Luftwaffe Aircraft Loss Reports?

[Larry deZeng]

Thanks - I did not know about the AV-1, RUS or USA series.

There are a bunch of others, too. The ones I listed are just the main ones. The correct title of the collection is: Records of Luftgaukommandos Downed Allied Aircraft Reports. The index to these 700 linear feet of files can be found on 17 microfiche that are part of RG 92 (why there and not RG 242 is a mystery). You can find more details here:

http://www.lwag.org/forums/showthrea...ftgaukommandos

I just tried to locate the collection using SEARCH on the NARA web site ( http://www.archives.gov/ ) but I couldn't find it. I suspect they haven't yet entered it into their on-line catalog.

[Andreas Brekken]

Hi, Larry

Was the entire files photographed onto microfilm? Or only an index?

Especially interested in the Russian downed aircraft part.

BTW, link to the record of the Bf 110 referred to earlier:

http://www.ahs.no/ref_db/lw_loss_pub...?lossid=138560

Regards,
Andreas B

[RodM]

Originally Posted by Larry deZeng

There are a bunch of others, too. The ones I listed are just the main ones. The correct title of the collection is: Records of Luftgaukommandos Downed Allied Aircraft Reports. The index to these 700 linear feet of files can be found on 17 microfiche that are part of RG 92 (why there and not RG 242 is a mystery). You can find more details here:

http://www.lwag.org/forums/showthrea...ftgaukommandos

I just tried to locate the collection using SEARCH on the NARA web site ( http://www.archives.gov/ ) but I couldn't find it. I suspect they haven't yet entered it into their on-line catalog.

Hi Larry, if I may, the correct references for, firstly, the microfiche indexes and, secondly, the actual folders of reports are:

RG 92.9.2 Missing Air Crew Reports, Air Crashes by Date: 4 September 1939-8 May 1945 (Lists of Allied air crashes prepared from German sources, 1939-45), Records of the American Graves Registration Service (AGRS) Missing Air Crew Reports, National Archives Microfiche Publication M1380, fiches 5970-5984.

RG 242.9.4 Luftgaukommando Reports pertaining to downed Allied aircraft 1939-45

The microfiche indexes, of course, only relate to aircraft of the Western Allies, and, in many cases for RAF aircraft, an individual folder for a crash isn't held at NARA, there only being a reference to the crash being in a summary telex on a file for a USAAF aircraft. The British Ministry of Defence has custody of the large collection of original reports relating to RAF aircraft, all of which remain classified.

Sadly, I think that documents from some of the original folders at NARA may have been stolen over the years, based on a small number of surveyed files that were missing summary signals referred to in the microfiche indexes.

Thanks for confirmation of the existence of the Soviet air force crash reports - I often wondered if these were declassified. I wonder if any effort was ever made to index them? I doubt it.

Cheers

Rod

[Nikita Egorov]

RUS-21 to RUS-6016 (downed Russian aircraft);
etc., etc.

is a folder detailed the investigation of the downed Allied aircraft, eyewitness reports, recovery of remains, burial details, and many folders also contain dogtags, photos, letters and other personal possessions recovered from deceased airmen found in the wreckage.

Extremely interesting! Are those files available for ordering, working with?