Anyone ever found Luftwaffe Kill Reports?
 

Has anyone ever requested and received “Luftwaffe Kill Reports”? How did you get them?
Step 1: (Have) For my research on my Lost Uncles B-17, I have found 6 Luftwaffe Kill claims (1 line listings: Pilot, location, time, aircraft, etc) for Oct 4, 1943 that attacked his formation.
Step 2: (Don’t have) How do I get copies of each complete “kill reports” or “½ Kill Reports” that the Luftwaffe pilots filled out (includes details of the battle & what happened to the plane& crew being attacked). Sometimes each report was a page long.
Many thanks in advance.

Re: Anyone ever found Luftwaffe Kill Reports?
 

Combat Reports are rare; what seems to be the norm are the summaries which you have already

Re: Anyone ever found Luftwaffe Kill Reports?
 

Thanks Chris.

I'm aware they can be hard to get.
I had one sent to me out of the totally unexpected & out of the blue several months ago. It was of a LW Commander Pilot that had attacked another B-17 in the formation that day. That single report put me on to the quest of finding the other Kill Reports for that formation that day.

I figure if that report survived... the others in that group should have survived also.

Re: Anyone ever found Luftwaffe Kill Reports?
 

I'm afraid that survival of Luftwaffe paperwork is fragmentary at best. One respected archivist has estimated that perhaps 95% of it is "gone" -- but bits and pieces still occasionally surface.

When searching through Record Group 242 in the National archives, I ran across a (very) few, with witness reports, from the III/JG 3 in the home defense in 1943, but the microfilm rolls' contents are a hodge-podge in themselves. Technical analysis of a Soviet bomber, a speech from Goering to industrialists, bombing-raid damage assessment, a part of a unit war diary - you get the idea.

There's a scene that may serve to illustrate the dilemma, early in Oliver Hirschbiegel's Der Untergang (Downfall, in English), where clouds of paperwork are being tossed, and settle into a building's courtyard. Doesn't seem likely any of this was picked-up, sorted, preserved...

Good luck in your hunt, you may get lucky, GRM

Re: Anyone ever found Luftwaffe Kill Reports?
 

GR,

By any chance did the fragment of the war diary that you ran across have anything to do with the 1939-40 period?

Re: Anyone ever found Luftwaffe Kill Reports?
 

Sorry, Larry, no gems:

"a (very) few, with witness reports, from the III/JG 3 in the home defense in 1943"

The reason they were noteworthy TO ME was that they mentioned a particular pilot (Surau) and his machine ("gelbe 6" of 9./JG 3).

GRM

Re: Anyone ever found Luftwaffe Kill Reports?
 

Also of Note:
I understand that the Germans microfilmed the Luftwaffe claims & sent them west (?) where they were intercepted by the US and copies sent to England & are supposed to be archived at the imperial War Museum in London. 1943 Claims should be in it... but Kill-reports? Perhaps someone can shed some light on this.

Re: Anyone ever found Luftwaffe Kill Reports?
 

Marv -

Here ya' go:

http://lesliesawyer.com/claims/tonywood.htm

Scroll down about halfway to "OKL Fighter Claims".

L.

Re: Anyone ever found Luftwaffe Kill Reports?
 

...but these are not combat reports but the listings of kills. I refer to my & GRM's earlier postings

Re: Anyone ever found Luftwaffe Kill Reports?
 

Larry, Chris is right... those are the Listings of Kills... I'm looking for the the "Combat Reports" filled out in detail by the pilots.