Comments by "Quizmaster China" (@QuizmasterLaw) on "The ACTUAL Casualty Numbers for the 2nd Kotluban Offensive (plus more) | Stalingrad Addendum 9" video.

  1. Casualty counts are ALWAYS wrong and should ONLY be seen as estimates! 1) There are three kinds of casualties: killed, wounded, and missing. Some of the missing turn up later alive and well! others are in fact dead. and some of those missing are also wounded. 2) The "killing" army has every incentive to overestimate the casualties it inflicted. It may or may not have an incentive to underestimate its own casualties: that depends on the war, the politics -- will reporting heavy casualties get me more supplies or replacements or instead will it lead to me being demoted or transferred? 3) When exactly did the casualty occur? That's not always so clear as "oh, at 3 p.m. on tuesday 24 november" sometimes it's "this week" or even "this month" generally though not "this season". So this also leads to inaccuarate counts. Its also possible that the same person gets counted dead more than once, once for each unit he's a casualty for the platoon, the squad, the company, the regiment the divsion so one person can easily get counted more than once "this regiment had that many, that platoon this many" 4) Of course after the war there are all kinds of political or professional incentives and agendas which can get the count more wrong or less wrong but which in any event vary from the primary source materials. Casualty counts are only ever estimates: roughly accurate, but only roughly.
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