Case Studies

1. A Canadian knew that his father had served with the Royal Naval Air Service. Researches provided his father’s service record, showed that he had served in SSZ airships with records of his flights and also provided an air-to-air photograph.

2. An Australian’s father had served in U-boats. Research provided information about the attacks that had been carried out on his father’s U-boat with the locations of the attacks, details of the squadron and aircrew, attack reports and summaries of attack assessment forms.

3. A New Zealander writing the history of the deaths of New Zealand airmen in service wrote a series of books detailing all of the last flights of his countrymen. The number of airmen involved totalled some 4,800 with details of the aircraft they flew, the squadron number, base, group, the date and place of loss, duty, details of loss where known and other details.

4. A Scotsman wrote the history of his squadron from its formation during the First World War until it finally disbanded in the 1970s with much detailed information from each of the periods of the squadrons existence. The pile of photocopies from the documents discovered during the researches finally reached over a foot high. The researches involved squadron, wing, brigade, group, command, station, combat, reconnaissance, bombing, personnel, medal, prisoner of war, aircraft allocation, loss, accident, anti-submarine and many other records.

5. A German researcher wanted information about Germans who had committed war crimes in Italy during the Second World War. Research provided details of the trials and supplementary papers, prisoner of war records including witness statements that totalled many hundreds of pages.

6. A Canadian genealogist researching the history of her family wanted details of her father’s service in the Royal Flying Corps. She knew that he had trained as a pilot and that he had been involved in an accident, but knew none of the details. Her father’s service record and papers provided details of his accident and his subsequent medical records. It had been his first solo and he had crashed in fog.

7. A museum in The Netherlands wanted details of sorties by Royal Air Force squadrons that attacked the area during the Second World War and later those that were stationed at airfields in the geographical area. "Thank you for the information which was very interesting for our research."

8. A researcher in Spain needed researches in connection with Royal Air Force activities in and around Spain. The researches involved looking at records of squadron, group, command, anti-shipping, anti-submarine, aircraft loss, evader, internee, prisoner of war, air-sea-rescue, photograph, intelligence, and enigma records.

9. An Englishman needed researches into the construction and early history of an overseas airfield. This involved researches into the purchase of the land, compensation claims, maps, foreign and commonwealth records, meeting minutes, photographs, newspapers and correspondence.

10. The son of an RAF airman wanted details of his father’s service career. Researches provided details of his training with a group photograph from his Operational Training Unit, each of his bombing sorties with details of the crew, aircraft type and identity, target, up and down times, station and group records, raid assessments and his medal recommendation.

Click here for an Overview of Military Aviation Records...

Click here for Prisioners of War, escapers, evaders, internees and War Crimes...