Missing Air Crew Reports, 1942–1945

When an aircraft failed to return from a mission, the Group prepared a Missing Air Crew Report for the War Department, normally shortly after the aircraft was reported missing. A report lists the crew aboard, where the aircraft was last seen, the weather at the time, and whatever else was known of the circumstances of the loss.

Two kinds of document sit side by side in this collection, and the difference matters when reading them.

Original wartime reports. Russell Strong obtained copies of the original MACRs for many of the 306th’s missing aircraft. Those are reproduced here as they were filed.

Russell Strong’s research summaries. Where no copy of the original report could be obtained, Strong researched the loss himself and compiled lists of names and circumstances. These typewritten notes are filed under the date the aircraft was lost. They are his later reconstruction of the loss, not a wartime document.

Strong’s correspondence and supporting research material appear on the 1945 page, under Supplementary Research Material.