What happened with captured documents?

Discussion in 'Research Material' started by Buck-Compton, Aug 1, 2021.

  1. Buck-Compton

    Buck-Compton Junior Member

    Hello all,

    It has been a while since my last post. I'm busy researching the Battle of the Scheldt. I was able to find a lot of allied documents and resources but almost none on the german side.

    Now I was wondering about something. What happened with documents which where captured after a division surrenderd in this case the 70th to (probarbly) the 52nd Lowland Division and the 64th to the Canadian 3rd Infantry Division? I assume they where captured, as far as the Germans didn't destroy them themseleves? But what happend with them after the war? Where they kept in allied libraries or eventually brought back to germany?

    Looking forward to your answers!

    Cheers,

    Remi
     
    Chris C likes this.
  2. BFBSM

    BFBSM Very Senior Member

    Remi, Some files are held by the US National Archives, some have been digitised and available on Fold3,
     
  3. Gary Tankard

    Gary Tankard Well-Known Member

    The ones in the US archives are copies of the originals now held in Germany. These are mostly divisional level and above although sometimes sub-unit war dairies have found their way in.

    Quite a number of the US copies can be downloaded for free from various sites. This is a good start for them - Sturmpanzer.com - Sturmpanzer and WW2 German Army Research However, from the end of 1943 divisional level war diaries become increasingly scarce and non-existent for late war divisions. This is the case for the 70 ID I'm afraid.
     
    BFBSM likes this.
  4. BFBSM

    BFBSM Very Senior Member

    I knew there were some free sites, but couldn’t remember them. Thanks Gary Tankard for the post.
     
  5. Lindele

    Lindele formerly HA96



    parts of the diary of an officer from Scotland, was send by the French forces in !945 to Berlin, received by the Soviet forces and was eventually returned by the Soviet forces to that officer.
    These were later given to me to start writing a book about a really interesting escape story.
    Stefan.
     
  6. Buck-Compton

    Buck-Compton Junior Member

    Hello All,

    Thanks for replying. I allready had a look at Fold3 and Sturmpanzer, both didn't hold what I'm looking for. I had hoped there was something similar as to the canadian war diary archives.

    Cheers Remi
     
  7. MarkN

    MarkN Banned

    Documents captured by the British in the field were supposedly to be sent urgently up the chain of command for the appropriate intelligence officers to extract as much useful information as possible. The results of their endeavours would then be published, at least the stuff they thought useful, in regular intelligence updates and briefings.

    At this point, more often than not, the original captured documents would be destroyed.

    What is now held at the German military archives are the documents that German units had sent back to Potsdam (or similar) for archiving and were subsequently captured enmasse. They are far from complete due to (a) missing files lost in the field, (b) copious thinning out by the archivists, and (c) Allied (RAF) bombers dropping bombs on them and causing a fire that burned through whole sections of the storage facilities.

    If you know a set of documents was definitely captured by troops in the field, then if it is information likely to be of use to the troops at the time, it is likely to appear on an Allied intelligence update or bulletin.
     

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