Week 7 (Feb. 12-18) Letters & Diaries

Did you know that the Australian War Memorial contains and preserves a number of Unit and Commander's War Diaries?  These can be fascinating reading when researching a family member's war service and provide detail into the nature of their service.

While on active service army headquarters, formations, and units are required to keep war diaries recording their daily activities. The purpose of the diaries is twofold: to provide data on which future improvements in training, equipment, organisation, and administration can be based; and to provide future historians with a record of activities of units and formations in operational periods. 

The war diaries generally consist of war diary or intelligence summary sheets located at the beginning of each diary. The sheets record the date of each entry, the unit’s location, a summary of events, and any remarks or references to appendices. The appendices, which make up the larger part of each diary, may include:

• Strength and casualty returns
• Routine orders and administrative instructions
• Operation orders and instructions
• Reports
• Messages
• Location statements
• Intelligence summaries
• Photographs, sketches, maps, and traces

The war diaries vary greatly in the amount and level of detailed information they contain. Their quality generally reflects the skill, dedication, and enthusiasm of the officers in charge of compiling them. They are a historical record of a unit’s administration, operations, and activities, and rarely record information about individual personnel.

Digitised copies of selected original war diaries recording the daily activities of Australian Army units are available for the following conflicts and Peacekeeping missions:

• First World War
  Australian Imperial Force unit war diaries, 1914-18 War
• Second World War
  2nd AIF (Australian Imperial Force) and CMF (Citizen Military Forces) unit war diaries, 1939-45 War
• Korean War
  Australian Army unit war diaries, Korea
• Korean War Unit diaries
  Korean War Unit Diaries - British Infantry Brigades and Commonwealth Division Headquarters
• South East Asian Conflicts
  Australian Army commanders' diaries
• Australian Contingent ASC - United Nations Transitional Authority Cambodia
  Australian Army commander's diaries 1991-1993

Not all war diaries and commander's diaries held by the Memorial are available online. The Memorial has selectively digitised war diaries from its various collections based on preservation needs and high usage. The remaining diaries may be viewed at the Memorial in the Reading Room.

All the original records presented here are at least 30 years old, many are much older. Some are recorded on thin paper, some have been written in pencil, some are the result of old-fashioned duplication techniques, many are extremely fragile. Consequently, a number of images may be hard to read. The Memorial has attempted to capture the archival integrity of the documents at the point in time at which they were digitised. They have not been altered or enhanced in any way.