USN Overseas Loss List by Month
December 1941 through August 1945
Special thanks to Douglas Campbell at Syneca Research Group for generously donating this listing!

For help on using this database see the notes at the bottom of this page

Note: These may take a while to open!

AAIR is looking for volunteers to assist with the databases. While our databases contain tens of thousands of records, they are far from complete! We need volunteers to assist by going through the microfilm and entering the information into a spreadsheet. To assist, one must have Excel and a microfilm or fiche viewer which can be picked up on eBay for about $25.

Database Fields:

This database is a general list of who, what, when, where, and why, for WWII USN overseas losses, both operational and combat.

1) DATE:  This is the date in which the aircraft was lost.  In some instances, the scrapping of aircraft was only reported monthly, so you may see a number of scrapped aircraft being reported on the last day of a month; however, these aircraft are not linked with an operational squadron but rather with a CASU or A&R unit.

2) TYPE:  This is the type or class designation of the aircraft lost.

3) BUNO:  This is the aircraft's Bureau Number, or Serial Number, used by the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard.

4) SQUADRON:  This is the squadron to which the aircraft lost had been attached.  In many instances the squadron to which the aircraft was attached was a Naval Air Station (NAS), or a Marine Corps Air Base (MCAB), or flying under Station Operations, or assigned to a Naval Attaché, or just attached to a salvage unit awaiting the scrap heap at or near the end of the war.  Some were even lost while being transported by ship before being assigned to a squadron and these aircraft are listed as Unassigned.  In many instances, though, the exact operational squadron could be determined and are listed in this field.

5) FROM:  This is a two-fold field in that if the aircraft lost was assigned to a ship, that ship is listed here.  If not attached to a ship, than the squadron was located at a land-based airfield, in most cases a field on one of the numerous islands located in the Pacific, and that field or island is also listed here.

6) DOWN:  This is a listing of the area in which the aircraft was lost.  In almost every case the best that could be identified is the nearest island to where the ship was when the plane attached to the ship was lost (e.g., Hawaii), the location over land where the plane when lost (e.g., Tokyo), the battle in which the aircraft was participating when lost (e.g., Battle of Midway), or even the body of water the aircraft was lost in (e.g., Battle of the Philippine Sea would be simply Philippine Sea).  The exact latitude and longitude of where every aircraft went down is not possible, except when the aircraft went down with a sinking ship.

7) AREA:  This is a generalized area of the world where the aircraft was lost.  For example, Hawaii and Midway are in Western Central Pacific (WCENPAC).  EMPIRE is the Empire of Japan and PHIL is the Philippines.

8) PILOT:  This is the pilot's name and rank or rate who was with the aircraft when the aircraft was lost.  Many of the names may be incomplete or misspelled as the reference materials used was very poorly reproduced.  In some instances, no pilot is listed but rather a statement such as (DECK LOSS - KAMIKAZE) or (DECK LOSS - TYPHOON); this is self-explanatory.  In some others the field is left blank, but a name needs to eventually go into it.

9) FATE:  This is the fate of the pilot reported at the time the plane was lost.  It is a single letter represented as follows:     

 U - Unknown
 S - Saved
 M - Missing
 D - Dead

Although the fate of many of those reported Missing were eventually changed to Dead, what is represented here was the status of the pilot's fate when the original report was made.

Also see of list of USN acronyms page.