Australian Army war diaries

Available Diaries

Digitised images of selected original war diaries recording the daily activities of Australian Army units, are available for the following conflicts:

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 useage. The remaining diaries may be viewed in the Reading Room of the Memorial’s Research Centre.

Note: Some Australian units served as part of higher British formations. The war diaries for these formations, which provide the context for Australian operations, are not held by the Australian War Memorial.

Background

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.

Content

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.

Digital Images

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; as a consequence 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.

Note: It is difficult to display some of the larger format maps in adequate detail online, so they should be considered as representative images only. If a greater level of detail is required, the original maps can be viewed in the Memorial's Research Centre.

The digital images are provided as PDF files. To access these files you will need an application such as Adobe Reader which is available as a free download.

Further help is available for viewing or printing the digital images.

Help

For all other assistance or further information, please contact the Memorial's Research Centre.