Using Ultra to research the Luftwaffe

[Nick Beale]

I have prepared a guide that I think could be useful to some other researchers.

Congratulations on your efforts. I am sure many members will be grateful to you.

there is no system to how the files are catalogued which makes researching a particular period rather cumbersome.

There are ways around this. I made a guide to Army/Luftwaffe DEFE 3 files but for 1944/45 only. I did that for my own research when the file index was only on paper but now the online National Archives catologue offers another (much simpler!) possibility for earlier years.

Go to the National Archives Advanced Search page:

• in the "Exact word or phrase" box, type: CAIRO
• in the "Any of these references" box, type: DEFE 3
• in the "Date / from / to" boxes, type [for example]: 1942 and 1943
• The hit the "Search" button and when the results appear, you will see they are sorted by "relevance". Change that to "Date - ascending" and you have the list of files for the year(s) you asked for.

Specifying CAIRO should (I hope) help avoid the many series of naval messages which are also in DEFE 3.

Be warned that for the period before March 1941 you must go to the HW 5 series and that is on paper only.