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War diary

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A comparison of the war diaries completed by the First Australian Imperial Force in one month. The left side shows the month before an effort was undertaken to improve their quality, the right side shows the month after these measures came into effect
A comparison of the war diaries completed by the First Australian Imperial Force in one month. The left side shows the month before an effort was undertaken to improve their quality, the right side shows the month after these measures came into effect

A war diary is a regularly updated official record kept by military units of their activities during wartime. The purpose of these diaries is to both record information which can later be used by the military to improve its training and tactics as well as to generate a detailed record of units' activities for future use by historians. War diaries are focused on the administration and operations of the unit they cover, but may also contain information about individual personnel.[1]

War diaries (German: Kriegstagebuch, plural Kriegstagebücher) were invented by the Prussian Army. On 22 April 1850, the Prussian Minister of War, August von Stockhausen, ordered that all commanders of major units should keep war diaries. All significant military actions, relocations, important messages and orders, casualties, material losses, reinforcements etc. were to be recorded. Subsequent regulations of 1870 in Prussia, of 1895 and 1916 in the German Empire, and of 1940 in Nazi Germany were largely identical to the Prussian 1850 regulations.[2]

The British Army first required that its units keep war diaries in 1907 as a means of preventing its mistakes of the Second Boer War from being repeated, and units operating in war zones continue to maintain such diaries.[3] The war diaries kept by Australian military units are normally maintained by the unit's adjutant or intelligence officer and contain a regularly updated narrative of its activities as well as copies of reports, messages received and maps.[4]

A page from the War Diary of USS Franklin, October 13, 1944. - NARA - 305242
A page from the War Diary of USS Franklin, October 13, 1944. - NARA - 305242

World War II War Diaries from units of the US Navy (including all ships) and Marine Corps were declassified on December 31, 2012 by the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations (OCNO) and made available to the public through the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). These war diaries are part of a larger collection of records from the OCNO at NARA, currently spanning 1875 to 2006.[5]

Discover more about War diary related topics

Military organization

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Military organization or military organisation is the structuring of the armed forces of a state so as to offer such military capability as a national defense policy may require. In some countries paramilitary forces are included in a nation's armed forces, though not considered military. Armed forces that are not a part of military or paramilitary organizations, such as insurgent forces, often mimic military organizations, or use ad hoc structures, while formal military organization tends to use hierarchical forms.

German language

German language

German, or more precisely High German, is a West Germanic language mainly spoken in Western Europe and Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official or co-official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the Italian province of South Tyrol. It is also a co-official language of Luxembourg and Belgium, as well as a recognized national language in Namibia. Outside Germany, it is also spoken by German communities in France (Bas-Rhin), Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary (Sopron).

Prussian Army

Prussian Army

The Royal Prussian Army served as the army of the Kingdom of Prussia. It became vital to the development of Brandenburg-Prussia as a European power.

August von Stockhausen

August von Stockhausen

August Wilhelm Ernst von Stockhausen was a Prussian officer and minister of war 1850-51.

Prussia

Prussia

Prussia was a German state located on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire when it united the German states in 1871. It was de facto dissolved by an emergency decree transferring powers of the Prussian government to German Chancellor Franz von Papen in 1932 and de jure by an Allied decree in 1947. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, expanding its size with the Prussian Army. Prussia, with its capital at Königsberg and then, when it became the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701, Berlin, decisively shaped the history of Germany.

German Empire

German Empire

The German Empire, also referred to as Imperial Germany, the Second Reich, or simply Germany, was the period of the German Reich from the unification of Germany in 1871 until the November Revolution in 1918, when the German Reich changed its form of government from a monarchy to a republic.

Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a dictatorship. Under Hitler's rule, Germany quickly became a totalitarian state where nearly all aspects of life were controlled by the government. The Third Reich, meaning "Third Realm" or "Third Empire", alluded to the Nazi claim that Nazi Germany was the successor to the earlier Holy Roman Empire (800–1806) and German Empire (1871–1918). The Third Reich, which Hitler and the Nazis referred to as the Thousand-Year Reich, ended in May 1945 after just 12 years when the Allies defeated Germany, ending World War II in Europe.

British Army

British Army

The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. As of 2022, the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurkhas, and 28,330 volunteer reserve personnel.

Second Boer War

Second Boer War

The Second Boer War, also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict which was fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics over the Empire's influence in Southern Africa from 1899 to 1902.

United States Marine Corps

United States Marine Corps

The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combined arms, implementing its own infantry, artillery, aerial, and special operations forces. The U.S. Marine Corps is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States.

Chief of Naval Operations

Chief of Naval Operations

The chief of naval operations (CNO) is the professional head of the United States Navy. The position is a statutory office held by an admiral who is a military adviser and deputy to the secretary of the Navy. In a separate capacity as a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the CNO is a military adviser to the National Security Council, the Homeland Security Council, the secretary of defense, and the president. The current chief of naval operations is Admiral Michael M. Gilday.

National Archives and Records Administration

National Archives and Records Administration

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an "independent federal agency of the United States government within the executive branch", charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It is also tasked with increasing public access to those documents which make up the National Archive. NARA is officially responsible for maintaining and publishing the legally authentic and authoritative copies of acts of Congress, presidential directives, and federal regulations. NARA also transmits votes of the Electoral College to Congress. It also examines Electoral College and constitutional amendment ratification documents for prima facie legal sufficiency and an authenticating signature.

Source: "War diary", Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, (2022, November 9th), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_diary.

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See also
References
Notes
  1. ^ "War Diaries". Australian War Memorial. Retrieved 4 February 2011.
  2. ^ Wörterbuch zur Deutschen Militärgeschichte. Militärverlag der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik VEB, Berlin 1985.
  3. ^ Pearce (2011)
  4. ^ Stanley (2008), pp. 50–51
  5. ^ "Records of the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, 1875 - 2006". NARA. Retrieved 8 March 2014.
Bibliography
  • Pearce, Martyn (Autumn 2011). "Living history". ANU Reporter. Retrieved 4 February 2011.
  • Stanley, Peter (2008). A Stout Pair of Boots. A Guide to Exploring Australia's Battlefields. Sydney: Allen & Unwin. ISBN 978-1-74175-665-4.
External links

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