Bolbrinker, 5. Panzer Regt. at Tobruk, April 1941

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Hoplophile
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Bolbrinker, 5. Panzer Regt. at Tobruk, April 1941

#1

Post by Hoplophile » 23 Oct 2017, 03:59

I am posting this message for two reasons. First, I am looking for help in finding the work in question. Second, I hope that the post will help others in their search for those manuscripts from the Foreign Military Studies series that are particularly hard to find.

In 1947, Generalmajor Ernst Bolbrinker, wrote on a manuscript (D-088) for the US Army Foreign Military Studies program on the subject of the role played by the 5th Panzer Regiment in the attack upon Tobruk in April of 1941. I found out about this manuscript in the notes to monograph about this event written for the US Army Combat Studies Institute (CSI) in 1986 and republished (as a facsimile) by the US Marine Corps in 1990.

Here is the citation to the original monograph.

Ward Anson Miller, The 9th Australian Division versus the Africa Corps: an Infantry Division against Tanks, Tobruk, Libya, 1941, (Fort Leavenworth: Combat Studies Institute, 1986)

Here is a link to an electronic copy of the facsimile.

https://archive.org/details/9thaustraliandiv00mill

Here is a screen shot of the endnote that describes the manuscript.
Screen Shot 2017-10-22 at 9.14.53 PM.png
Screen Shot 2017-10-22 at 9.14.53 PM.png (33.86 KiB) Viewed 803 times
I looked up the manuscript in the Guide to Foreign Military Studies, which can be found at this URL

http://downloads.sturmpanzer.com/FMS/Gu ... tudies.pdf

There I discovered that, as of 1954, the manuscript had not been translated by the Foreign Military Studies program and that it had been incorporated into manuscript T-3, Volume 1. (This was first volume of a multivolume work on the German campaign in North Africa. Written by Oberst Rainer Kriebel and seven other authors, this volume dealt with the first year of that campaign.)

I searched the website of the Combined Arms Research Library (CARL) at Fort Leavenworth, looking for both the translation of the manuscript made by Gunter Siebert and the original manuscript (D-088.) Unfortunately, I found neither.

Using the instructions provided on the Sturmpanzer website, I went looking for the original manuscript (D-088) on the website of the US National Archives (NARA.)

http://www.sturmpanzer.com/Default.aspx ... em=1&sec=3

Unfortunately, the manuscript was not there. I did, however, find the volume (T-3, Volume 1) written by Kriebel et al. I will be ordering that, both for its own sake, and in the hopes of finding the manuscript (D-088.)

I will provide a report of my findings. In the meantime, I would be very grateful for any information about the location (and availability) of either the Bolbrinker manuscript (D-088) or the translation made by Gunter Siebert.

histan
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Re: Bolbrinker, 5. Panzer Regt. at Tobruk, April 1941

#2

Post by histan » 23 Oct 2017, 23:10

Hi Hoplophile

Check that you are ordering Volume 1 Part 1 and not Volume 1 Part 2

Volume 1 Part 2 is available on Fold3 but is just listed as Volume 1. It does not cover the period you are interested in and starts in June 1941

I think that copies of all the NARA FMS material were given to Fold3.
D-088 is not available on Fold3

Very interested if you manage to find a copy of Volume 1 Part 1.

Regards

John


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Re: Bolbrinker, 5. Panzer Regt. at Tobruk, April 1941

#3

Post by Hoplophile » 25 Oct 2017, 19:02

Hello, John!

Thank you for your kind reply, and for the warning about the designations of the various parts. The records of the Foreign Military Studies program are a rabbit warren, and I am grateful for the help.

I'll let you - and the other readers of this forum - know what I find. Right now, I am trying to get the NARA order form to work for me. (My "shopping cart" is full of all sorts of things - with a combined price of more than $2,000 - that I did not order!)

Cheers,

H.

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Re: Bolbrinker, 5. Panzer Regt. at Tobruk, April 1941

#4

Post by MarkN » 03 Nov 2017, 22:47

histan wrote:
Hoplophile wrote:In the meantime, I would be very grateful for any information about the location (and availability) of either the Bolbrinker manuscript (D-088) or the translation made by Gunter Siebert.
I think that copies of all the NARA FMS material were given to Fold3. D-088 is not available on Fold3
Not all of the FMS studies were microfilmed and thus digitized. Fold3 acquired everything digitized. D-088 was one of those not digitized.

A hardcopy of T-3 and D-088 exist at NARA (used to be Record Group 338 but has been moved to Record Group 549). Don't know about D-088, but another copy of T-3 can be found at BAMA (look up Nehring collection).

A copy of the D-088 translation will probably be held by CARL. But if you get the original German, get your own translation done. ;)

The British used T-3 extensively to generate their own narrative from the German perspective which was unpublished - but can now be obtained from TNA. It's in the CAB series of files.

Richard Anderson
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Re: Bolbrinker, 5. Panzer Regt. at Tobruk, April 1941

#5

Post by Richard Anderson » 03 Nov 2017, 23:10

Adding to the previous excellent recommendations, we found when preparing the Ardennes Combat Simulation Database that access to the FMS copies held by NARA was always hit or miss - the box was checked out by an archivist and could not be found, the box was being microfilmed and they had no idea when it would be available, and etc. So we ended up going to Carlisle, PA and the U.S. Army Military History Institute, which has a complete set and can actually find them when requested...well, we had a stack pass as well, but that is a different story. :D Since the USAMHI merged as part of the Army Historical and Education Center (AHEC) and moved into a newly built facility, access and service got even better. If you continue to have trouble I would contact them.
Richard C. Anderson Jr.

American Thunder: U.S. Army Tank Design, Development, and Doctrine in World War II
Cracking Hitler's Atlantic Wall
Hitler's Last Gamble
Artillery Hell

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