Ch 1 War Diaries at the Australian War Memorial

Introduction:

The Australian War Memorial (AWM) has di — gitised images of selected original war diaries recording the daily activities of Australian Army units. The diaries are scanned images that can be read via Adobe Acrobat. K — eyword searching of the diaries is not possible as the diaries are not indexed.

The diaries are available for the following conflicts:

• First World War
• Second World War
• Korean War
• South East Asian conflicts

Content of the diaries

The war diaries generally consist of war diary or intelligence summary sheets located at the beginning of each diary which 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.

Accessing the diaries:

T — o access the diaries go to the Australian War Memorial site (www.awm.gov.au), then

Collections Tab (left hand side of screen)

War Diaries Tab (left hand side of the screen)

Then, choose the conflict and then the unit of interest and then the year.

Not all diaries available electronically

Not all the war 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 in the Reading Room of the Memorial's Research Centre.