Today's post was written by Dr. Greg Bradsher and Dr. Sylvia Naylor, archivists at the National Archives in College Park. This post is also featured on our Rediscovering Black History blog. In April 1945 the 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion received orders to move to the West Coast for a special assignment. Members of this all African American unit hoped to finally see combat … Continue reading Firefly Project and the 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion (“Smoke Jumpers”)
Today’s post was written by Dr. Greg Bradsher, Senior Archivist at the National Archives in College Park. As December 1944 ended and January 1945 began, the German counteroffensive in the Ardennes (Battle of the Bulge) was two weeks old and the Allied forces had stopped the German effort to cross the Meuse River and capture Antwerp. … Continue reading The Monuments Men During January 1945
Today’s post was written by Dr. Greg Bradsher, Senior Archivist at the National Archives in College Park. The linguists with the Allied Translator and Interpreter Section (ATIS) of General Douglas MacArthur’s General Headquarters, Southwest Pacific Area (SWPA) were responsible, at ATIS headquarters in Australia and, attached to units in the field, for translating captured documents … Continue reading The National Archives’ Arthur Evarts Kimberly and the Allied Translator and Interpreter Section’s Document Restoration Sub-Section, 1944-1945
Today’s post was written by Dr. Greg Bradsher, Senior Archivist at the National Archives in College Park. The Monuments Men -- the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives (MFA&A) specialists assigned to General Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) -- had begun operations in France in June 1944 and by December had moved into … Continue reading The Monuments Men: Taking Stock and Preparing to Move Forward, December 1944
By David Langbart. Scholars are increasingly writing about the physical destruction visited upon friendly European countries during World War II’s campaign to free Western Europe from Nazi domination. Recent books such as Keith Lowe’s SAVAGE CONTINENT, Antony Beevor’s D-DAY, Max Hastings’s ARMAGEDDON, and Rick Atkinson’s THE GUNS AT LAST LIGHT (all quite excellent and worth … Continue reading Rebuilding After World War II: The Experience of Saint-Lo, France
Today’s post was written by Nick Baric, a processing Archivist at the National Archives in Washington, DC. In May of 1918 a group of American sailors detached to a base at Kyle of Lochalsh in the Scottish Highlands found themselves in a bit of hot water. They faced accusations of removing a jewel box from a … Continue reading Haunted House Hijinks in the Highlands: Or Sailors in Trouble with Scottish Authorities
Today’s post was written by Dr. Greg Bradsher, Senior Archivist at the National Archives in College Park. Most researchers dealing with the translation of captured and seized Japanese records are familiar with the primary organizations translating those records. These would include the Pacific Military Intelligence Research Service (PACMIRS), the Allied Translator and Interpreter Section (ATIS), the … Continue reading Exploitation of Captured Japanese Documents by the Far Eastern Section, Foreign Intelligence Branch, of the Office of Naval Intelligence (OP-16-FE), 1944-1946
Today’s post was written by Dr. Greg Bradsher, Senior Archivist at the National Archives in College Park. The U.S. Army’s Pacific Military Intelligence Research Service (PACMIRS), located at Camp Ritchie, Maryland, had been established in September 1944 to exploit captured Japanese records. During 1945 it saw a steady increase in staff and workload–from 120 personnel in … Continue reading Exploitation of Captured and Seized Japanese Records by the Pacific Military Intelligence Research Service (PACMIRS) 1945-Spring 1946
Today's post was written by Dr. Greg Bradsher, Senior Archivist at the National Archives in College Park. In looking at some boxes of the Reference Collection of the Departmental Records Branch of the Army’s Office of the Adjutant General (Record Group 407), I stumbled upon two boxes labeled “Protection of Monuments.” They carried the designation “Document … Continue reading The American Defense, Harvard Group’s Committee on the Protection of Monuments
Today's post is written by Dr. Greg Bradsher, Senior Archivist at the National Archives in College Park, MD. On June 14, 1945 1st Lt. Stephen Kovalyak, a Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives (MFA&A) officer, came to Alt Aussee, Austria with Lt. George Stout, USNR, another MFA&A officer, with the 12th Army Group, to evacuate the looted … Continue reading Karl Kress: Photographer for the ERR and the Third U.S. Army MFA&A Special Evacuation Team
