The quest for the missing NAASt 5 reports

During WWII the German Army’s signal intelligence agency operated a number of fixed intercept stations and also had mobile units assigned to Army Groups. These units were called KONA (Kommandeur der Nachrichtenaufklärung - Signals Intelligence Regiment) and each had an evaluation centre, a stationary intercept company, two long range signal intelligence companies and two close range signal intelligence companies.

Each KONA regiment was assigned to an Army group and was responsible for intercepting and decoding enemy traffic. KONA 5 was stationed in Western Europe and their cryptanalytic centre NAASt 5 (Nachrichten Aufklärung Auswertestelle - Signal Intelligence Evaluation Center) worked mainly on the radio traffic of the US and UK forces.

In 1944 NAAS 5 personnel started solving the settings of the US M-209 cipher machine, used at division level by the US Army.

In late 1944 the cryptanalysts of NAAS 5, led by Reinold Weber, built a cryptanalytic device in order to solve the settings of the M-209 device more quickly.

In order to learn more about this device and the way it was used I’ve tried to locate any surviving reports of NAAS 5. According to the TICOM report IF-272 - TAB ‘D’ the following NAAS 5 reports survived the war:

E-Bericht Nr. 1/44 der NAAst 5 dated 10.1.44

E-Bericht Nr. 2/44 der NAAst 5

E-Bericht Nr. 3/44 der NAAst 5 (Berichtszeit 1.4-30.6.44)

E-Bericht 4/44 der NAAst 5 (Berichtszeit 1.7-30.9.44) dated 10.10.44 

E-Bericht der NAAst 5 (Berichtszeit 1.10.44-30.12.44) dated 14.1.45

The first three can be found in the US national archives, collection RG 457 - Entry 9032 - box 22, titled ‘German deciphering reports’.

Unfortunately the last two (covering the second half of 1944) are not there.

I asked NARA if they could locate the missing reports elsewhere in collection RG 457 but they could not. I also requested the reports from the NSA’s FOIA office. In October 2016 they responded that the NAAS 5 reports were included in transfer group TR-0457-2016-0014.

I then contacted the NARA FOIA office and asked for the release of the NAAS 5 reports. 

The material in transfer group TR-0457-2016-0014 was classified so they would have to locate the reports and then review them for declassification. Unfortunately they have checked the files several times and they cannot locate any file titled E-Bericht NAAst 5.

So at this time I am trying to find a solution with the NSA and NARA FOIA office.

In the meantime if you know more about this case, if you think you have a better chance of locating the missing reports etc give it a try.