National Archives Research (U.S.)

World War II documents are to be found at National Archives II in College Park, Maryland near the University of Maryland campus.  For the NAII website,  go to http://www.archives.gov/dc-metro/college-park/.  The records that I have found most useful in my research have been:

• Escape and Evasion files of American airmen.

• The Appendix C’s of the American airmen.  Originally part of the Escape and Evasion files, these are stored separately.  Often these are the most useful source of information on an airman’s experiences.  (Sometimes, however, you will be lucky and find a copy of the Appendix C in the Escape and Evasion file.)

• Helper files of the Dutch, Belgian, French, etc. men and women who risked their lives to help the airmen.

Here are some suggestions:

• Escape and Evasion files of American airmen are now available online.  (See comments in the next page of this website.)

• The professional archivists in the Research Consultation room in the Textual Research Room will show you how to use the finding aids to locate and order the records you want.

• All such records are part of Record Group 498.  To identify the particular record you want, you will need to specify the Record Group, Stack Area, Row, Compartment, and Shelf, e.g., 498/290/55/21/4, which is the designation for Escape & Evasion Section (MIS-X) Records re: Polish, Swiss, Danish, Yugoslav, and German Helpers, 1945.

• Michael LeBlanc’s 100th Bomb Group website at: http://www.100thbg.com/mainmenus/ee/ee_main.htm, has more to say on the types of records to use.

The next pages of this website consist of the following:

• An explanation of how to access escape and evasion reports online.   Included is a listing of airmen and the numbers of their reports for E&E reports 1-1000, plus my comments on the usefulness of the order in which E&E report numbers were issued.

• Notes on Using the Textual Research Room at National Archives II.

• MIS-X Files, Belgium, 1945-1947. Case Files of Belgian Helpers, Boxes 1-93, RG 498/290/55/21/6, with the range of names in each box.  The boxes are arranged by the level of the award they received.

• MIS-X Files, Holland, 1945-1947.  Boxes 1-145.  RG 498/290/55/23/7.  The range of names is shown for each box.

• Sample Dutch airmen helper questionnaires.

• English translations of terms used in the Dutch helper questionnaires.

• Information on accessing prisoner of war (POW) records.

• Lastly, advice on enlistment records.