NASM Garber Holdings

[Richard T Eger]

From 12 O'clock High!

Richard T. Eger
Records Comparison
Fri May 19 16:08:10 2000


Dear Rabe and Artie Bob,

How would you compare what is at NAII to the DDC microfilms now at Garber? The PB reports at the Library of Congress seem to be, in the main, a subset of the
DDC reports, as the same reel and frame numbers appear on both. Maxwell, however, seems to be a completely different animal altogether, the records concentrating
on the Allied side. Do either of you know whether Maxwell actually has any captured German documents and, if so, how do these fit relative to the NAII and Garber
holdings?

Regards,
Richard

[Richard T Eger]

From TOH!:

Artie Bob
Luftwaffe material
Fri May 19 17:48:15 2000


The information at Garber is almost all technical information, i.e., manuals, test reports, calculations, design data. At College Park, the spectrum is much wider and
there are the USSBS files, OSS, RG242(the Berlin documents), etc., etc.; but the Luftwaffe information I am looking for ends up being small pebbles embedded in a
very big pile of rocks. The HRA at Maxwell has a very limited amount of actual German documents, but has a fair amount of intelligence material, some of it very
interesting and remnants of the USAF post war historical files from Germany. Rabe is certainly the expert on Maxwell's holdings.

[Richard T Eger]

The following picks up within a thread on 12 O'clock High! and deals with the microfilm holdings at the Garber archives:

Artie Bob
ADI(K) document filming
Tue Sep 4 21:55:20 2001


There was a similar thread, a few days ago and apparently most ignored what I said then. My point was documents collected by ADI(K) , at least some of them, were microfilmed, not at the "Torpedo factory" in the USA, but at the document collection center in Paris in 1945 by US intelligence. These are not part of RG242 and probably are not at NA. I have seen some of the reels and they are very specific as to the date organization and location of the filming.

[Richard T Eger]

From TOCH!:

Richard T. Eger
ADI(K) microfilms
Tue Sep 4 22:38:52 2001


Dear Artie Bob,

Would you mind telling us just where you saw these microfilms? Could the set at the NASM Garber archives be the same?

The one I looked at, ADI(K) 153, contained a number of items, one of which was item 1305, cataloged as a report on the Me 262 nightfighters, with photos. It actually turned out to be initially as claimed, but also included a bunch of non-related material, all of which was of a technical nature. The Mil designated microfilms, as I mentioned the other day, did contain operational material. I'll try to get a better understanding of the microfilm holdings at Garber when I go back within the next 2 months.

Going back to the ADI(K) microfilms at Garber, it was Larry Wilson, a Garber archivist, who zeroed in on this document. In his searching, he deduced that the item numbers ran consecutively from reel to reel. Thus, he was able to quickly locate the reel that item 1305 was on. A stamp on the first page of this document says:

U. S. NAVY - USSTAF

Microfilm No. 1305

153

Larry believes that the ADI(K) group in London created these microfilms in liaison with or at the behest of the US Navy, as a Navy officer resided where the microfilming was being done.

Hindering locating information on these reels is a lack of frame numbers.

Regards,
Richard

[Richard T Eger]

From TOCH!:

Richard T. Eger
Additional comment
Tue Sep 4 22:41:59 2001


I forgot to mention that the cataloger of the item 1305 document appeared to not be aware that it was composed of a number of documents and that the photos appeared in the non-nightfighter related documents.

Regards,
Richard

[Richard T Eger]

Email from Artie Bob
Tues Sep 4, 2001

I believe that most of what Larry knows about those films may have been what I gave him several years ago. At that time I went through many of the reels very fast, just to see what type of material was there. I gave my hand scribbled notes to Larry and the lady (can't remember her name) as they had no information on the content. Much of it, I had not seen before. Contrary to what Larry says, if you look at the trailers, it is clear they were filmed for ONI at Paris in 1945! Most interesting were the accession lists describing the material collected, and here you would see the notations for material taken by the war crimes tribunal, A (1) a, etc. My belief is the approximately 150 reels at Garber are the tip of the iceberg, or at least was at some point in time. Just how much was microfilmed before it left Paris by US intelligence and where it might have gone is something I am working on. So much for now,
Artie Bob

[This message has been edited by Richard T Eger (edited 10 October 2001).]

[Richard T Eger]

Email to Artie Bob
Re: German Records on Microfilm
Tues Sep 4, 2001

Dear Artie Bob,

Thank you for writing to me.

To the best of my knowledge, there were intelligence gathering and probably microfilming functions in both Paris and London. I would really like to know more about these. Were these efforts coordinated? Who was responsible for each office?

As for the Garber ADI(K) microfilms, I think I need to get a look at the leader of a few of these to see if I can get organizational information. ADI(K) put out intelligence reports. To do this, it was necessary for them to gather primary material. Whether the primary material was ever microfilmed, I'm not sure. Vaguely, I think I read or heard that the primary material was eventually disposed of by the British. A lot of stuff ended in the trash bin after interest in it subsided. Just think of the Arado 234 in the landfill at Anacostia, I think it was. We were just fortunate enough that interested folks hung in there at the Torpedo Factory to microfilm as much as they did and that the USAAF very seriously undertook the extensive microfilming of technical reports, the fruits of which are now at Garber. The NASM, NARA, and AFHRA archives are literal goldmines for Luftwaffe researchers. Virtually always underfunded and undermanned, it is not unreasonable to think that these resources are not utilized to the extent that they might be.

Warmest regards,
Richard

[This message has been edited by Richard T Eger (edited 10 October 2001).]

[Richard T Eger]

Email from Artie Bob
Re: German Records on Microfilm
Tues Sep 4, 2001

My point is that when I was last there, the Garber people had simply not looked at the content of the ADI(K) reels. BTW, the filming info is on the trailers , not the headers, so you don't see it unless you have gone through the reels. It is not a professional disagreement, it is simply the facts. Look at the reels for yourself. As for helpfulness, the Garber people have always been pretty good to work with, but they are not real knowledgeable on the provenance of the Luftwaffe material. And rightly so, for their first priority should be the preservation of USA aviation history. That they ended up holding the Wright Field German documents is probably a minus for them with the limited facilities they have for outside research personnel to work. My continuing ! interest in how much of the ADI(K) material was filmed at Paris is based upon the descriptions in accession lists of documents that hold the key to several areas for me. How about a Stkz assignment list for Fw 190 or Do 217?, Just an example!
Another Larry, Dezeng, is the undisputed master of RG242, but not all the USA material apparently came by the same route, nor was it handled in the same manner. The information concerning the % of material filmed may well be correct for RG 242, the "Berlin" collection, but may not be for Wright Field. And there are other collections, USSBS, the NA technical manual collection, the JFM library, apparently now folded into the L of C, etc, etc. Some contain only tantalizing fragments, others have considerable quantities of material, depending on your interests.
One of my current projects, running at low priority is a contact in Germany who is comparing the BA documents against the Wright Field document lists to see just how much was not filmed.

Best regards,
Artie Bob