Researcher's Corner

It finally occurred to me how to clarify the use of these two terms.

Missing in action was a term used by authorities when an aircraft and crew failed to return, after all present possibilities had been excluded such as the endurance fuel time, survey of other air fields. and search and rescue.

This term was used in correspondence with relatives, stating there was always the possibility of an airman becoming a POW or had escaped capture and was an evader.  As information filtered back through the Red Cross Society and underground organizations, airmen were identified as KIA or POW.  This left the remainder as evaders or lost without a trace (LWT).

After a reasonable time frame, usually six months after failing to return, the authorities for official purposes issued a Presumption of Death Certificate (see example below) to relatives.  To the best of my knowledge there is not a situation where this certificate had to be retracted. 

With the issuance of this certificate, the assumption is made the airman was killed in action in unknown circumstances and it was impossible to bury remains at a known gravesite. These individuals are commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial or at similar cairns in other war theatres.

Missing in action was now replaced by KIA, POW and evader (E). The other two categories I have referred to in our archive reports include Injured (I) and Safe (S).

Of 625 Squadron's seventy-four losses, only nine (see list below) had aircrew in the latter two categories, having crashed in the UK or in liberated Europe after D-Day:

W4999: 1I 6S

ED951: 2KIA 5I

ND407: 2I 5S (Archive Report)

ME676: 7S

LL956: 2KIA 6S (Archive Report)

LM691: 6KIA 1S

NN699: 7S

PB815: 7S (Archive Report)

PD204: 8S (Archive Report)

For this reason I have not used Missing on Action (MIA) as a category to describe airmen's ultimate fate.