After some detective work at the US Archives, I found a US Army produced copy of the German report on the tank action at Viller-Bretonneux. I scanned it up and now offer it for sale on CD. Here is the product description:
Study of German Tank Action at Villers-Bretonneux, April 25 1918
CD containing jpeg images of a German-language document titled "Bericht über Erfahrungen beim Einsatz der deutschen Panzerkraftwagen im Jahre 1918."The report is a certified true copy produced by the US Army in 1932 from the original German document in the Reichsarchiv.It contains orders, war diary entries, and after action comments from the various units involved in the operation. 161 pages (200dpi) with four maps (600dpi).
Price is $15 plus postage ($5 US, $7 International). If interested, please PM me or email me at digitalhistoryarchive(at)verizon.net
Regards, Marc
-- Edited by MLW on Saturday 28th of January 2012 04:42:26 PM
-- Edited by MLW on Saturday 28th of January 2012 04:44:24 PM
Is it legal? I see Mr. Romaynch is flogging it on Axis History, the Great War Forum, and Ebay. I'd like to know the Archive's view.
-- Edited by James H on Thursday 2nd of February 2012 12:35:34 PM
__________________
"Sometimes things that are not true are included in Wikipedia. While at first glance that may appear like a very great problem for Wikipedia, in reality is it not. In fact, it's a good thing." - Wikipedia.
The document is not translated into English. It is in German.
Unlike many European archives, most of the material at the US archives is in the public domain. Their view is that the material belongs to the people, so I am free to access and scan (and resell) copies of the documents, maps, photos, and other material. It is all perfectly legal, moral, and correct.
In fact as I write this, I am sitting in the archives using their WiFi and scanning a series English translations of German documents about lessons learned from Verdun.
Unfortunately, many of the US archive's WWI German documents, while transcribed from the original German documents by US Army personnel, were not subsequently translated into English. In the case of the "Study of German Tank Action at Villers-Bretonneux," it may very well be the only copy of the study in existence since many WWI German records were destroyed when the Reichsarchiv was bombed in WWII (or so I am told by the archivists here at NARA).
