Military Europe

Military Europe

European Military Records - How to Locate Anyone Who Is or Has Been in the Military - Armed Forces Sometimes for business or legal reasons, people would like to know more about the military

The private investigation research trace the family's military for soldiers, sailors or airmen. Find evidence to help your quest.

Physical evidence: names on a war memorial or a gravestone)
Written evidence: local newspapers, school magazines, postcards, postmarks , letters written sent to home.
Images: photographs, drawings and maps.
Artefacts: souvenirs, medals, cap badges or buttons from uniforms. Many Medals had their name,
Oral evidence: family or friends war stories on interviews on tape or video.
Sites with Military Records from Europe
WWI Document Archive
German Genealogy - Military Archives
German Military Archives
Moravia - Military Archives/Records
315 Polish Fighter Squadron
Administration of the Prussian Army
Archives Surviving WWII
Austrian State War Archives
Kansas Archive - WWW - VL History Index-Military
The Austrian Cavalry Units in Russia in 1812
Austrian Military Recruitment within Galicia
Entries for Galicia from the recruitment area index kept in the Vienna archives (and cited by Rosemary Chorzempa in her book Polish Roots) are now available in a searchable database online.

Austrio-Hungarian Army Regiments and Uniforms - WW I
Austro-Hungarian Land Forces, 1914-1918
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission
DEBT OF HONOUR REGISTER - This Register provides personal and service details and places of commemoration for the 1.7 million members of the Commonwealth forces who died in the First or Second World Wars. This list has been placed on this website because they list Eastern Europeans that were Commonwealth soldiers.
Documents in Military History Primarily focuses on European military history. They will be adding American and Non-Western military heritages, and contemporary warfare.
The German Cavalry Corps
The German Army of Kaiser Wilhelm II

German Military Records

The Imperial German Army (pre-1914)
Contains information on Prussian army units in Posen.

USMA Archive - Maps of WW I
Kansas Archive - Medals of Poland -
Medals of Prussia -
Military Historical Research Institute
(Militaergeschichtliches Forschungsamt)
Potsdam, Germany
Email address: mgfa-potsdam@t-online.de
Military Photographs of Imperial Germany

North Moravia - Military Records

The Order of the Virtuti Militari and its Cavaliers 1792 - 1992

Orders and Decorations of Poland
Polish Air Force Association
Fundacja Stowarzyszenia Lotników Polskich
Mr Aleksander Maisner - President
238-246 King Street
London W6 0RF
tel: 020 8846 9487

Polish Army in France (WW I) Haller's Army Index
Haller's Army Index Database Search
Description of the Army
About the Records Index
How to obtain copies of the records once an entry is found in the index
About the PGSA Library Research Policy
Polish Army Veteran’s Association of America
SWAP (Stowarzyszenie Weteranow Armii Polskiej w Ameryce) - Polish Army Veteran's Association (of America) or PAVA. Persons who fought in Polish units in the First World War, the 1918-21 War and the Second World War who live or lived outside Poland (USA, Canada and France especially) were often members of this Association. Haller's (Blue) Army is closely associated with SWAP because American Veterans who fought under Haller returned to the USA after the war and formed SWAP in 1922.

Their National address is:
Polish Army Veteran's Association of America
National Headquarters,
119 East 15th Street,
New York, NY USA
10003-2392

The Polish Cossacks
Polish Home Army - WW II
Essays and articles on the Polish Home Army. The site also contains addresses and links to other sites, including archives.

Polish Independent Reserve Brigade
A brief history of the Polish International Brigade 1939-1990
Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum
20 Princes Gate
London, SW7 1PT
WW II Polish Exile records are maintained by the Sikorski Institute.
Polish-Lithuanian Armies 1500-1700

Polish Medals and Militaria
Guide to Polish Medals up to 1990, Medals of the Second Republic of Poland 1918-1939, Medals of the Forces in Exile, Medals awarded by England to Poles during WWII, Medals of the People’s Republic of Poland PRL, Other Polish Medals, 1939 Rank Chart, Cross of Merit, Cross of Valor, Order of Polonia Restituta, Order of Virtuti Militari, Collecting Tips, Links to Other Sites

Polish Military Records
WW II - Wojskowy Institut Historyczny , 00-910 Warszawa- Rembertow , Poland

PolishRoots’ Bayonne Legion Soldiers
Polish members of the French Legion who fought in France beginning in 1915.

The Polish Soldier - WW II
*2nd Corpus , *2nd Warsaw Armoured Division , *5th Kresowa Infantry Division
Polish 3rd Carpathian Division - Polish II Corps, British 8th Army

Polish Military Medals and Decorations List

Polish War Graves in Scotland 1940-1949
Russian Military History
Soldiers and Refugees of the Polish Insurrection of 1830-1831

Anyone with POLISH, LITHUANIAN, UKRAINIAN, RUSSIAN or PRUSSIAN ancestry can request a search of the original documents relevant to the Polish, Lithuanian and Russian refugees who had fought in the Polish Revolution of 1830-1831 and who chose to emigrate to America rather that accept the "amnesty" offered by the Czar of Russia.

The information contained in these original archival records includes all or most of the following: a) first and last name, b) religious affiliation, c) age, d) place of birth (city/town/province/country), e) marital status, f) profession and/or military rank and unit before and after the Revolution, g) physical description of each man (build/facial features/color of eyes and hair), h) dates of transport from point of surrender to internment, i) names and numbers of men and route from internment to port of embarkation, j) Ship's names and dates of sailing and manifests listing each refugee and his profession/military rank signed by Ships' Captains and k) "Declaration of Intent" (refugees' statements in their own words regarding their intention to travel to America).

For a small fee you can learn if one of your ancestors was one of these young men who chose liberty in America rather than oppression and near certain execution at home. You can obtain the wealth of information contained in the records about that one individual, including photocopies of the original documentation and an English translation. For more information, contact:

Jeffrey E. Stokes
259 Kinvara Drive
Pittsburgh, PA 15237

Soviet Archives Exhibit - Moscow

Uniforms of the Napoleonic Era
Includes galleries of pictures!

Vermissten und Toten Datenbank
Missing and Dead database of over 2 million internments.

Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgraberfursorge
Online database of German soldiers (of whatever ethnic background) killed in WWI and WWII. Click on "Grabersuche online" to get started. Just fill in "Name" (surname) and don't worry about "Vorname" (given name). (Not in English)

Wartime News
Quarterly WWII newsletter written by veterans.

CA World War I (1914-1918)
WWI Soldiers From Austro-Hungry, and Surrounding Areas, Killed in Action
This is a partial listing. (Not in English)

World War I - Trenches on the Web
This website is an evolving process, new material is added regularly.

CA Archive World War II (1939-1945)
WWII in Ukraine
World War II - Prisoners of War - Stalag Luft I
WW II RAF Medals (Polish AF units included)
Contact:
Royal Air Force
Personnel Management Agency
RAF Innsworth
Gloucester
MILITARY ARCHIVES - Contacts

AUSTRIA
Austrian War Archives
Austrian State Archives
War Archive (Kriegsarchiv)
A-1030 Wien, Nottendorfergasse 2
Austria
Osterreichisches Staatsarchiv Kriegsarchiv
Sanok & Przemysl 1773 + Military Records
(reprinted with permission of Olga Kaczmar)
For research pertaining to persons in this archives, certain data is necessary: family name, first name and year of birth as well as birthplace and/or hometown.

2) The actual personnel records of the Imperial & royal armed forces, as service sheets, draft lists, and enlistment registers for other ranks, who were at home in areas outside of the present-day Austrian Republic, are not in the custody of the Austrian War Archives, but remained in the successor states of the Austro-Hungarian Empire after the breakdown of the Habsburg Empire in 1918 where most of these records were destroyed.

3) The war casualties records kept in our archives refer to World War I only.

4) The Austrian State Archives do not keep any church-books of civilian parishes, but only from the military parishes of the Imperial & Royal armed forces. There you can find entries of soldiers (marriages and deaths), and of their wives and children (marriages and births) but only if the action took place during service.

The appropriate military districts of Sanok & Przemysl were the following Imperial and Royal infantry regiments
If you want, you can check the older service sheets (years of service 1820-1869) and the parish registers of these units:

a) on microfilm at LDS but they have our parish registers recorded up to 1886 only, or

b) we can give you name and address of a researcher in Vienna who could do this research for you for a charge. But the research will be very time-consuming and expensive.

Hofrat Dr. Rainer Egger
Osterreichisches Staatsarchiv Kriegsarchiv
1030 Wien
Nottendorfer Gasse 2
Austria
German War Archives
Deutsches Bundesarchiv--Militärarchiv - Wiesenthalstrasse 10 , 85356 Freiburg, Germany
POLAND
For records prior to 1939: Centralne Archiwum Wojskowe, 00-910 Warszawa-Rembertow , ASG Blok 124 , Poland
RUSSIA - Rossiiskii Gosudarstvennyi Voenno-Istoricheskii Arkhiv (RGVIA) - 107864 Moskva, 2-aia Baumanskaia, 3.
The Russian State Military History Archive (RGVIA) - Russia 107864 Moscow, 2nd Bauman Street # 3 - Phone +7-095-261-20-70

The RGVIA serves as the centralized archive for military records of the Russian Empire, consolidating the holdings from various pre-revolutionary Russian military archives and other repositories throughout the former Soviet Union. RGVIA retains documentation produced from the activities of highest, central, and local military administration and military agencies of the Russian Empire from the end of the seventeenth century until March of 1918.

Russian State Military Archive - Russia, 125212 Moscow , Adm. Makarov St. 29
Russian Central Naval Archive - Russia 188350 Leningradskaia oblast, Gatchina, Ekaterinverderskii prosp., 2
The Ministry of Defense
Army Records Center, POLISH SECTION - Bourne Avenue Hayes, Middlesex, England UA3 1RF - PHONE 0181-573-3831 FAX 0181-569-2751
RAF, Personnel Management Agency - RAF Innsworth , Gloucester , GL3 1EZ , England. Tel (01452) 712612 ext; 7916

They will provide any information "with consent of next of kin." They will provide the names and birth years of next of kin, the maiden name of wife, and birth dates.
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