Following the paper trail - Part I

Intro

This series will consist of examples from my document collection showing the enormous amount of paper that was generated by the different parts of the Luftwaffe during World War II.

Antrag auf Zerlegung oder Absetzung - Request to dismantle or dismiss (an aircraft from unit strength)

This pre-printed document was used by units to request either that an aircraft specified was dismantled following an incident that had led to a certain damage which rendered it useless to the unit - or to request that relevant documentation and spare parts connected to the aircraft be transferred to the industry for recycling, to use the modern word.

It is interesting to see at what level of detail these documents where filled in - for the engines even the number of operating hours and in some cases the number of take-offs the engines had been involved in were recorded.

Of course this make one wonder what an enormous number of  paper that must have existed during the war - and to what level of detail one could have been able to research the Luftwaffe if more of these had existed.