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This collection consists of microfilm copies of documents relating to research and development work conducted by the Ordnance Office of the German Army at the research station at Peenemünde, as well as document listings and indexes of those documents prepared by United States Army's Ordnance Research and Development Translation Center at Fort Eustis, VA.
At the end of World War II the Allies captured a large volume of documents relating to research and development work conducted by the Ordnance Office of the German Army, including work done at the research station at Peenemünde. The material was made available to ordnance personnel and contractors to aid US research efforts and a portion was housed in a library at Fort Eustis, VA. Most of the material in the Fort Eustis library was identified by the original Peenemünde Archiv ("ARCH") number; documents not having such numbers were arbitrarily assigned Fort Eustis Library ("FE") numbers. For wider accessibility, portions of the FE material were microfilmed by the Army, while part of the ARCH material was separately microfilmed by the Navy as the Peenemünde Guided Missile (PGM) microfilm. In addition, the Ordnance Research and Development Translation Center at Fort Eustis utilized a number of qualified German Prisoners of War to review and abstract all of the library material. From these abstracts the Ordnance Department prepared a multi-volume Accession List of German Documents Pertaining to Guided Missiles, which included over 3200 documents housed in the Fort Eustis library, including both FE and ARCH documents.
NASM.XXXX.0468
United States. Army. Ordnance Department. Ordnance Research and Development Translation Center
bulk 1938-1945
Unknown, from Fort Eustis?, Gift, Unknown, NASM.XXXX.0468
3.4 Cubic feet (17 boxes)
National Air and Space Museum Archives
This collection consists of an original and use copy of the Accession List (5 volumes each), as well as Author and Subject Indexes to Volumes I through III of the Accession List, and 71 rolls of 35mm microfilm of FE documents from the Fort Eustis library.
Series 1 consists of printed copies of the listings and indexes compiled by the Ordnance Research and Development Translation Center at Fort Eustis, with use-copy photocopies filed as a group before the original documents, which were printed on fragile wood-pulp paper. Entries in the Accession List are organized by a unique subject classification numbering system which is explained in the Subject Index to Volumes I, II, and III. Each entry in the Accession List provides both the original German and a translated English title for the document, publication information, an abstract, and lists the document (ARCH or FE) number. Series 2 consists of 71 rolls of microfilmed documents. Unfortunately there is no organizing principle to the FE document microfilm, or any such organization has been lost, although most documents are separated by blank frames on the microfilm. Not all of the FE-numbered material in the Accession List was microfilmed. The original documents were returned to Germany in the 1950s and divided between the Deutsches Museum in Munich and the Bundesarchiv in Koblenz. For more specific information on the original FE documents, as well as on other archival materials relating to the work at Peenemünde, see Michael J. Neufeld, The Rocket and the Reich: Peeneünde and the Coming of the Ballistic Missile Era (New York: Free Press, 1995). For ARCH-numbered material held by the National Air and Space Museum, see Captured German/Japanese Air Technical Documents: Peenemünde Guided Missile (PGM) Microfilm (one series of Accession NASM.XXXX.0431).
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests
No restrictions on access.
Captured German Documents (World War II): Fort Eustis Library (FE) Microfilm, Acc. NASM.XXXX.0468, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution.
Ballistic missiles
World War, 1939-1945
Rockets (Ordnance)
V-2 rocket
V-1 rocket
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Microfilms