Re: Kew and Combat Reports
 

Martin,
As far as I know all of the material recovered at the time of the investigation has been restored to Air 1, 27, 50 etc. Not all of it ended up in the original location, as it was not always obvious where it came from. This is especially true of Air 1, where combat reports can be found in squadron, wing, brigade, and theater pieces. Air 50 I think did get restored properly, since basically each squadron had its own piece. Air 50 (and Air 27) is now closed, and can only be viewed on microfilm.

Some of the Air 1 material recovered in the past 5 or so years has not been restored to (some) Air 1 piece.

As the material was restored, Eric O'Dell put a cover letter at the beginning of the piece, detailing what had been recovered, and what was known to still be missing.

Frank.

Re: Kew and Combat Reports
 

Frank – It looks you found and have exactly what I needed. According to my info the first event was on 22nd and (also) Rankin claimed one He-59 destroyed on water on April 9. I sum up it. If you can make copies or extracts of
* P/O Rowden´s sharing on January victory and
* three April claims (Rowden, Heath, O´Meara),
it save me time, nerves and I´ll be very thankful.

Franek – You are right. AM Janousek´s staff got the reports relevant to Czechoslovak airmen and they are in VHU, Prague. However my case is about events without CZ participation.

Regards,
Michal Havrda

Re: Kew and Combat Reports
 

Frank,

I forgot to post my e-mail address.
fairlop@quick.cz

Thanks in advance,
Michal

Re: Kew and Combat Reports
 

Hallo Frank,

Again thanks for that update on those recovered items. Of interest to me because of late I am doing my best to visit the PRO several times a year.

A further query however. To your knowledge has the recovered Air 27/50 material been microfilmed and if so where is it located ?

Regards,

Martin.

Re: Kew and Combat Reports
 

Can anyone come up with a reference to what happened at Kew? How is it possible that so much stuff was stolen? I've tried googling and obviously didn't get the right answer...:confused:

Kyrre the ignorant

Re: Kew and Combat Reports
 

Kyrre,
Graves was stealing this material in the late '80s-early '90s. He was arrested, and found guilty, and given 18 months (suspended) and fined 5000 pounds and ordered to sell his book collection to pay the fine. I do not know how long he continued to work at MOD (handling classified documents no less, I understand). I have a newspaper clipping that Norman Franks sent to me at the time. I have not been so foolish as to ask them to describe the methods he used to steal the records.

Martin,
I know that the recovered Air 50 material at least was microfilmed as separate pieces. I believe if you use the microfilms in the Microfilm Room, or buy it, that it will be included on the end of each piece (unless it had already been microfilmed, of course). At the time of the thefts the PRO had microfilmed the ORBs up to about 300 Squadron. I would assume that recovered pages were reinserted in the bound volume, and then microfilmed. All of Air 50 and Air 27 is now closed to physical access, and only the microfilms are available.

Michal/Fairlop,
My copies are on microfilm, and I cannot print them. I am afraid it will take too much time to fish out the films, clear the books and papers from in front of my microfilm reader, locate the various reports, and transcribe them. You will either have to go there yourself, or arrange for someone to copy them from the microfilm. I won't be going there until sometime next Spring/Summer.

Frank.

Re: Kew and Combat Reports
 

Hi Frank,

It´s a pity however it´s a live. I´ll ask Brian if he can help me during his present trip to Kew.
Thanks for your time !

Regards,
Michal

Re: Kew and Combat Reports
 

Hi

Does the National Archive have a home page. And what is the addres.

Cheers Nick

Re: Kew and Combat Reports
 

Hi Nick,

Here´s the home page: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/
an postal address: The National Archives, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 4DU.

Regards,
Michalhttp://ad.doubleclick.net/activity;s...4;ord=1;num=1?

Re: Kew and Combat Reports
 

Thanks for the update on Graves, Frank. Pity there are still many "Graves" about... :(

Kyrre