questions about PW reports in US army records (NARA)

[Richard Anderson]

And I would add it's *very* interesting to learn it wasn't the case less than 10 years ago. This just means that for a significant number of scholars it used to be too much of an effort, ie a few decades of secondary litterature just did not leverage these documents. Probably, no one but the official historians...

Not even the official historians. Mac MacDonald and Doc Cole both bitched about the mess the authors of the Third Army AAR left the records in. Doc Cole said dealing with that was the hardest part of writing Lorraine Campaign and Ardennes: Battle of the Bulge in the Green Book series.

[Tom Peters]

IPW/G-2 reports

With regards to the British and American POW/enemy unit information, there are a wide variety of sources, all of which vary widely in quality and detail. For US divisions, some have decent G-2 info, some do not. These will be found in the -2.1 (G-2 periodic reports) files. For example, the G-2 periodic reports for the 90th division are filed under 390-2.1. Some divisions have IPW files (-2.13).

At the corps level there is a little more consistency, but still a wide variation. These will be found also under -2.1. For example, G-2 periodic reports of the V corps would be 205-2.1. I have virtually all the NW Europe corps G-2 periodic reports from September 44 to March 45. Some corps have IPW files (-2.13).

There are also IPW reports at the Army level, but it appears many files are missing. Third army has IPW reports (-2.13) for March and April 45. First Army has them for October and later. 7th Army does not have them in RG407, but rather 498 for some odd reason. 9th Army has them for Sept and later.

For British units, you want the INT SUM files which are the equivalent of the US G-2 periodic reports. I have most of these for the period of Sept-March 45, except for the British I corps, which I would love to get my hands on, but are missing from the British Archives.

For French units, the G-2 reports are available at NARA and the French Archives. I have a few scatted files of these.

At higher levels there are also CSDIC files from the British. THese are available at the BA. The US equivalent DIC-MIS files are available in RG165 at NARA.

Mad Dog

[Sam Wren]

Tom Z. - what is the unit? I can check to see if I have any PW reports for it.

[tzt4]

Sam, it is the 902 Stug Brigade. Also picking up 341 and 394 as secondary sister units.

The 902 was widely scattered remnants during Aug44. I am striving to identify wherever divisions picked them up, from IPW / CIR reports. At this point I still have not touched any parts of XV or XX Corps elements in Aug 44. Would love any PW reports from the Divs attached to these Corps.
Also V Corps and British records in late Aug to 1st week of Sep around liberation of Paris.

Finally, anything from 9th Army units in Nov 44 as they took over north of Aachen.

I have many hits already from:
- All the g-2 fles in the 1st Div Museum digital files spanning the entire ETO campaign. Also some hits from VIII Corps elements in July -Aug. (4AD, 6AD, 79ID so far). Also one XII Corps hit in early Sep.
It is very slow going, researching at Corps and Divisional level down to the IPW / CIR reports. But rewarding on the number of hits I am finding, for a unit that had only one specific mention (mistaken as the 102 AG Brig) in all the USA Green Books.
Thank you for any help you can provide.
Tom Zarnock

[Tom Peters]

Tom I have a file and collected information on Stug.902 as well as other units, although most of my records start at September 44. PM me.

Mad Dog

[JABIER]

Among the reports of the US Third Army there are: Detailed IPW Reports
G2 Info Bulletins
Special IPW Reports
Tactical IPW Reports

In the Tactical IPW Reports there is information that is not in the G2 periodic reports of this army and in some of its corps.
Any one knows if other armies had these reports?

About the VIII Corps lost reports, I want to mention that the G2 PRs had a long list of distribution. Maybe a copy exist among the reports of other unit. In fact my Third Army reports came from the USAAF.
Regards,

[Tom Peters]

Missing reports: when looking through the NARA boxes, I found that many reports were missing, some entirely. However, by chance I found that often, reports would be send to adjacent units, or up the chain and down the chain. There were often kept in the G-2 journal and file (-2.2). In this way, I have managed to almost completely recover all corps level G-2 per. rpts. for Sept44 through March45. Div. reports should be locatable in the same manner.

Mad Dog

[JABIER]

Among the reports of the US Third Army there are: Detailed IPW Reports
G2 Info Bulletins
Special IPW Reports
Tactical IPW Reports

In the Tactical IPW Reports there is information that is not in the G2 periodic reports of this army and in some of its corps.
Any one knows if other armies had these reports?

For some time the "Tactical IPW Report" was an annex of the Third Army G2 Periodic Report. At some point it became an indepented report. I asked a researcher to check if that "Tactical IPW Report" exist in First, Seventh and Ninth Armies and did not find it, only the PoW Interrogation Reports (2.13)

Regards,
Jabier

[Tom Peters]

If anyone knows where the IPW (-2.13) reports for Third Army are hiding (I checked in RG498 and RG338) for Sept -February, let me know. I havnt found them yet.

thanks,

Mad Dog