[ArtieBob]

IMHO, this thread has been flawed from the beginning, primarily be cause the wrong question was asked. The 1944 loss lists have been
sort of a "Holy Grail" of Luftwaffe researchers for many years. If there was anything close to a real lead as to their current existence or
location, I am certain more than one of this sites participants would have been immediately following up on that lead. This may well have
already happened and there is a good chance you would not know. If you watch how this site works there are many participants who
share information freely, for example Matti, who is so generous with his material. There are others who simply say a particular item
is incorrect, but will not share either the correct information or source. I don't need to list any names , if you follow TOCH closely, you
know who they are. If one of those found the loss list, the rest of us would almost certtainly not know.

So in my humble opinion, the real question that could be answered by some of the site participants is; Are there document collections
that exist, that have not been well researched? A subsidiary question is identifying the why and how of a collection's provenance, which
might indicate whether the type of document you are searching for would have a reasonable probability of being included. For example,
much of the captured Luftwaffe material that came to the US had been sellected for its generic content, i.e.Wright Field-technical data,
USSBS-production and bomb damage, CIOS-technical, organizational, etc. Military operational material (i.e KTB, loss data, etc. was
of little value to these groups and if there are snippets of operational documents , they were probably there by accident. So, where
should one look? In the postwar years, USAF did studies of Luftwaffe operations in Germany (Karlsruhe) with ex-Luftwaffe personnel
participating, this resulted in a series of studies which can be found without too much effort. What I do not believe has really been studied
is the source material used for these studies. I believe some of that was microfilmed, but has not been available to researchers. Another
potential source may be University document collections, there are some with large amounts of WW II material.

There are probably not any large collections of original Luftwaffe documents remaining in the USA, as most was either returned to Germany
or destroyed by the early 1960s. There are some original documents in several locations, but the one I have handled were mostly technical
and the dregs that somehow missed the return to Germany process.

When researching material at the USNASM, the archivists pointed me to the Navy micofilms from the Paris clearing house, 152 rolls with no
indexing. I went frame by frame through this material and prepared a rough finding aid for mostly technical data. IIRC, there was another
unindexed microfilm collection (at the moment, I can't remember if it had a name). I did some preliminary sample scans through that
material and it seemed to be more of an operational nature and I believe there was even a small item of loss list material found. I was
dissapointed because it was a duplicate of a time period coverd in the IWM microfilms, although if my memory is correct, it did appear
to be made from a different copy than IWM.

If you are serious, there are some opportunities for finding material that has not been widely circulated. Work smart, ASK THE RIGHT
QUESTIONS, use archivists, in many cases, not only are they helpful, but have useful knowledge you might not expect. But if you are
serious, understand the commitment real research takes. Even with finding aids and assistance, researching a fairly narrow subject took
years, thousands of miles of travel, considerable financial investment, and staring at well over a milliom frames of often poor image quality
material, most of which was not what I was interested in. I started in the 1950s and am still, at 82, working on my projects, although at
this point, I do not do so much traveling, relying on helpful contacts in many countries, some of whom may be reading this.

Best Regards,
Artie Bob