I find a listing of US WWII MIAs at about 78,000. Does anyone have a number, with source, for the number of German and Japanese MIAs of WWII? One facet of some research. Thank you, Fred J.
I am sure the number runs into the many 100s of 1000s overall. Many germans would have disappeared into the russian 'gulags' and never recorded. John.
including two of my relatives on my mothers side of the familie. no known and official records to my knowledge of German MIA's, too many too count and simply unknown whereabouts, records lost, etc.
John and Erich, Thank you for the comments that pretty much confirm what I have not been able to find; other numbers, yes, but nothing, even speculation, on the respective MIAs. As an aside, I had the good fortune while living and working abroad to meet two exceptional men of that era. One, a German, survived the Russian Front; and the other a Japanese who survived the Battle of Peleliu. Both survived by the twisting grace of Fate. I was ten when the war ended and the numbers of those lost remain for me today absolutely staggering. Fred J.
I can't truthfully give you a good anwer to your question but-and I don't know which book(s) I got this from but, I heard before the Winter of 1944-that there was an estimated 40,000 British Deserters in Paris, appx 50,000 American and about 90,000 German deserters in Paris. Whether that's true or not? I can't say factually.
That would be getting onto a 10th of the population of Paris in 1944, but it may be true just seems alot, wouldn't want to be either the local Police -military and civilian if it is correct. ~Steve
CE, "I can't truthfully give you a good anwer to your question but-and I don't know which book(s) I got this from but, I heard before the Winter of 1944-that there was an estimated 40,000 British Deserters in Paris, appx 50,000 American and about 90,000 German deserters in Paris. Whether that's true or not? I can't say factually." My bet is that these 'deserters' were back in the unit in a day or two, all boasting about the Parisian 'ladies'. John.
As a small aside re German POWs, I read somewhere in my 'Gulag' research that the Russians rounded up all 'SS' troops they could get their hands on, and sent the lot to Wrangel Island, off the northern coast of far eastern Siberia. NONE came home. John.
When it comes to numbers, there are a lot of approximations and abouts. On desertion and "Shot at Dawn" executions, I had read that within the German army that there had been 10,000 executions for desertion, and a variety of reasons, insubordination etc. Trying to substantiate the numbers, I found this site/web on executions, first and second WWars: Links relating to punishments and executions for Desertion and related offenses in World War One (WWI) and World War Two (WWI) including Consciencious Objectors / Consciencious Objection: part of Lachlan Cranswick's Personal Homepage in Melbourne, Au I haven't completed the perusal but some interesting numbers and cases. Fred J
That number of US MIAs at 78,000 reminded me of a book that I scanned at the bookstore years ago (not enough money for the book after dinner and the movie back in the 80s). The title of the book was "Soldiers of Misfortune" or something like that, and it claimed that most of the US MIAs in Europe were taken by the Soviets as they overran eastern Europe and the POW camps located there. Some were released, but the rest dissappeared into the vast expanses of cheery Siberia as the author claimed. As I mentioned, I just scanned the book, intending to return and purchase it, but when I returned, it was no longer there. I'd like to find it now and give it a good read.
A-58 Soldiers of Misfortune: Washington's Secret Betrayal of American Pow's in the Soviet Union. It is on Amazon.com for used hardcover at $3.91. I had come across the same type of information years ago about the disappearance of various military and civilians, however, different source. Amazon.com: Soldiers of Misfortune: Washington's Secret Betrayal of American Pow's in the Soviet Union: James D. Sanders, Mark A. Sauter, R. Cort Kirkwood: Books Fred J.
Hi John, I have to agree with your assumptions. I would bet many of them were probably too inebriated from drinking too much Cognac-and probably were passed out in some park somewhere or in some doorway.
On a related, sorta, theme - does anyone know what happened to Germans POWs released by the western Allies when they returned to their homes in the Soviet zone? I do recall a story of one soldier who fought on the Eastern Front but was eventually capture in the west. He returned to his eastern home (possibly Sudetenland) and was working on a farm when her heard the Czechs were coming for him so he hightailed it to Ireland, where he had grown up.
Rephrasing and bouncing around the net, found the following information on Wiki -- and, other pages -- with at least some figures that one could put together for some kind of approximation of the vast numbers. German military: ". . .2,007,571 missing in action or unaccounted for after the war." 1.The number killed in action was 2,303,320; died of wounds, disease or accidents 500,165; 11,000 sentenced to death by court martial; 2,007,571 missing in action or unaccounted for after the war; 25,000 suicides; 12,000 unknown [6,335]; 459,475 confirmed POW deaths, of whom 77,000 were in the custody of the U.S., UK and France; and 363,000 in Soviet custody. POW deaths includes 266,000 in the post war period after June 1945, primarily in Soviet captivity;[6,239 & 286]. 2. Dr. Rüdiger Overmans believes that “It seems entirely plausible, while not provable,that one half of the missing were killed in action, the other half however in fact died in Soviet custody” [6,289] 3. Soviet sources list the deaths of 474,967 of the 2,652,672 German Armed Forces POW taken in the War. [12,109] 4. Dr. Rüdiger Overmans believes that “It seems entirely plausible, while not provable,that one half of the missing were killed in action, the other half however in fact died in Soviet custody” [6,289] 5. Soviet sources list the deaths of 474,967 of the 2,652,672 German Armed Forces POW taken in the War. [12,109] 6. The number of wounded includes 1,600,000 permanently disabled which was listed in Geschichte Des Zweiten Weltkrieges A.G. Plötz 1960. P. 81 -- World War II casualties - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Fred J.
Cannot vouche for accuracy but here Statistics and Numbers it lists the MIAs at 2,870,404. Feldgrau us usually pretty good though.
I've always assumed that some of those MIA are from patrols that got wiped out in the middle of no-where and people who simply got blown up to the point that you wouldn't know that there was a person there. Dog-tags easily get destroyed or go missing in the vast expanse of the war (think of the ground they covered, and all the places they might have been killed and never found). Again, with the completely-destroyed thing, there wouldn't be any dog tags to find and (say, in an artillery barrage) people would lose track of who they saw hit etc. Of course, I am sure that is just a small percentage of the MIA, but I think it should be considered overall.
I agree with you Mussolini as well as those POWs unaccounted for by the Russians. A large majority would fall under the not found due to being obliterated.
