Meaning of KU Bericht (Report)

[Norbert Schuchbauer]

Does anyone have any idea what a KU 327 Bericht entailed and what KU stands for? Also which signature they may be found in at the Bundesarchiv?

They most likely have to do with enemy aircraft crashes but I'm not 100% shure.

Regards,

Norbert

[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

[Norbert Schuchbauer]

Thank you Rod!
I thought my inquiry was such a stab in the dark I would never get a responce. This is more than I ever expected. Thank you so much for your reply.

Regards,

Norbert

[Norbert Schuchbauer]

You would not know were I could get info regarding KU 310 and 327.

Cheers,

Norbert

[RodM]

Hi Norbert,

probably the easiest thing to do is to either e-mail or write to NARA in the first instance, stating that you want a quote to photocopy the two KU files. Note however, if you live outside of the US, that this sort of enquiry takes time and in my own experience, my first request took around four months from initial enquiry to receipt of the photocopies. I recently hired a researcher to visit College Park and photograph the remaining files I needed, this proving to be much quicker...

The relevant contact info is:

e-mail - via the NARA website
http://www.archives.gov/contact/inquire-form.html


snail-mail -
National Archives and Records Administration,
8601 Adelphi Rd,
College Park, MD 20740-6001
UNITED STATES

In both cases, besides, quoting the KU report numbers, also state that these reports are a part of "RG 242 Captured Luftgaukommando Reports on crashed Allied Aircraft"



If you want to get a researcher to obtain the relevant copy, then the following link on the NARA website has a list of independant researchers who specialise in military archives:

http://www.archives.gov/research/hir.../military.html

Cheers

Rod

[Norbert Schuchbauer]

Rod,
thank you so much for the info. I will check it out. May I ask you for further guidance should I get stuck?

Regards,

Norbert