Appendix D: Marine Casualties1
Location and Date KIA DOW WIA MIAPD KDPOW Total Marines: Off. Enl. Off. Enl. Off. Enl. Off. Enl. Off. Enl. Off. Enl. Guam
(7-10 Dec 41)4 1 13 5 23 Wake Atoll
(7-23 Dec 41)
[Civilian]4 46
[12]6 38
[70]6 13*
[~100]*10 103 Philippines
(7 Dec 41-6 May 42)43 267 5 33 324 16 14 225 90 837 Midway Islands
(7 Dec 41-6 Jun 42)2 8 1 14 25 23 14 40 47 Makin
(17-18 Aug 42)1 17 2 14 12 3 43 Guadalcanal
(7 Aug 42-8 Feb 43)71 1,026 11 98 223 2,693 52 246 357 4,063 Naval Medical Personnel
Organic to Marine UnitsPhilippines
(7 Dec 41-6 May 42)2 3 25 5 25 Guadalcanal
(7 Aug 42-8 Feb 43)8 23 1 4 15 86 24 113 TOTALS 129 1,391 13 108 295 3,193 75 294 17 268 529 5,254
Table of Contents ** Previous Appendix (C) * Next Appendix (E)
[1] These final Marine casualty figures were compiled from records furnished by Statistics Unit, PersAcctSec, (RecsBr, PersDept, HQMC). They are audited to include 26 Aug 52. Naval casualties were taken from NavMed P-5021, The History of the Medical Department of the Navy in World War II, 2 vols (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1943), II, 1-84. Footnotes
The key to the abbreviations used at the head of columns in the table follows:
- KIA, Killed in Action
- DOW, Died of Wounds
- WIA, Wounded in Action
- MIAPD, Missing in Action, Presumed Dead
- KDPOW, Killed or Died while a Prisoner of War
Because of the method used in reporting casualties during World War II a substantial number of DOW figures are also included in the WIA column.
[2] 368 Marine, 60 Navy, 5 Army, and 1,104 civilian personnel were taken prisoner after the surrender of Wake. 3-4% (~17) of the military prisoners died during their captivity, including 2 Marines and 3 sailors whose heads were chopped off and bodies mutilated and thrown overboard from the Nitta Maru, en route from Yokohama to the POW camp near Shanghai.
16% (~180) of the civilian prisoners died during their captivity, including 98 murdered on Wake in October of 1943.