bigpigeon.us webpage WWII US > WWII Casualties > About WWII Casualties, © 2023 by Robert A. Christiansen, updated by RAC 24 Nov 2023.
Some of this material is now redundant and may be removed later.
Some of this material is now redundant and may be removed later.
Casualties and Deaths (and casualty and death codes)
- I use the War Department's casualty and death codes. Navy Department codes differed.
- The War and Navy Departments had different systems for recording casualties and deaths, and used different criteria for creating casualty and death lists and tables.
Battle Casualties occur in a combat-oriented environment and fit into one of four categories:
- Killed in Action - KIA.
- Wounded or injured in Action - WIA.
- Prisoner of War - POW.
- Missing in Action - MIA.
Battle deaths - there were four categories of deaths resulting from battle in WWII:
- Killed in Action from the above - KIA.
- Died of Wounds or Injuries after reaching a medical treatment facility - DOW/DOI. DOI was seldom used.
- Certain deaths as a prisoner of war are also classified as KIA. (e.g., if they were killed by friendly fire)
- After one year of MIA status, most MIA casualties were given a death code of Declaration of Death, DOD.
Other deaths were coded as DNB (Deaths Non-Battle). They included:
- Most deaths as a POW.
- Certain deaths as a MIA.
- Deaths from rear-area accidents, even if training related.
- All deaths from disease.
- Suicide and homicide deaths.
- Deaths from other causes not related to combat.
- All stateside deaths.
Commentary on Casualties and Deaths:
- Unfortunately, the word casualty is often used instead of death, leading to the spread of massive amounts of confusion.
- WWII was the first war in which US battle deaths exceeded non-battle deaths.
- The US Merchant Marine was not part of the military, and was overseen by the War Shipping Administration during most of WWII. Deaths exceeded 11,000, but not all were US residents.The US Merchant Marine was not part of the military, and was overseen by the War Shipping Administration during most of WWII. Deaths exceeded 11,000, but not all were US residents.
- In most European and Asian WWII combatant nations, civilian deaths exceeded military deaths. The continental US avoided enemy attack. Thus, civilian deaths of US residents due to WWII, except for the Merchant Marine, were small.
What was the WWII United States Military Death Count?
- I have not found a tabulation of US WWII military deaths across branches of the armed forces that tells the sources of the numbers shown.
- The official US Defense Department figure for total deaths is 405,399 (excluding the US Coast Guard) or 407, 316 (including 1,917 Coast Guard dead.)
- Below are some tabulations of WWII dead by branch of service. In all cases, the Army row includes the Army Air Force.
- Those who died from October 1941 German attacks on US warships before the US entered the war.
- Those who died between the end of hostilities in 1945 and the official end of WWII on 31 December 1946,
- Residents of US territories (Hawaii and Alaska were territories at the time).
- Residents of US possessions (much of the US combat burden during the Fall of the Philippines was borne by Filipino Scouts, United States Army units comprised primary of residents of the Philippine Islands, which was a US commonwealth at the time).
- Residents of other countries.
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The official US government tabulation, Coast Guard excluded
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The National World War II Museum in New Orleans, LA, Coast Guard included
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From p. 193 of the 1991 book World War II by Polmar and Allen. I have seen the figure of 65,614 for Navy dead elsewhere.
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Service Branch War Dead War Wounded
Army & Air Force 318,274 565,861 Navy 62,614 37,778 Marines 24,511 68,207 Coast Guard 1,917 unknown ---------- ----------- Total 407,316 671,278 |
Service Branch Battle Other Total
Dead Dead Dead Army & Air Force 234,874 83,400 318,274 Navy 39,950 25,664 65,614 Marines 19,773 4,778 24,551 ----------- ----------- ----------- Total 294,597 113,842 408,439 |
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, https://www.dpaa.mil, was created as a result of the War in Vietnam, long after WWII ended. Its mission is to recover and identify the remains of United States armed forces members who died from any conflict while in the service of their country. As of 16 August 2022, DPAA list 72,304 WWII decedents as unaccounted for.
Please note that this is the number of WWII decedents whose bodies have not been recovered and identified. For perhaps 90% of the unaccounted, their fate is well-known. Most were lost at sea or while on an aircraft. Some died from a direct hit by a bomb or large-caliber shell, and left no identifiable remains. Some died as prisoners of war and their remains were left in a now unknown location.
Please note that this is the number of WWII decedents whose bodies have not been recovered and identified. For perhaps 90% of the unaccounted, their fate is well-known. Most were lost at sea or while on an aircraft. Some died from a direct hit by a bomb or large-caliber shell, and left no identifiable remains. Some died as prisoners of war and their remains were left in a now unknown location.
Sources for Big Pigeon's WWII US > WWII Casualties > About WWII Casualties webpage:
- Research Starters: US Military by the Numbers, https://www.nationalww2museum.org/students-teachers/student-resources/research-starters/research-starters-us-military-numbers provided some of the data shown above. This is a webpage of the National WWII Museum in New Orleans, LA, https://www.nationalww2museum.org.
- https://fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL32492.pdf - American War and Military Operations Casualties: Lists and Statistics, Congressional Research Service, updated 2020. See page 2 for the source data for Table 1 above.