Luftwaffe Target Code 10281

[Larry deZeng]

Concise, comprehensive yet very well stated, Chris.

First, thank you so much for straightening me out on the target cards. I will stop pursuing these like a dog chasing his tail in the mistaken belief that they might contain something useful. Interestingly, the Soviets had updated cards of all their airfields that contained a wealth of details that would make them far superior to the Luftwaffe's photo reconnaissance images. Researchers from Belarus have been able to find some of them in regional repositories but the main collection is at TsAMO Podolsk and access to the cards was still being denied to researchers as recently as 2014.

Below are some notes on Dick Tracy at NARA. As you will note, I always had a fee-for-service researcher acting as a surrogate and I did not go there myself. There are holes in the NARA holdings and useful images are missing for quite a few airfields, such as the large airfield complex at Saporoshje (Zaporozhye).


Cartographic Record Group Location Register
National Archives II, College Park, MD
Pages 133, 134, 135 of 175?
RG 242
Series: German Air Force Target Dossiers - Russia
Code and Stack: MAP-6 Stack 430?

The Russian target aerial photos are in the "Dick Tracy Catalogue of Material, Feb 1946." It's contained in two 3" beige 3-ring binders marked "Dick Tracy," on the bottom shelf just to the right of the attendant kiosk in the NARA Cartographic & Photographic Division (3rd Floor). At least that’s where they were in summer 2018.

The NARA Luftwaffe target aerial photos exist in many series, all listed in Dick Tracy. They contain differing amounts of material and are filed under different headings. See also or especially see "Index to Russian Target Material Contained in Packets". When ordering specific "Target Dossiers" include the place name and GX/TM number. Example - Folder E/44: Target Photographs of Airfields.

I believe the TARGET DOSSIERS are available for A to Z place names and so listed in the Dick Tracy Catalogue.

Notes on Material to Be Copied: for my purposes, the most important element of each photo was the German interpretation analysis written in white marker on the face of the photograph. The analysis gives the number of hangars and other buildings, dispersal facilities, Flak positions, airfield measurements, date taken, Target No., the identify of the Aufklärungsstaffel taking the photo, etc. Resolution of the copied photo is important because the researcher will want to be able to see at least some details of the buildings and other airfield infrastructure, such as their rough size and shape.

Notes on Copying: According to a friend who was there in summer 2018 to do a few samples for me, the much bigger problem is the Luftwaffe photos are too big to scan in a single pass on the research room scanner. One of the staff told my friend that if the photo was too big to fit on the scanner he couldn’t scan it. He ignored her and scanned everything I needed, but it took two scans for each photo.

Depending on the quality (resolution) needed, a digital camera could work better, I am told, although there’s still a big problem. Most of the photos my friend scanned were somewhat curled. On the scanner this was no big deal since the scanner top pushed them flat. However, the camera copy stands do not have the special glass covers that hold the original flat; in fact, when he was there they didn’t allow anything to be placed over the original on the copy stand. This means digital camera photos are likely have edge blurring.

Larry deZ.