This page is new as of June 2018. It provides access to documents prepared by the Germans during the war that pertain to the crash of
B-17 42-97185 on 14feb45. Many of such documents were acquired by the United States and have been sitting in boxes in the
U.S. National Archives. These are Kampfflugzeug (combat aircraft) Unterlagen (documents), abbreviated 'KU' files. KU is the German term
used for Downed Allied Aircraft documents. The U.S. National archives is in the process of scanning these documents that are contained
in 125 boxes. They are not currently on line; however, it is possible to submit a request for copies of a KU file to
the U.S. National Archives. As their workload permits, access to scanned file documents will be provided.
Currently, we know of no index of KU numbers to date and box, thus, it takes some luck to find the KU number for a given downing incident.
This is an example of such a file.
German clerks made mistakes just like US clerks. This file includes data (doc #4) regarding John R McDonough who was NOT on the crew.
There WAS a Frank L. McDonough who was on the downed 42-97185 and who appears in document 23 regarding being in the hospital.
Leon Nahmias (tail gunner) does not appear in these documents of the crash. Neither does Alfred Lubojacky (ball turret gunner) who,
it was determined from other documents, died when his parachute failed to open fully.
This KU number was apparently found by military researchers investigating the whereabouts of Alfred Lubojacky the sole crew member
who did not survive the downing and it was passed on to the the family. If anyone finds an index to these files or can associate
one or more files to a 306th plane or veteran please advise the 306th BGHA (see Link to Leadership Page or
use feedback link at bottom of our home page. Other types of documents may be added in the future.
The links below are to pdf documents with an image of the original German and the English translation.
Charles Neal did the translation which was reviewed by a native German speaker, they are not perfect as some images are hard to read and
WWII German military abbreviations are hard to evaluate and interpret. Nevertheless, it is likely the same forms appear repeatedly
in many files and will help anyone who does gain access to files regarding their veteran of interest.
NOTE: items in brackets in italics are translator added comments, including the current names of locations in what is now
the Czech Republic; please realize that during WWI these places had German names and they were located in the
Sudetenland, or 'Protectorate' as that area was called by Germany. If a German translator can improve upon the translation
feel free to send feedback using link at bottom of our home page.