[RodM]

Hi Larry,

thanks for the wonderful and important description of what was in the original captured cache of records, and I can add a few snippets regarding this collection.

I have seen reference in RAF Missing Research and Enquiry Service correspondence that the documents were found in a cellar.

The reference to the microfilm is very interesting. Read on...

The actual folders of textural documents etc relate to files of Dulag-Luft or Auswertungsstelle West, for the 'KU'/'J'/'KE' etc prefix and numerical reference was added by them.

As to the microfilms, among the records in the UK, are photoprints presumably from these films that have made it into The National Archives, within the RAF Special Investigation Branch files (see AIR 40/2294-2312). They relate to typed German-language interrogation reports (which, in relation to the reports relating to British aircraft at least, carry the prefix 'VE') that could be thought of as similar to the ADI(K) interrogation reports. There are also English-Language translation of many of these reports in the Special Investigation Branch files, but I don't know if these relate to or derive from the English-Language translations mentioned in the original cache. I've attached a sample of one of the translated interrogation reports and of a photoprint from these files. It would be interesting to know where the interrogation reports for American PoWs are...

Also, significant portion of the reports in the NARA holding, including everything from 1939 to around 1942, are not the Dulag-Luft/ Auswertungsstelle West files but photoprints of crash reports for Luftgaukommando XI. I was informed by NARA that the British supplied the Americans with duplicates of the original microfilms for the Luftgaukommando XI. material, and that photoprints were made by the Americans from the fims. These account for the six-digit references in the RG 92 microfiche index, for that number relates to the microfilm frame number. Note that there are over 30,000 individual frames. I'd thought that this material had been captured seperately from the Dulag-Luft/ Auswertungsstelle West material (i.e. it was part of the Luftgaukommando XI. archives).

The interrogation reports and Luftgaukommando XI. reports may account for some or all of the 17 microfilm reels mentioned in the original cache. Where are the original microfilms? That's anyones guess! I would suspect that they are still under lock and key in the UK. Does NARA still hold the 17 reels mentioned?

The RG 92 index on micofiche derives from a post-war document and presumably was prepared in the US as an aid to organising and working with the reports they received. This explains why there are many mis-spelt place names and why so few of the 10,300+ KE files are not indexed (for they reside with the British).

Anyway, I hope that this adds a little to our overall knowledge.

Cheers

Rod