but they were better used in steel-based mnaufacturing (tanks for example) than wood-based such as aircraft. Parramatta History and Heritage. How did they ration food during world war 2? , 7 December 1941: Attack on Pearl Harbor. [4], In 1815, at the end of the Napoleonic Wars, British government debt reached a peak of 1 billion (that was more than 200% of GDP). The table above outline the approximate expenditures of various world nations during World War II. By Robert B. Bryce, . This MG-34 is a recoil-operated machine gun that is air-cooled and German. This is the only source we've been able to find that matches the 3.7 trillion figure referenced in the viral image. Specifically, the consensus seems to be that they were evenly matched in battle most of the time. Italy, though at first a German ally, fared no better. London suffered widespread damage during World War II as a result of aerial bombardment, which devastated the docks and many industrial, residential, and commercial districts, including the historic heart of the City. [7][failed verification], Britain borrowed heavily from the US during World War I, and many loans from this period remain in a curious state of limbo. For some people, the cost of the war is considered strictly in monetary terms. World War II had begun. Cost in Dollars in 1914-18. This compares with just 36.8 per cent today. In terms of losses in human lives and material resources, World War II was undeniably the most destructive military conflict to date. During the Great Depression Britain ceased payments on these loans, and they remain outstanding. Rather, two of the major factors in the high death toll during the war was Famine and Flooding, of which there were in fact several, and which absolutely eviscerated the civilian population during the conflict. . Hundreds of thousands were killed in firebombings of Japanese cities, and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 knocked Japan out of the war. These years are also referred to as the . The first real bombing raid on Berlin would not occur until August 25, 1940, during the Battle of Britain. Nearly every human family felt scarred in some way by the war. 10% of todays prices. Russians also point to the fact that Soviet forces killed more German soldiers than their Western counterparts, accounting for 76 percent of Germanys military dead. There is a wide consensus that Bf-109 was more cost effective than Spitfire, but on the other hand Spitfire was what Britain had, plus they had more resources available than Germany and frankly less enemies :) Especially after Barbarossa. Loans issued by and to Britain during the first world war have never been resolved. It is estimated that more than 12,000 metric tons of bombs were dropped on London and nearly 30,000 civilians were killed by enemy action. 8 Financing Britain Further and Keynes's Visits 189 9 Working up to Bretton Woods 225 10 International Institutions 254 11 The 1946 British Loan and Settlement 283 ", I won't give you an exhaustive list for all aircrafts, but I will give you guidelines: Thanks for contributing an answer to History Stack Exchange! Problems arose on the American side, with many in Congress . As Nazi Germany began winning a long string of victories in Europe, the administration of President Franklin Roosevelt began seeking ways to aid Great Britain while remaining free of the conflict. Did the Golden Gate Bridge 'flatten' under the weight of 300,000 people in 1987? After that it began to increase, despite sustained economic growth, increasing to 37% of GDP in 2007. World War II was the biggest and deadliest war in history, involving more than 30 countries. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. Russia. By 1945 the economies of the continental nations of western Europe were in a state of virtually complete paralysis. BRITAIN'S MILITARY COSTS DURING THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR (May 2010) Jeremy Land, B.S., Appalachian State University . To be explicitthis is not the same thing as the total cost of all war damage to the UK. > Arms sales: $4.0 billion. To subscribe to this RSS feed, copy and paste this URL into your RSS reader. Central business districts had generally been reduced to rubble, leaving only suburban rings standing around a destroyed core. Sixty million people died in the Second World Warmore than in any other war before. -USA: $288 Billion USD (US Dollars [$288,000,000,000]) - Great Britain: 20 Billion, 500 Million PS (Pounds. How many people died during World War II? Food during World War 1? - they are very hard to trust in war economies (prices are often determined by government fiat, not market) of different countries (but please feel free to prove me wrong). 25 July 2005. By the end of World War II Britain had amassed an immense debt of 21 billion. 2.3 million combat sorties, 1941-1945 (one sortie = one takeoff). Not helpful. For a Harrier, it's 300 hours - they have to pull the plane apart, while the F18's engines just slide out the back. Military Arms Production Index of Germany: Value and index of military arms production in Germany from July 1944 to March 1945: Strategic raw materials. A good answer would list of couple of fighters, describe their production costs and explain where the data is from and how reliable it is. Dr. Thomas Alexander Hughes (BA, Saint Johns University; MA, PhD, University of Houston) is an associate professor at the School of Advanced Air and Space Studies, Maxwell AFB, Alabama. Germany built more BF109's in 1944 than any other year. Forces and resources of the European combatants, 1939, The Baltic states and the Russo-Finnish War, 193940, The war in the west, September 1939June 1940, The invasion of the Low Countries and France, Italys entry into the war and the French Armistice, The Atlantic and the Mediterranean, 194041, Pearl Harbor and the Japanese expansion, to July 1942, Developments from autumn 1941 to spring 1942, Allied strategy and controversies, 194042, The Germans summer offensive in southern Russia, 1942, The Solomons, Papua, Madagascar, the Aleutians, and Burma, July 1942May 1943, Montgomerys Battle of el-Alamein and Rommels retreat, 194243, Stalingrad and the German retreat, summer 1942February 1943, The invasion of northwest Africa, NovemberDecember 1942, The Atlantic, the Mediterranean, and the North Sea, 194245, The Eastern Front, FebruarySeptember 1943, The Southwest and South Pacific, JuneOctober 1943, The Allied landings in Europe and the defeat of the Axis powers, Developments from autumn 1943 to summer 1944, Sicily and the fall of Mussolini, JulyAugust 1943, The Allies invasion of Italy and the Italian volte-face, 1943, The western Allies and Stalin: Cairo and Tehrn, 1943, The Eastern Front, October 1943April 1944, The war in the Pacific, October 1943August 1944, The Burmese frontier and China, November 1943summer 1944, Developments from summer 1944 to autumn 1945, The Allied invasions of western Europe, JuneNovember 1944, Allied policy and strategy: Octagon (Quebec II) and Moscow, 1944, The Philippines and Borneo, from September 1944, The German offensive in the west, winter 194445, The Soviet advance to the Oder, JanuaryFebruary 1945, The end of the Japanese war, FebruarySeptember 1945, The First Atomic Bombs Tested and Used During World War II, https://www.britannica.com/event/World-War-II, Engineering and Technology History Wiki - Code-Breaking at Bletchley Park during World War II, 1939-1945, The National WWII Museum - World War II and Popular Culture, World War II - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11), World War II - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up), New dig likely buries hopes of unearthing Dutch WWII loot, Ken Potts, one of last 2 USS Arizona survivors, dies at 102, Explorers find WWII ship sunk with over 1,000 Allied POWs. There can be no real statistical measurement of the human and material cost of World War II. Is this plug ok to install an AC condensor? a. Site design / logo 2023 Stack Exchange Inc; user contributions licensed under CC BY-SA. You can read more about thisand find out how to report Facebook contenthere. Conservative Government, 1970-1974 Adjusted for inflation to todays dollars, the war cost over $4 trillion. By 1942 many other foodstuffs, including meat, milk, cheese, eggs and cooking fat were also 'on the ration'. The U.S.A. spent the most on the war, just over 340 billion dollars. In 1931, President Herbert Hoover announced a one-year moratorium on war loan repayments from all nations, due to the global economic crisis, but by 1934 Britain still owed the US$4.4bn of World War I debt (about 866m at 1934 exchange rates). Full Fact fights for good, reliable information in the media, online, and in politics. Corrections? 10 key Second World War dates you need to know. The Anglo-American Loan Agreement was a loan made to the United Kingdom by the United States on 15 July 1946, enabling its economy after the Second World War to keep afloat. Liverpool was the most heavily bombed British city outside London. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. Though there are numerous reasons for it, some had more impact than others. 799,972 propellers accepted, 1940-1945. Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search. Without these supplies, Britain would have lost the war. New guide to religion in schools in response to tumbling parent religion figures, MDU appoints criminal law specialist to head legal team. Much of this was held in foreign hands, with around 3.4 billion being owed overseas (mainly to creditors in the United States), a sum which represented around one third of annual GDP. To determine the most expensive wars in U.S. history, 24/7 Wall St. used a 2010 report from the Congressional Research Service titled "Costs of . This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. For example, the MG39 and MG 42 were several times more expensive and took much longer to produce than the Bren. Around 1939, when World War II began, the United Kingdom imported two-thirds of its food, all of which had to be shipped over oceans teeming with German U-boats. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. During World War II the government was again forced to borrow heavily in order to finance war with the Axis powers. It was vital support which helped Britain defeat Nazi Germany and secure peace and prosperity in the post-war period. While the war was still being fought, however, rebuilding was all but impossible. This does not answer the question, but describes how to do it. But there was also another cost, one much more irreplaceable than money the costs in human lives. In the 1930s, before the outbreak of the Second World War, the population of the United Kingdom was somewhere between 46 million and 52 million. The luckiest ones did not lose a loved one, but they still experienced dislocation and deprivation. Adjusted for inflation to todays dollars, the war cost over $4 trillion. The money cost to governments involved has been estimated at more than $1,000,000,000,000 but this figure cannot represent the human misery, deprivation, and suffering, the dislocation of peoples and of economic life, or the sheer physical destruction of property that the war involved. 299,230 aircraft accepted, 1940-1945. He formerly served Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. The economic cost of this war has greatly changed the world by altering the power structure of the world. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top, Not the answer you're looking for? 7 July 1937: Clash near the Marco Polo Bridge, close to Beijing. However, given that it took 15,000 man-hours to build a Spitfire 1A and 9,000 to build a Bf 109E, it seems that BF109 was a vastly better plane: Germany should have been able to field 5 bf109's for every 3 Spits. The money cost to governments involved has been estimated at more than $1,000,000,000,000 but this figure cannot represent the human misery, deprivation, and suffering, the dislocation of peoples and of economic life, or the sheer physical destruction of property that the war involved. What was the effect of the Civil War on the cost of cotton? How much did WW2 cost Britain? (Read Sir John Keegans Britannica entry on the Normandy Invasion.). Bad information ruins lives. Poland, for its part, had guarantees of French and British military support should it be attacked by Germany. The Soviet Union and China are believed to have suffered the most total casualties, while an estimated 5,800,000 Poles died, which represents about 20 percent of Polands prewar population. Canada and the Cost of World War II The International Operations of Canada's Department of Finance, 1939-1947. This bombing blitzkrieg (lightning war) would continue until May 1941. Between D-Day and the end of August some 83,000 British, Canadian and Polish troops became casualties, of whom almost 16,000 were killed. Agriculture in all the occupied countries suffered heavily from the destruction of facilities and farm animals, the lack of machinery and fertilizers, and the drain on manpower. In the first stages of war, the Germans carried out many bombings of towns and cities in Poland (1939), including the capital Warsaw (also bombed in 1944), with Wielu being the first city destroyed by 75%. That's roughly equal to the value of Apple and Amazon combined. Which Teeth Are Normally Considered Anodontia? How many people died during World War II? Which countries did Germany not invade? The Nazi overlords of occupied Europe drained their conquered territories of resources to feed the German war machine. If as you state, a Spitfire cost 9,500 to produce. What was the most significant event in ww2? How much did the blitz cost Britain? The Allied landings at Normandy on June 6, 1944, opened a second front in Europe, and Germanys abortive offensive at the Ardennes in the winter of 194445 marked the Third Reichs final push in the west. The war in the Pacific began on December 7/8, 1941, when Japan attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor and other American, Dutch, and British military installations throughout Asia. The UK was the world's second-biggest arms exporter behind the United States over the past decade, government figures suggest. These civilian deaths are even more difficult to determine, yet they must be counted in any comparative evaluation of national losses. The main combatants were the Axis powers (Germany, Italy, and Japan) and the Allies (France, Great Britain, the United States, the Soviet Union, and, to a lesser extent, China). How many bombs were dropped on the UK in ww2? Millions of able-bodied men and women were drained away to perform forced labour in German factories and on German farms. Internal transport systems were completely disrupted by the destruction or confiscation of railcars, locomotives, and barges, and the bombing of bridges and key rail centres. By the early part of 1939 the German dictator Adolf Hitler had become determined to invade and occupy Poland. France. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. All together, this table, which includes more than 15 countries and its allies, totals, https://online.norwich.edu/academic-programs/masters/military-history/resources/infographics/the-cost-of-us-wars-then-and-now, https://researchworldwar2.weebly.com/economic-costs.html, https://www.awm.gov.au/articles/second-world-war, https://www.britannica.com/event/World-War-II/. War has always been a costly endeavour, and World War Two was the most expensive war in human history.