war stats

[63336]

how many bullets got fired (an estimate) in any war?

[Octavius]

When my uncle fought in the Battle of Alesia (the Gallic wars), not a single bullet was fired from a gun.

[dot.hawkes]

do you mean by any side? All sides?

[aka estie]

What is this question for? It is very starange :-s

[aka estie]

Strange, even :)

[johnlambert]

you cant really put a figure on it, it depends on the conflict and nationalities involved. for instance statisics tell us that it took 1 million rounds (bullets to you civvy types) to kill each Viet Cong soldier during the Vietnam war, however in the British Army it would be a different figure as our "fire control orders" are different, we like to conserve ammo and only use lethal force as a last resort.

[dot.hawkes]

And when u say any war, do you want us to find statistics for a random war? Or did u mean a particular war?

[63336]

Any stats, available for any war (since guns were invented Octavius), fired by all sides...

[Octavius]

Ok, I was being facetious.

Ammunition use was generally based on the number, or poundage of �shells� used rather than rounds of bullets. However, I did find something on WW1:

The expenditure of munitions on the Western Front 1914-1918
Expenditure of small arms ammunition for pistols, rifles and machine-guns (usually using rifle calibre rounds, e.g. 0.303-in.) must have reached hundreds of billions, if not trillions. A single, water-cooled, belt fed (250 rounds) machine-gun such as the British Vickers - said to be 'slow-firing' at 450 rounds per minute - would expend, theoretically, 25,000+ rounds in one hour of continuous firing. There are reliable reports of one such machine gun actually firing 12,500 rounds in a single afternoon on the Western Front. The limiting factors were over-heating and barrel-wear. This could be reduced to a certain extent in some models by the proper use of the water-cooling system; water-cooled machine-gun barrels were said to have had a 'life' of 35,000+ rounds when used 'judiciously'.

Further info here:
http://www.westernfront.co.uk/thegreatwar/articles/factsandfigures/ammunitionsupplies.htm