The Cost of War - WWII in Statistics

I happened to be looking at some of the online offerings of the Center for Military History and came across a statistical analysis of American  war production.  Among other things, there were charts showing the number of various types of Sherman tanks shipped under lend lease and the total dollar value of the shipments.  Applying some simple math, I was able to calculate the average cost of an M4A2 and an M4A4 shipped to the UK.  It appears that an M4A2 (I believe this was the gasoline model) cost $64,877 per unit shipped.  An M4A4 (diesel) cost $68,864 per unit.  An M3 Medium Grant cost only $32,472.

What was the most common personal weapon produced?  Was it the 1903 Springfield, the 1917 Modified Lee Enfield?  Maybe you thought it was the M1 Garand or even the Browning Automatic Rifle.  No, it was the humble M1 Carbine by a long shot.  Of the 11,301,090 shoulder weapons produced during the war, 68% were M1 Carbines.


Finally, we all know that WWII included a massive expansion of the United States army.  So what was the chance of getting rejected in 1943?  It was 36.3 per cent.  Yes, that is right, of the 5,191,400 registrants at the inductee stations for the Army and Navy (not including the coast guard), 1,883,800 were rejected.