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| General |
The majority of the records and photographs on this website are from the National Archives
at College Park Maryland. The Army Air Corps and the Coast Guard played major
roles in the conflict but most U-boat related material is found in the
records of the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations. These records
were transferred from the Navy Historical Center in Washington D.C.
to the U.S. National Archives at College Park Maryland in 1996. Materials
at the archives are separated into Record Groups. Navy records from
World War II are found in Record Group 38. |
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| Photographs |
Photographs are viewed on the fifth floor of the Archives.
There are over 18,000 photographs in Record Group 38. Finding aides
for the Navy collection consist of 3" X 5" index cards with
subjects listed alphabetically. Each photograph is numbered. Navy photographs
are numbered 80 G XXXXXX with the X's numbers between 1 and 999,999.
There is a small Coast Guard collection with numbered 26 G XXXX. Most
photographs in Record Group 38 are 8" X 1 0" black and white
prints mounted on 11" X 14" cardboard. A small number of photographs
are found in the textual records. A few of the photographs on this site,
for example photographs taken from POWs, are found in the Textual Records
section of the Archive stored along with the written records they depict. |
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| Textual Records |
Textual records are viewed on the second floor of the Archives.
Finding aides for Record Group 38 consist of lists of the contents of
various boxes of records. Records are grouped by type and in some cases
by the departments and divisions of the Naval staff. Records found on
this site are from the following groups: Action Reports listed by the
names of ships and aircraft squadrons, records and materials collected
from survivors of sunken U-boats and amassed during the interrogation
of survivors by the Office of Naval Intelligence, Various records of
the U.S. 10th Fleet, records and photographs associated with ASW Incidents.
When the report of an attack on a U-boat reached the Chief of Naval
Operations Staff, an ASW incident number was assigned and used to track
all the records and materials associated with that incident. |
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| U-boat Logs |
When U-boat Headquarters was captured in the last days of
World War II, the War Diary, records and Log Books of almost all the
U-boats that returned safely to port were saved and taken to London
England. When the war ended, these records were microfilmed. Copies
of these microfilms may be viewed on the fourth floor of the Archives.
Finding aides consist of a book which lists the U-boats by number and
gives the number of the roll of microfilm that contains the logbooks
for a particular boat. |
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| The U.S. National Archives |
Records at the National Archives belong to all the citizens of the United States. Anyone over the age of 16 can visit the Archives and view these records first hand. Rather than describe the location, hours, and research procedures at the Archives, click on the icon below to proceed to their excellent website which provides the latest information on locations, hours and research procedures. |
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The U.S. National Archives |
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