[Theo Boiten]

Hello Frank and Nick,

Thanks Nick for answering Frank's question. When it comes to German Luftwaffe records of WWII, we have written the following in the Introduction to the Nachtjagd Combat Archive series:

Unfortunately, very few Luftwaffe records survived the war, for several reasons. Firstly, most of the Luftwaffe documentation pertaining to victory claims in the 1940-43 period was destroyed in an RAF Bomber Command raid on Berlin in November 1943. Following the loss of these records, the Oberkommando der Luftwaffe/Reichs Luftfahrt Ministerium (OKL/RLM) requested that all Luftwaffe units re-send a list summarising all victory claims made before 25 November 1943. Thus, the extensive but incomplete fighter and Flak claims records for 1940-1944, which were compiled by the OKL/RLM at the end of 1944, are a reconstruction of original documentation. Secondly, other documents (some 15,000 files) of the RLM that were stored in Berlin were lost in an American bombing raid on 3 February 1945. Thirdly, on orders from the German Air Force High Command, the vast preponderance of Luftwaffe unit War Diaries and Luftgaukommando (Air Force District Command) War Diaries were put to the torch in April 1945, in operation Feuertod (‘Death by fire’). One of the primary sources which disappeared at the end of the conflict were the archives of the Aussenstelle Wiesbaden (Abschuss Kommission), the official inquiring body of the RLM and OKL that was responsible for the examination and confirmation of claims submitted for aircraft shot down by the Luftwaffe during WWII. Thus, only an estimated 2 to 3% of the Luftwaffe’s original mass of files survived the war.

Cheers, Theo