Archives of the Army Historical Section Alexanderkazerne in 's-Gravenhage (The Hague)

[Richard T Eger]

From 12 O'clock High!:

David Buckle
Wanted: Ground Crew Info
Fri Jun 16 20:38:17 2000


While there seems to be large amounts of information available about the ground forces and flying units I would like to know what units were required to keep these
going.
I have seen mention of Airfield Construction Units. I assume there were transport and supply units in abundance. Maintenance staff must have kept the aircraft going,
and someone must have turned out to protect the runways.

Any info would help - particularly references as to where I might start to find things

Thanks

David

[Richard T Eger]

From TOH!:

Paul Kamps
Ground crew
Sat Jun 24 21:06:57 2000


I see that I am not the only one who concludes that the glamourboys in planes get more than their share from the limelight, while the hardworking grondcrew and all
other grond staff are largely forgotten. I saw this problem when I was working on German defense works in the Netherlands, anyone can give you all information on all
operational units, but cannot tell you which ground units were working were.
There are several ways to solve this proble. For The RAF you may go to the Public reccord office at kew, Ruskin Avenue. The do have some RAF publications on what
was in the field, but you have to search by yourselve.
For American units you should probably have to contact the National Archives in Washinton, the will have the same sort of papers. Or try Craven and cate, the official
history of the USAAF in world war II.
For the Germans it is a little bit difficult, it is not exactly known what was based were. The book of Kannapin, die deutsche Feldpostubersicht, Biblioverlag,
Osnabruck, 1982, gives an enormous number of units, but in most ocasions without locations, so you have to do some research in local archives. In many an archive
there are papers on requisitions by the German Wehrmacht, although in a place with several headquarters, they had thrown it all away. This is a painstaking work, but
rewarding.
Here in the Netherlands you can also do some research in the archives of the Army historical Section Alexanderkazerne in 's-Gravenhage (The Hague), or at the
Netherlands institute of War Documentation (NIOD), Herengracht 380, Amsterdam, who both have archives of former resistance groups in which some mentioning is of
grond units.
I am working on this subject, but it will take some time, as you have to travel around. Lots of luck