FINAL REPORT ON GMDS.

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP81-00706R000100150050-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 7
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 9, 2013
• Sequence Number: 50
• Publication Date: April 1, 1947
• Content Type: MEMO

J.,.
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M E 0 RANDUM
1st April 1947.
FROM:. German Military Document Section,
Washington, D.C.
TO: DDMO and I
British Army Staff,
Washington, D.C.
Brigadier K.V. Barker Benfield, DSO, MC.
SUBJECT: Final Report on GADS.
I.) The following report is submitted on the
termination of active British participation in the
work of GADS.
Completed w6rk in GADS.
2.) The library under the supervision of Lt.
? R.I. Bussey, is set up in usable order. In detail
the situation is as follows:-
(a) The Army Archives.
This collection is completely on the
shelves and arranged in order of German
iaccession numbers filed under units and for-
mations. The catalogue is complete in re-
spect of Army Groups, Armies- and I and II
Corps, but has not been published.
(b) The High Command Collection.
This is also in order and a new.cata-
logue to supersede the Frankfurt catalogue
is in preparation.
The General Library.
These documents are filed in order on
shelves by the German system "Einheits-
aktenplan" with the exception of SS docu-
ments which are being reorganised. No de-
tailed catalogues have been prepared.
3.) The first program of GADS which involved
the production of studies on aspects of German military
methods and organisation, was completed in July 1946.
The following studies have been published:-
? The German General Staff Corps
? German Operational Intelligence
German Training Methods
German Army Quartermaster. & Finance Organi-
German Army Mobilisation /sation
German Military Transportation
The German Operation at Anzio
Armoured Breakthrough.
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In addition a photo-copy of the German text
of the study German Administration of Occupied Terri-
tories has been made available to War Office and
NDHQ, Ottawa. Four more studies have been completed
but their publication has been suspended; details of
these will be found in para 7.
4.) Considerable progress has been made in im-
plementing the second program of GMDS undertaken in
July 1946. War Diaries and papers of all field for-
mations in the Army Archive collection have been
examined and items of intelligence interest recorded.
About 25% of the documents of the branch Foreign Ar-
mies East of the Army High Command have been examined
and,items of intelligence value incorporated into the
index and part of the general library has been simi-
larly examined. The following table will show this
work in detail:-
Library Section,
Number, of Folders
on
shelves, examined
Per-
centage
exploi-
ted
Number of
intelligence
items located
.and .carded
.:Army Archives
Army Groups
3500
3500
l00%
250
Armies
13500
13500
100%
1650
Corps
15000
15000
100%
1800
Divisions
20000
20000
l00%
2400
Static & occupational
formations *
High Command
Armed Forces High **
Command
Army High Command
.Commander in Chief
of the Army
Chief of the Army
General Staff
Central BranchA'
Operations Branch
- 10000
1600
60
150
400
* Contains little intelligence information
* *
Cont./
Only two agencies (Feldwirtschaftsamt and Ausland/Abwehr)
'Contain intelligence information.
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1,1brary Section Number of Folders Per- Number of
on centage intelligence
shelves examined exploi- items located
ted and carded
Army High Command
(Cont.)
Organisation I Branch 550
Foreign Armies East ***,800 - 200 25% 300
Branch
IForeign Armies West 606
Branch
Training Branch * 25
Chief Supply and Ad- * 200 .
ministration Officer
Attache Branch 60
Chief Army Signal 50
Officer
Chief Army. Transpor-
tation-Officer
Planning Branch )
?
Chief of Rail- )
road troops **** )
Chief of mapping 300.'
and survey
1700
Chief Infantry Officer * 150
Chief. of Armoured trains* _
Chief Artillery Officer 15
Chief Engineer and 250
Fortifications Officer
Chief Chemical Warfare*
Officer
General of Eastern Troops -
General for special * 10
employment
Chief Army Medical 50
Inspector
War Academy * 100
.Army Personnel Office* 15049
Chief of Army Equipmt.* 60,
and Commander of Re-
placement Army
* * *
Oa.
Yew
????
WA'
??? 00
???? owl
41.?
Cont./
Owing to nature of collection a great deal of intelligence.
information is represented by each card.
A very rich source of railway information for Eastern
Europe.
A I '
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? Library Section Number of Folders Per Number of
on centage intelligence-
? - shelves. examined exploi- items located
ted and Carded
AzatAlgh Command
(Cont.)
General Army Office * 25
Army Administration * 10
Office
ArMy Ordnance Office 250
Inspector General of 275
Armoured Troops.
Chief of Training in *
the Replacement Army
???
Chief of Army Archives
General Library
* 300-
??=.
I Political
400
400
100%
10
II Organisation *
250
250
,,,
100/0
5
III Personnel *
300
300
100%
IV Replacement,
1400
1400
100%
50
Training, Tactics
V Specialist Arms*
1100
1100
100%
VI Administration, *
250
250
100%
Finance, Accounts
VII Procurement
2190
1550
70%
50
VIII Section disbanded
(see SS Section)
IX Miscellaneous
1160
,
,
SS Section
4500
*********
Cont./
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5.)
7
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?
Complete sets of cards produced to date
have been distributed as follows:-
Intelligence Library, Intelligence Division
(1 set).
Air Information Division, A-2 Library Branch,
Army Air Forces. (2 sets)
Central Intelligence Group, Office of Collec-
tion, New War Department Building. (I set)
British Army Staff, New War Department Bldg.
Washington D.C. (2 sets)
(g) Reading Panel, Intellisgence Division, War
Department (13 copies of each card for dis-
tribution to agencies within 'Jar Department).
is as
Distribution of items indexed by
follows:-
Military Intelligence 2530
Army
Air Military
Basic Intelligence 7900
Military Geography
? Mapping & Survey
Terrain
Military Geology
Meteorology & Climatology
Medical Geography
Engineering Intelligence
Economic Intelligence
Labour Resources
Transportation
Telecommunications
Ports
Cities and Towns
Scientific and Technical Int. 570
subject
1900
340
4330
2460
800
150
,200
65.
1060
400
35
1260
165
100
400
6.) Approximately 500 items have been micro-
filmed and the microfilms forwarded to re-
quests for micro-film copies in respect of the first
3000 cards of GMDS Intelligence Index have been pro-
cessed and documents are now being copied by BAD micro-
film unit.
Work still to be com leted.
7.) There, are still, studies from the first pro-
gram of GMDS outstanding. The situation in respect '
of these is as follows:-
(a) The German High Command
This study is complete and has been in
part prepared for reproduction.
There is still a great deal of work to
be done on preparing fair copy of the charts
for this study. No work on this is pro-
ceeding at the present time and the study
is filed in its existing state in GMDS.
? fi.1:4?'
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( b) German Manpower and
(c) German Fortifications
These two studies are complete and ready
for reproduction. The War Department is
not, however, publishing these and at the
present time Special Docubent-Section Bal-
timore is endeavouring to make arrangements
for publication. Attempts are also being
made to arrange for publication of these
two studies by Historical Division, War
Department.
(d) German Administration of 02211E121
Territories.
The text of this study is still in Ger-
man. Several copies have been made of which
two were sent to War Office.
(e) German Tactics.
This study exists in a draft German text.
It has not been edited or translated. ,No
further action is being taken upon it. It
has, however, been used by Major B.A. Pearson
in connection with his work on tactics.
8.) The following parts of the present program
are still incomplete:-
Apart from Foreign Armies East documents,
about 200 of which have been examined, the entire
Army High Command collection remains to be examined
and carded. Of this- collection the remaining part
of Foreign Armies East and the whole of the documents
of the Chief of Transportation and the documents of
the Military Geographic Section are specially valuable
and are expected to yield a very large number of
intelligence items. Approximately 3500 potentially
valuable documents remain to be screened in the High
Command collection. -
About 50% of the documents in the General
Library have been screened. Approximately 5250 have
been examined and 6300 remain to be screened. The
unexamined documents refer to procurement, industry,
raw materials, technical ouestionsi weapons, munitions,
equipment and research, and the SS and Waffen SS docu-
ments also remain to be screened,. It is not considered
that there will be a high yield of information from
these documents for the areas covered by the GMDS
Intelligence Index.
9.)
In the library there is approximately three
months Work to be done (at present strength) to com-
plete the arrangement and cataloguing of the High
Command collection, and a similar amount to bring the
General Library into complete order. The preparation
of detailed catalogues for the Army Archives (for
Corps, Division and static formation documents) and
for the General Library, would require a further two
years.
10.)
In addition to documents, GHDS also has
custody of a collection of about 700 reels of micro-
film of documents photographed elsewhere. About 50%
of these remain to be viewed to determine their con-
tent and 95% require examination for the purpose of
the intelligence index.
?
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Outstanding British requirements
,
11.) Approximately 550 requests already sub- 50X1
mitted remain to be _processed and it is anticipated
,that requests from will continue to be submitted 50X1,
for some time to come.
Existin arran ements for com letion of Work of.GMDS.
12.) The continuation of the Intellisence Index
is to be effected by Americz:In Personnel who will re-
main under present arrangements until 1 June 1947.
On this date the maintenance of the library is to be
undertaken by the Adjudant General's Branch, War
Department, and exploitation will be taken over by
Central Intelligence Group. It is not possible to
project the future of GMDS beyond June 1947, but it
is anticipated that exploitation will be continued
on the present lines till the GMDS Intelligence Index
is complete.
'
The filling of British requirements has
been arranged for as follows:-
Copies to:
Chief GMDS
Chief Exploitation Exploitation Section GMDS
Chief Archive Section GMDS
P. Cutler,
-Major, GP.
P 01 M f.rT,
(it
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