ARC and ASC?

[jim norton]

hi,
who can tell me the meaning of asc and arc mentioned in the ultra files?
thanks in advance
jim

[Larry deZeng]

ARC = Airfield Regional Command = Kommando Flughafenbereich (German abbreviation: Koflug).

ASC = to do this one, I will need a copy of the paragraph in which it was used. Bletchley did not do future researchers/historians good service by reworking all of these German terms found in the intercepts into English and English abbreviations.

L.

[Nick Beale]

Originally Posted by Larry deZeng

Bletchley did not do future researchers/historians good service by reworking all of these German terms found in the intercepts into English and English abbreviations.

L.

But think of the satisfaction when you finally work one out! To quote from the article on my website:

The messages have a style of language all their own, a bit like reading a telegram. The style is very terse, they use only upper case letters and numbers are often spelled out. They use a lot of abbreviations for English translations of German terms: ARC = Airfield Region Command = Flughafen Bereich. Other examples include: ABLE OBOE or AO (Air Officer, so “AO for Fighters” = General der Jagdflieger) and AMC (Air Movements Control).

Other examples are NOIC (Naval Officer In Command) and SDC (Sea Defence Commander).

I'm not sure about ASC either (except as the USAAF's Air Support Command). Like Larry, I'd like to see the context.

[Larry deZeng]

Yep, Nick, those are good examples of what it is all about.

I wonder if "ASC" is Bletchley's abbreviation for Air (or Air Force) Signals Commander = [Luft]-Nachrichtenführer (abbreviated: Nafü)? Even the lowly ARCs had a Nafü, while commands lower than that, such as a Fl.H.Kdtr., simply had a Nachrichtenoffizier (abbreviated: N.O.). But this is just speculation until Jim Norton (abbreviated: J.N. ) gives us some more to go on.

L.

[jim norton]

hi folks,

thanks for all the input. "3 asc" are mentioned in ultra 1700/6/11/44 in connection with kg26. maybe this helps. the idea with the nachrichtenchief is good, but maybe not correct?!

all the best
j.n.

[Larry deZeng]

Thanks for the additional information, j.n. (), but it's still not enough to be reasonably certain. Nevertheless, I'll take a shot and here is what I think "ASC" or "asc" means in this context with KG 26: aircraft servicing companies. By November 1944, all of the Flughafenbetriebskompanien or FBKs (Airfield Servicing Companies) had been reorganized as Flugzeugwartungskompanien or FWKs (Aircraft Servicing Companies). At the start of the war, each Kampfgruppe had 2 FBKs but by 1944 this had been reduced to one FWK per Kampfgruppe. So KG 26 having 3 of these fits.

L.

[Nick Beale]

Originally Posted by jim norton

ultra 1700/6/11/44

Jim, that's not the serial number of the message but either the time of origin of the original, or time of issue of the decrypted text. Any chance you could give us the serial? It's usually at the top left and will be either CX/MMS/ ... something or two letters and four digits (e.g. KV 5243), in fact both numbers may be there.

Thanks.

[jim norton]

hi,

thank you both. i will take a closer look for the serial!

all the best
jim