Online WWI Air Combat Reports

Hi. Has anyone seen combat reports online? I know the Public Records Office in London might have them - but where to look. The Aerodrome should source and put some important ones online. One can get alot of useful information from these combat reports named 'Combats in the Air.' I took a few pictures of some combat reports on display at Hendon, IWM etc but they did not come very clear.

D. Excell

After a bit of exploring i found combat reports on this web site - shows how much I know about this site. I usually go directly to the forum.
They look great. Can we have more...

D. Excell

[Frank_Olynyk]

I have between 20 and 30 reels of microfilm at home, from the PRO, of RFC/RNAS/RAF World War 1 combat reports (and still more for WW2). If the shortest reel has 500 combat reports, and the longest has 1000, you are looking at a total of between 10,000 and 30,000 individual combat reports. I will soon begin reviewing these microfilms, because there are large blocks of combat reports at the PRO which have not been filmed, and I need to determine what I don't have. But, in any case, the thought of trying to make available say 20,000 combat reports on the Internet means one has to think of large servers. If the image of a combat report requires 100Kb, you are talking 20 gig. Something to wait for, until hard drives are routinely on the order of 100 Gig.

Frank.

Hi Frank, I guess the capacity exceeds CD storage as well - it would be nice to have all of those reports on CD. You might be able to use some fancy compression methods to reduce your average report size also uncompress a small number of reports onto the hard drive for viewing. I would buy if you or the PRO were selling. Think of the research one could do using that data. It would benefit all. Something to think about...D. Excell

10 Gig is not really a problem anymore. It is not unusual to install a new server 5*18 Gig nowadays.
Of course this would mean some real hardware for the project, not a cheap virtual server.

IMHO the main work will be to transcribe the reports into text and make these available for research on an SQL-database. The scans of the original texts should of course be available to verify the actual script, but only a good database (including pilot, date, place etc, as far as possible) would make it a real gem.

Of course an own server would allow for a accounting system to get at least some return, but without the sponsor or MUCH dedication I fear that this will be in the future for quite some time.

Good luck in your research. If you ever need some advise in the server/internet-area, feel free to mail me.

Frank,

How do you obtain/purchase the reports on microfilm from the PRO? How expensive is it to sponsor the reports going onto microfilm?


cam

[Frank_Olynyk]

Cam,
The old charge for duplicating microfilm (to Diazo, not silver film) was 40 pounds per 100 feet (curiously, they recorded the length of a piece in metric, so they had to convert back and forth). All WW1 aviation records are in Air 1. The big block of combat reports is at Air 1/1216 to Air 1/1229. This represents 14 large archive boxes, each with 1 to 6 pieces; in this case a piece represents a squadron. Combat reports are also scattered elsewhere throughout Air 1. The 1216 to 1229 block has already been microfilmed. If it hasn't been filmed, the cost is 50 pounds per hour, and you can expect an average piece to take 3-5 hours to film. Having said all this, the PRO does have a web site, pro.gov.uk I think, and I think they are in the process of putting much of their catalog online. As a guess, the combat reports which have been filmed would probably cost between 500 and 1000 pounds.

Frank.

Frank,

Thanx for that info. In the Air 1/1216 to Air 1/1229 section you mentioned that each archive has 1 to 6 pieces with each piece representing a squadron. Is this purely combat reports or other squadron information?

cam

Would appreciate advise re. how you accessed the combat reports on this site. Haven't seen any trace them . I get a "FILE NOT FOUND. The requested URL not found...etc". When I go to the search mode. Thanks very much. LEB

Dear Frank: The combat and operations reports for the St Mihiel offensive were cited in Maurer Maurer: The History of the Air Service in WWI. But where are the combat reports for the Meuse-Argonne offensive? If you have updated your shootdown list for the USAS (AEF) I'd like to buy one from you. Why couldn't the microfilms be made available, so that those who want to access certain combat reports can get them from the film? My other thought is that you probably could get a research grant to pay for the conversion of the microfilm to CD-ROMs from which specific reports could be buttoned up to a printer. EOM/Bill Haiber/9/28/99.