Hey, I am doing research on the 16th Infantry Regiment, and I obtained copies of the regimental AARs and Unit Journals. I am wondering which records to obtain next. Can someone be of any help? Thanks!
The answer is yes, both! Battalions, regiments, and brigades have S-staffs (S-1, S-2, S-3, etc). Divisions and corps have G-Staffs (G-1, G-2, G3, etc). Thus, the battalion ops journal is the S-3 journal. The division ops journal is the G-3 journal. Does that help?
I am not sure. When looking at the records of US Army units, there is little standardization. A "journal" implies that the document is a running record of what transpired as it occurred. A combat report is usually swritten after the fact as an account of an action of battle. If you look in the operational records of many units you can sometimes find both times of documents, and the combat reports were added to the unit oerpations journal. Look at this recent thread - http://www.ww2f.com/topic/49692-help-with-some-aaa-terminology - where LAS1 posted a pdf of an AAA Battalion S-2 (Intel) Journal. Regards, Marc www.digitalhistoryarchive.com
I would agree with Marc's descriptions. Reports tend to be written in a narrative form. Journals tend to read more like line by line notes of events, communications, etc. The actual format that is used can vary depending on the type of unit and the tendencies of the person writing the report or journal. Not every officer is a gifted writer.
If you are interested in a specific period of time you could look for the Headquarters Message Logs which detail by the minute the messages and personnel that showed up at the Headquarters. This log was kept at Battalion and above. I have the message logs from the 13th IR for July and August 1944 I got from NARA in College Park. It tells when Battalions checked in, Phase Lines crossed, Higher Level Officers that dropped by, when the commander was in and when he leaves the HQ, etc.
