This was a comment on ZH that was good copy pasta and wanted to share. Crematoriums must run at ~1600 degrees F. It takes on average 2.5 hours to burn off organic matter (still leaving behind the bones, bone fragments and teeth that then must be crushed in a separate process). Heat Energy (calories) = m * c * ?T m = mass of human ( average: 80.7 kg ) c = specific heat of human body ( 3470 J. kg-1 . K-1 ) ?T = Change in temperature. ( cremation temp - room temp ) Room Temperature = 26 °C 1600 °F = 871°C So: H.E. = 80.7kg * 3470 J/kg*k * (871-26) H.E. = 236624.5 kcal The energy in a kg of coke(coal) is 8000 kcal/kg. So one body would (under IDEAL conditions) take 236625kcal/8000kcal/kg = 29.57 or about 30kg (66 pounds!) of fuel to burn. To cremate, say, 3 to 6 million ****, therefore, it would take around 100,000-200,000 metric tons (220,462,280-440,924,560 pounds!) of coal. That is an awful lot of coal (i.e. impossible) for a country that couldn’t heat its homes, operate its tanks or fly it's aircraft etc. because of beyond-critical fuel shortages. Also when coal is burnt, it generates around 5-10% of its weight in ash. So, I'll be generous and say 5%. So 9 million kg of ash from the fuel. The average adult leaves ~2.5kg of bone fragments, teeth and ash from cremation. So we have 9 million + 2.5x6million = 24 million kg of ash. That is a lot of remains to just disappear and leave no trace. Makes one think. H.E. = 80.7kg * 3470 J/kg*k * (871-26) H.E. = 236,624.5 kcal per body 236,624.5 kcal * 6,500,000 = 1,538,059,250,000,000 kcal total 999569974676.29 kcal per megaton That's 1.53 Megatons of TNT That's 1000x all the explosives used in WWI. That's 1/2 of all the explosives used during all of WWII. That's 100x the nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. All from a non-nuclear, resource-starved, Texas-sized blockaded nation fighting for its life on multiple fronts during a world war. Truly amazing technology indeed. It really makes one think.