[andyfox]

"I don't think expected casualties were a very pressing concern at the time."

I can't speak to the whole war, but I know a bit about the end of the war with Japan. There was a great deal of discussion of expected casualties that would occur were an invasion of Japan to take place. President Truman, and others, used those casualty estimates (although Truman altered the numbers to suit his purposes) as a mean of justifying hte use of the atomic bombs. How could a president evaluate the efficacy of a particular action without discussion of casualties?

I agree with your perceptive assessments in the last three paragraphs of your post.