Editing Missing in action (section)

===World War II===
[[File:Normandy 2013 (9214509834).jpg|thumb|Grave of an unknown British Lance Corporal of the 50th Division, killed on [[D-day]]. Buried in [[Bayeux War Cemetery]]]]
[[File:Airborne grave, Arnhem 1945.jpg|thumb|German made grave of an unknown British [[paratrooper]], killed in the [[Battle of Arnhem]], 1944. Photographed in April 1945]]
There are many missing combatants and other persons in service from World War II.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www2.hs.fi/english/archive/news.asp?id=20021022IE19 |title=hs.fi |publisher=hs.fi |access-date=November 14, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629165259/http://www2.hs.fi/english/archive/news.asp?id=20021022IE19 |archive-date=June 29, 2011 |df=mdy-all }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=10170 |title=defenselink.mil |publisher=defenselink.mil |access-date=November 14, 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.raf.mod.uk/news/archive.cfm?storyid=6BC35053-1143-EC82-2EF5E68633B0006B |title=raf.mod.uk |publisher=raf.mod.uk |date=August 17, 2011 |access-date=November 14, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091210213824/http://www.raf.mod.uk/news/archive.cfm?storyid=6BC35053-1143-EC82-2EF5E68633B0006B |archive-date=December 10, 2009 |url-status=dead |df=mdy-all }}</ref><ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/german-wwii-soldiers-get-proper-burial-after-60-years/2008/01/06/1199554485790.html |work=The Age |location=Melbourne, Australia | first1=David | last1=Keys | title=German WWII soldiers get proper burial after 60 years | date=January 7, 2008}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.kokodaspirit.com/newsletters/kokoda-spirit-new-february%2027-2008.htm |title=kokodaspirit.com |publisher=kokodaspirit.com |access-date=November 14, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120309052120/http://www.kokodaspirit.com/newsletters/kokoda-spirit-new-february%2027-2008.htm |archive-date=March 9, 2012 |df=mdy-all }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mcquat.co.uk/las_unknown_german.htm |title=mcquat.co.uk |publisher=mcquat.co.uk |access-date=November 14, 2011 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120309052120/http://www.mcquat.co.uk/las_unknown_german.htm |archive-date=March 9, 2012 |df=mdy-all }}</ref>
In the [[United States Armed Forces]], 78,750 personnel missing in action had been reported by the end of the war, representing over 19 percent of the total of 405,399 killed during the conflict.<ref name="franklin-12">{{cite book | last=Franklin | first=H. Bruce | author-link=H. Bruce Franklin | title=M.I.A., Or, Mythmaking in America | publisher=[[Rutgers University Press]] | year=1993 | isbn=0-8135-2001-0}} pp. 12–13.</ref>

As with MIAs from the First World War, it is a routine occurrence for the remains of missing personnel killed during the Second World War to be periodically discovered.<ref name="Gassend Jean-Loup">{{cite book|author=Gassend Jean-Loup |title=Autopsy of a Battle, the Liberation of the French Riviera |date = February 2014|publisher=Schiffer|isbn = 978-0764345807}}</ref> Usually they are found purely by chance (e.g. during construction or demolition work) though on some occasions they are recovered following deliberate, targeted searches.<ref>{{cite journal|title= Repatriation and identification of the Finnish World War II soldiers.|pmc=2080560|pmid=17696308 | volume=48|issue=4|date=Aug 2007|journal=Croat Med J|pages=528–35|last1=Palo|first1=J. U.|last2=Hedman|first2=M.|last3=Söderholm|first3=N.|last4=Sajantila|first4=A.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cw5T3TOdtEA |title=uk.youtube.com |date=February 14, 2008 |publisher=uk.youtube.com |access-date=November 14, 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-86873154.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121104090022/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-86873154.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=November 4, 2012 |title= German soldier's remains exhumed|date=November 6, 2003|access-date=November 14, 2011|newspaper=The Record (Bergern County, NJ)|agency= Associated Press}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://englishrussia.com/2008/07/19/russian-digging |title=Russian Digging |publisher=English Russia |date=2008-07-19 |access-date=2012-10-11}}</ref> As with the First World War, in western Europe MIAs are generally found as individuals, or in twos or threes. However, sometimes the numbers in a group are considerably larger e.g. [[Villeneuve-Loubet mass grave|the mass grave at Villeneuve-Loubet]], which contained the remains of 14 [[Wehrmacht|German]] soldiers killed in August 1944.<ref name="Gassend Jean-Loup"/> Others are located at remote aircraft crash sites in various countries.<ref>[http://www.wciv.com/news/stories/0109/586609.html Wciv.com] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090122082857/http://www.wciv.com/news/stories/0109/586609.html |date=January 22, 2009 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|author=Beata Mostafavi | work=Flint Journal |url=http://www.mlive.com/living/flint/index.ssf/2008/04/world_war_ii_soldier_who_went.html |title=World War II soldier who went missing almost 65 years ago finally gets burial | date=April 23, 2008 |publisher=mlive.com |access-date=November 14, 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmsW4Y_udfo |title=uk.youtube.com |publisher=uk.youtube.com |date=April 26, 2008 |access-date=November 14, 2011}}</ref>
But in eastern Europe and Russia, [[World War II casualties]] include approximately two million missing Germans, and many mass graves remain to be found. Almost a half million German MIAs have been buried in new graves since the end of the Cold War. Most of them will stay unknown. The [[German War Graves Commission]] is spearheading the effort.<ref>[http://www.ibiblio.org/wwii-buffalo/buffalo01/msg03042.html Ibiblio.org]{{dead link|date=October 2012}}</ref> Similarly, there are approximately 4 million missing Russian service personnel scattered across the former [[Eastern Front (World War II)|Eastern Front]], from [[Siege of Leningrad|Leningrad]] down to [[Battle of Stalingrad|Stalingrad]], though around 300 volunteer groups make periodic searches of old battlefields to recover human remains for identification and reburial.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-25589709 | work=BBC News | title=Digging for their lives: Russia's volunteer body hunters | date=January 13, 2014}}</ref>

During the 2000s, there was renewed attention within and without the U.S. military to finding remains of the missing, especially in the European Theatre and especially since aging witnesses and local historians were dying off.<ref name="nyt-ww2-missing">{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/06/world/europe/06search.html | title=Teams Seeking Remains Dig Back to World War II | author=[[Elisabeth Bumiller]] |work=The New York Times | date=September 5, 2009}}</ref> The group World War II Families for the Return of the Missing was founded in 2005 to work with the [[Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command]] and other governmental entities towards locating and repatriating the remains of Americans lost in the conflict.<ref name="nyt-ww2-missing"/> The president of the group said in reference to the far more publicised efforts to find remains of U.S. dead from the [[Vietnam War]], "Vietnam had advocates. This was an older generation, and they didn't know who to turn to."<ref name="nyt-ww2-missing"/>

In 2008, investigators began to conduct searches on [[Tarawa]] atoll in the Pacific Ocean, trying to locate the remains of 139 [[USMC|American Marines]], missing since the [[Battle of Tarawa]] in 1943.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna27922629 |title=msnbc.msn.com |publisher=NBC News |date=November 26, 2008 |access-date=November 14, 2011}}</ref> Between 2013 and 2016 the remains of 37 US Marines were recovered from Tarawa. Among those recovered was Medal of Honor recipient [[Alexander Bonnyman]].

According to official US Department of Army and Department of Navy casualty records, submitted to Congress in 1946 and updated in 1953, the combined possible total of missing service personnel worldwide is closer to approximately 6600 and probably considerably fewer.{{Citation needed|date=December 2019}} Significantly, DPAA continues to list as "unaccounted for" the five [[Sullivan brothers]]—arguably the single most accounted-for group of WWII casualties ever recorded.  Since DPAA alone designates such WWII personnel as the entire crew of the {{USS|Arizona|BB-39|6}} and most of the crew of the {{USS|Oklahoma|BB-37|6}} as both "missing" and "unaccounted for" it is likely that DPAA records keeping is irregular and prone to opinion rather than fact.{{clarify|date=August 2017}}

As of May 10, 2025, according to the U.S. Department of Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, there were a total of 73684 MIAS of whom 1753 MIAS are accounted for and 71931 are unaccounted for<ref>[https://dpaa-mil.sites.crmforce.mil/dpaaFamWebWWII DPaa.mil World War II accessed May 10.2025]</ref>
<gallery heights="160px" widths="200px">
UnknownBritishSoldiers.JPG|Graves of 11 unknown British combatants killed during World War II, in [[Rhodes]] [[Commonwealth War Graves Commission|CWGC]] war cemetery
Lae War Cemetery Indian Army Grave (4x3).jpg|Grave of an unknown [[British Indian Army|Indian Army]] combatant in [[Lae War Cemetery]], [[Papua New Guinea]]
UnknownItalianSoldiers.JPG|Wall [[crypt]]s containing unknown [[Italy|Italian]] combatants killed during World War II, in a Rhodes cemetery
Keren Battlefield 008.jpg|Graves of unknown [[Eritrean Ascari]]s killed in 1941 during the [[Battle of Keren]]
Headstone_of_Three_Unknown_German_Soldiers.jpg|Grave of 3 unknown German soldiers killed during World War II, in [[Cannock Chase German Military Cemetery]]
Grave_of_Unknown_Indian_Army_Soldier_-_Taukkyan_War_Cemetery_-_Taukkyan_-_North_of_Yangon_(Rangoon)_-_Myanmar_(Burma)_(11816857663).jpg|Grave of unknown Indian Army soldier, [[Taukkyan War Cemetery]], [[Burma]]
Grave_of_Unknown_Soldier_-_Taukkyan_War_Cemetery_-_Taukkyan_-_North_of_Yangon_(Rangoon)_-_Myanmar_(Burma)_-_01_(11816839553).jpg|Grave of unknown British or Commonwealth soldier, [[Taukkyan War Cemetery]], [[Burma]]
Normandia_(8067609855).jpg|Grave of 2 unknown German soldiers in [[La Cambe German war cemetery]]
Anonymous_german_grave_La_Cambe_cemetery_Calvados.jpg|Grave of an unknown German soldier in La Cambe war cemetery
</gallery>