Luftwaffe Target Code 10281

[Chris Going]

Larry, Hi

Just a brief response for now:

Its clear you have the Medmenham two-volume Index of Dick Tracy on the third floor. Probably a photocopy. But you have it there, which is great.

Catalogues were also made of other captures, ie: Patron, Tablet, Monthly, Tenant, Hutch, Orwell, the Russian List, and GX ‘A’. These were all very much smaller. I can’t remember if they were also at NARA. It occurs to me that any GX showing up on the Can Index at NARA is likely to be the US end of the Copycat programme. Somewhere I have an index of the Sorties in the US but not the UK, in the UK but not the US, and those in both places.

Scanning etc.
I first saw the GAF GX stuff at the Pickett Street annex when life was very different. What you describe is the system I met with over ten years ago when Jerry Luchansky was getting the sortie plot degree square acetates prepared for Microfilming. The Scanning is a major problem. As the overwhelming bulk of the GAF photographs are contact prints measuring 30 x 30 cm, and thus do not readily fit onto the platen of anything but an A3 or larger scanner. There’s the ‘no overhang’ rule, and the scanner lid must not crease the image when closed.

Unless the image can be safely housed within a clear envelope for copying, the curled print is a headache. A conservator could get them rehydrated and flattened, but that would be at your expense- so it’s a question of multiple shots on a copy stand.

Best

Chris