[B]What are my chances to survive until 1945? [/B]
It depended a lot on your branch, what you did, where you were stationed/deployed, and your rank. If, for instance, you were Luftwaffe ground crew (lets say a mechanic), your chances of surviving was actually pretty good. On the other hand, if you were a pilot, your chances were much less but it also still depends on what you were flying. Transport pilots would have done better than most, but fighter or bomber pilots not so much.
If you were Kriegsmarine, your chances of surviving was much better on coastal boats like the E-boats. Next would be the larger heavy cruisers. Whereas, submariners had a dismal chance of making it through the war. One statistic I read said that 3 out 4 of submariners or 90% didn’t make it (I have three relatives who were on U-boats and didn’t survive and one who was killed on the Bismarck). Another statistic I read put the number at 1 in 8 making it safely back home.
When a sub was hit or damaged in that it can’t surface, it goes down quick. The water pressure keeps you from being able to open the hatches while the sub is filled with water (usually it’s a matter of just a few seconds). Even if you could manage to get out, the chances are that the submarine was already so deep you’d be crushed by the water pressure, or you simply could make it to the surface before drowning. Not a pleasant way to go.
If you were in a armor unit, you’d think you’re chances of living through the war was pretty good. After all, you’re surrounded by tons of steel. Well, yeah…sort of. If a tank took a direct hit, it usually burst into flames. The hot shell would penetrate the armor and enter the hull or turret where it would ignite the shells and ammo inside, causing a massive internal explosion. In addition, the fuel would explode as well.
So, if the initial explosion and concussion didn’t kill you outright, chances were that you’d knocked out and burned alive. In fact, there are many stories of individuals, severely dazed, being roasted alive trying to get out through one of the hatches. Many times the enemy took a bit of mercy of them and shot them.
However, tanks did provide much more protection than being an ordinary infantry soldier, especially if you were in one of the better tanks like the Panther (3.1 frontal and 2.1 side) or Tiger II (3.9 frontal and 3.1 side) which were thicker armor than the enemy and had much more powerful guns. Still, for most US and UK tanks crews, the survival rate around 80% (it was slightly less for the British). For German and Soviets crews, it wasn’t much different; around 55% to 60% respectively. The majority of deaths occurred once you exited the tanks due to small arms fire.
Artillery and anti-aircraft crews tended to do right. The artillery crews took a lot of hits from other enemy crews, tanks, and infantry attack, which disabled or destroyed the equipment, but most of the crews were usually able to survive. Anti-aircraft crews had to worry about strafing fighters as well as bombers and their payloads, which were much more difficult to evade. One hit and the whole crew was gone, and possible the next crew over too. Individuals would operated forward outposts (spotters) had a very high mortality rate given their proximity to the enemy.
Snipers also had a very short life span. No one liked snipers, who were seen as “sneaky” and unprofessional by the average soldier. They took great pleasure in taking out a sniper by any all means possible (it was commonplace for snipers, if caught, to be executed on the spot). Pioneer or military engineers on the other hand had a much time of it. Their job was building bridges and roads and blowing them up! They also strung communication lines, built housing, airfields, and so forth.
As an infantryman, the odds were definitely not in your favor, especially if you were on the Eastern Front. In the West, the number of dead was 121,020 from 1941 through November 1944 (342,151 missing). In the Balkans, from 1941 to November 1944, it was 24,267 (12,060 missing). In North Africa, from 1940 to 1943, it 12,808 (90,052 missing). In Italy, from May 1943 to the end of November 1944, the death toll was 47,873 (97,154 missing) . In Russia, from June 1941 through November 1944, 1,419, 728 (997, 056 missing).
In fact, as the war dragged on, your life expectancy dropped accordingly. For instance, in January 1942 Germany lost 53, 165, which was a lot I know. But just three years later in January 1945, Germany lost 451,742. Yikes! Even in May 1945, during the last month of the war, Germany still lost 94,528 soldiers. So, if your a soldier who took part in the invasion of Poland, and remained in the East through the fall of Berlin, you’d be in very rare company come June 1945. Of the original soldiers you served with, only 1 in 3 would have been with you the whole way.
I have to mention this too. If you were a non-commissioned officer or ordinary soldier (private, corporal, etc), your chances of being killed or severely wound was much higher than if you were an officer; the higher the rank, the less likely you’d be in harms way, unless you were on the the Eastern Front of course. It’s percentages were simply higher all the way around. Most Luftwaffe pilots were officers, so their causality rates were obviously high whereas there were few officers on German submarines and deep water ships, so most of the losses would be among non-commissioned officers and ordinary seamen (senior NCOs and below).
I’ve provided some links below which you might find interesting. However, generally speaking, the closer you were to action and the lower your rank, the higher your morality rates will be. Especially if the enemy is able to dominate the ground, air, or sea through numbers and more powerful weapons. In the graphs below you can almost map Germany’s fortunes on the battlefield, be it on the ground, in the air, or at sea. Certainly innovations like camouflage, better weapons, and so forth helped keep the death toll down, ultimately German military was simply outperformed and outnumbered.