Meaning of KU Bericht (Report)

[RodM]

Hi Norbert,

the "KU" reports were among the Luftgau reports captured by the Allies at the end of the war. The "KU" designation, of German origin, refers to US Bombers. Similar reports exist for British bombers "KE", fighters "J" and there are other reports for the Middle-East "ME", Balkans/central Europe ("KSU"/"KSE") and of an unknown type "AV".

The original surviving KU reports, at NARA in the US, are folders containing signals and reports and even captured papers found on crew members. One of the reports associated with the KU files is the “Abschließende Meldung über Anfall von Luftwaffe-Feindgerät und gegnerisohen Flugzeugbesatzungen”, although I don't know if these exist for each file. The collection is not complete - The first surviving report (from the index) is KU 7 for a loss on the 12th Aug '43 and the last report is from 1945.

None of the surviving reports are at the Bundesarchiv. They are retained, for US aircraft, in the US (at NARA and available in RG 242, with a microfiche index in RG 92) and, for RAF aircraft, in the UK (reputedly on the MRES files held by the British MoD and off-limits to the public).

I attached some samples from a KU Report...

Cheers

Rod