[RodM]

Hi Mike,

the six-digit reports that I ordered were referenced in the indexes on the fiches for November 1944 (# 5981), December 1944 (# 5982), and (mostly) January through to March 1945 (# 5983).

Having looked at fiche # 5985, this appears to have nothing to do with RAF BC in January 1945, instead it contains a list of personnel (name, rank, serial number) of the 20th Bomber Command USAAF.

The last verifiable time that I know the photo prints were viewed at NARA was early 2006, this from the EXIF data of the digital photos of photo prints that I received. My original photocopy order was probably made in 2005.

The frames (totalling 245) that I have copies of run from 131223 to 132742, all relating to losses in 1945 (I did get copies of some earlier frames for late 1944 for a colleague, but no longer have these myself).

If NARA had made photo prints of all the frames mentioned in the RG 92 indexes, then they would have totalled some 30,000+ prints (I see that the reports start in 1939 at around frame 101,400 and end in 1945 in the 132,700s. It was never a case of them making photo prints just for my order, and, besides, half the copies of frames that I obtained were personally photographed by a researcher.

Unfortunately, I no longer have the correspondence pertaining to my dealings with NARA or the orders.

The photo prints are most likely not indexed under Luftgaukommando XI.; it is just that I know this is where they originate from and were probably a part of a cache of Luftgaukommando XI. documents captured by the British in the closing stages of the war (this cache including the Luftgaukommando XI. KTB and an Abschuesseliste). I make this presumption because (a) a large LGK. XI. archive was captured, and (b) they are the Luftgau copies of the reports, and thus do not have a KE/J etc identifier, which was only added at Dulag Luft/Auswertungsstelle West, and (c) if the documents were a part of the Dulag Luft/Auswertungsstelle West collection, one would think that similar documents from other Luftgaukommandos would have survived. The British either captured the microfilm or the original photo prints.


I don't know if the following helps but I believe I made my initial enquiries of NARA based upon Box 77 in RG 242, Stack Area 190, Row 14, Compartment 5, Shelf 3. Box 77 contained a file (RG 242/1033) that had an alphabetical index of crash reports by crash location (this being seperate from the index by report type, i.e. KU/J etc).

Cheers

Rod

PS - Mike, an update - I do retain the original invoice for the six-digit frames (all in the 131000s) that I ordered, and they were all from Box 38, RG 242, Stack Area 190, Row 14, Compartment 4, Shelf 5.

Mark, thanks for the PM, requested high-res pic has been e-mailed