NARA holdings online ...

[chicoartist]

FYI:

I was tipped off by a friend that the US National Archives has teamed with Footnote.com (http://www.footnote.com/), to present zillions of NARA documents (military, civilian, political, etc., etc.) and photographs online ... they are all scanned at high-rez.

You can sign up for a 7-day FREE trial, and past that it's $8/month or $60/year. After seeing what they had, I signed up for a year ...
I've been 'virtually' lost in their stacks for a few days now. Here's just a couple of things I dug up, for example ... these have been greatly reduced in size for this post (all photos include good captions with dates, etc.):


This first photo was highly interesting to me because it's dated 21 June 44 -- just before Hofer climbed aboard P-51B QP-X for what would be his last takeoff from Debden. This would also be the last photo taken of Hofer that we know about. He was going along as a spare on the first 8th AF OPERATION FRANTIC Russia Shuttle mission, but true to form he didn't turn back and followed the task force to Russia. Troy White's excellent book on Hofer details for the first time what followed on a later mission during the Shuttle operation ... on 2 July, during the Budapest mission flown from Foggia, Italy, while returning to Foggia Hofer perished over the twin airfields at Mostar, Yugoslavia, crashing into the gun emplacement that shot him down!



A P-38 I came across ...



Many MACRs are currently available ... they'll eventually have them all online. Here's a couple of pages from Ralph K. Hofer's file:




Enjoy!
Wade

[Fairlop]

Wade,

Great reference. My next days are starting with Footnote.com.

Regards,
Michal

[drgondog]

I have been a customer since November. Doesn't have all of the Macrs I was immediately interested in but hugely useful, particularly with a high percentage of "J" reports attached. Worth every penny for me.

[Horst Weber]

chicoartist + drgondog !

Fine reference !

What do you have to provide, to get full access to this archive online ?

I tried it, but it was a
catrasthophy to find the access to this company. The computer wanted my personnnally dates and my credit-card number.

Not so bad. When I provided them with my data, the machine said: Sorry, Give me a valid credid-card-number or you have access to this archive.

Then I provided them a second time to an adress and credit-card number

Thanks !. Then I tried it with a One-Week access. The same procedure, but when an item was shown, the same information: You have no access to this archive !.

Do they take your money by credit-card or what is going on ????

What must I do !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Horst Weber

[chicoartist]

Originally Posted by drgondog

. . . hugely useful, particularly with a high percentage of "J" reports attached. Worth every penny for me.

Hi Bill -

For us ignorant types, what's a "J" report? I infer that it's a part of the MACR ... ?

BTW, I got your book in the other day, and it's fantastic! I love the tons of pics + detailed caption format - my favorite.

Wade

[chicoartist]

Originally Posted by Horst Weber

chicoartist + drgondog !

Fine reference !

What do you have to provide, to get full access to this archive online . . . What must I do !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Horst Weber

Horst,

The way I understand it, only by signing up for a PAID account ($8/month or $60/year) can you gain access to everything. They will take a credit card, of course. If you have problems, they have contact information at the bottom of the home page, IIRC.

Hope you get it sorted out ...

Wade

[drgondog]

Originally Posted by chicoartist

Hi Bill -

For us ignorant types, what's a "J" report? I infer that it's a part of the MACR ... ?

BTW, I got your book in the other day, and it's fantastic! I love the tons of pics + detailed caption format - my favorite.

Wade

Thanks, Wade.

BTW I have about 10+ 4th FG pics that I will send you from the nara database.. you may already have them but I will send anyway

the J report is the LW crash detail report that the USAAF collected, when found, and attached to Macr immediately post WWII. often useful for those groups that didn't keep detail tower logs - as the J report will frequently have some clue to the squadron code and serial no. unless completely destroyed.

Also have exact crash site and burial info.

Regards,

Bill

PS - is there a Direct way you access the USAF photo collection, other than slipping into it from a search, say, on Hofer?

When I got in that way I found the 800+ photo/800 typed explanation of image but havene't found a way to get to all of them

[Horst Weber]

Hi chicoartist !

Those terms were given by the German Luftgaukommando Office, which was responsible for everything, what happened on the ground and came from the air.

J-report means : Jäger = pursiut aircraft
KU-report means: Kampfflugzeug USA = Bombing Aircraft (USA)
KE-report means: Kampfflugzeug England = Bombing Aircraft England (RAF)

Very quick postwar, those reports were send to the U.S. for evaluation purposes. In the States, the originals are still on stock in the National Archives. These files never had an access postwar to German historical evaluatins and discussions and are still in U.S. archives.
Fortunately, most of those reports are added to the respective MACR, but not all.

All the best !

Horst Weber

[Rolfeb]

I'm using this great page since a few weeks. Really helpful. But I can not find the photos they made over Germany during WW II.
There must be thousands of pic's. Any idea?

Thanks in advance
Rolf

[chicoartist]

Hi guys,

Ah, yes, I have seen the "Report of Capture of Enemy Personnel" and like forms describing the plane's remains on a few MACRs ... I was wondering how/why/where those came from. Makes sense that they were added post-war.

As for searches, I do it like a Google Search (using quotes for specific terms), but the original documents don't always use my terms . So, without using quotes I'll type in Hofer, or Don Blakeslee, or Steeple Morden, or 355th Fighter Group, etc, etc, and I'll go to the right hand drop-down menu and select "WWII US AIR FORCE PHOTOS" (or whatever it's called).

If I'm simply searching for "Hofer" in their entire NARA collection, then of course I get the images along with his MACR and other MACRs where he was a witness.

As you know, you'll get their awkward textual description setup with a small image(s) ... if I see an image I like, I'll select that and then once that opens larger in a new window I'll look down and see if that image is part of a larger "filmstrip" (see bottom of page when the photo opens full size), then I'll also scan those as well.

I keep thinking there has to be a better way to search, but maybe not. Their set up is cumbersome to be sure, but it's better than nothing.

I've only run across a couple of 4FG pics so far ... yes, any and all will be greatly appreciated!

Wade