website bigpigeon.us, webpage WWII > WWII Personnel - © 2022 by Robert A. Christiansen, updated 17 Apr 2022.
Links to WWII - Personnel subpages:
- WWII Battle Casualties - killed, wounded, prisoner & missing.
- WWII Deaths - battle-related deaths and non-battle deaths - in process.
- WWII Burials - where the dead are buried and about the unrecovered dead - in process.
- WWII Service Numbers - the system of identifying US WWII armed forces members.
WWII Manpower Acquisition
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Prior to WWII, US military personnel needs in peacetime had always been met by voluntary enlistments. However, worsening conditions in Europe in 1940 led to the imposition of a draft in late 1940, a year before the US entered WWII. The accompanying table shows the WWII enlisted/drafted breakdown.
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Enlisted 6,332,000 38.8%
Drafted 11,535,000 61.2% --------------- Served 17,867,000 |
- Draftees were assigned to all service branches.
- Starting in late 1942, all manpower acquisition was through the draft, except for women, 17-year-olds, and men beyond the draft age.
- About 360,00 women, all enlistees, served.
Service Branches
The War Department supported the United States Army, which in WWII consisted of three components, having a combined peak strength around 11.2 million:
The Navy Department supported the:
- Army Ground Forces.
- Army Air Forces, commonly called the Army Air Corps, peak strength 2.4 million.
- Army Service Forces.
The Navy Department supported the:
- United States Navy, peak strength 4,200,000.
- United States Marine Corps, peak strength 660,000.
- United States Coast Guard, peak strength 170,000 (temporarily transferred from the Treasury Department during WW II).
Casualties and Deaths (and casualty and death codes)
Battle Casualties occur in a combat-oriented environment and fit into one of four categories:
Battle deaths - there were four categories of deaths resulting in battle in WWII:
Other deaths were coded as DNB (Deaths Non-Battle). They included:
Commentary on Casualties and Deaths:
- 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 in battle in WWII:
- Killed in Action from the above - KIA.
- Died of Wounds or Injuries - 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:
- I use the War Department's three-letter casualty and death codes. The Navy Department's codes differed.
- WWII was the first war in which US battle deaths exceeded non-battle deaths.
- Unfortunately, the word casualty is often used instead of death, leading to the spread of massive amounts of confusion.
- 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.
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This tabulation of US WWII war dead, broken down by battle-related deaths and other deaths, is taken from p. 193 of World War II by Polmar and Allen.
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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 |
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This tabulation of US WWII war dead and war wounded is by the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, LA.
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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 |
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.
In most European and Asian WWII combatants, civilian deaths exceeded military deaths. The continental US avoided enemy attack. Thus, civilian deaths of US residents due to WWII were small.
Many factors have prevented accurate death counts during WWII (and accurate casualty counts such as war wounded). Below I list a few questions regarding published death counts. There are more.
Are the following US military personnel included as among the WWII war dead?
In most European and Asian WWII combatants, civilian deaths exceeded military deaths. The continental US avoided enemy attack. Thus, civilian deaths of US residents due to WWII were small.
Many factors have prevented accurate death counts during WWII (and accurate casualty counts such as war wounded). Below I list a few questions regarding published death counts. There are more.
Are the following US military personnel included as among the WWII war dead?
- Those who died from German attacks on US warships before the US entered the war.
- 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, a US commonwealth at the time).
- Residents of other countries.
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, 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. A minority 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. A minority died as prisoners of war and their remains were left in a now unknown location.
Sources for the WWII - Personnel webpage:
- The webpage header photo, WWII Mobile Data Processing, is taken from http://www.ibiblio.org/cizewski/signalcorps/32mru/32mruhistory.pdf - THE HISTORY OF THE 32ND MACHINE RECORDS UNIT (MOBILE) by Otis F. Wollenberg. The photo shows the inside of a 32nd Machine Records Unit truck. In the pre-computer era of World War II, the United States Army used mobile data processing centers to help manage personnel records for the huge US Army. Card punch machines were used to code data onto what were popularly called IBM cards and massive decks of cards were then processed by different machines such as sorters and tabulators. Printers would then generate reports.
- 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 WWII dead count by service branch shown above. This is a webpage of the National WWII Museum in New Orleans, LA, https://www.nationalww2museum.org.