Records compiled by the staff of an AIB during WWII.

Hi Everybody,

Currently I’m trying to learn more about the operations of the 56th Armored Infantry Battalion (12th Armored Division) during WWII. Unfortunately no historian or veteran ever wrote any official unit history of the 56th after the war. Hence, I'll probably have to fall back to the various operational reports compiled by the AIB’s staff during WWII, for my researches.

This situation leads me to the following questions:

1. What kind of operational reports did the staff of an Armored Infantry Battalion usually compile during WWII?

2. I have read of records like “After Action Reports”, “Operations Reports”, “Battalion Journals”, or “S-3 Reports/Journals”. What exactly is the difference between these kind of records?

3. I’m interested in a most detailed view on what the various Companies of the 56th exactly did during the war. The purchase of which type of record from NARA would you recommend to me in this case?

Any help is appreciated!

Best regards,

Michael

 

Michael,

1. Army Regulations required the keeping of operational records, but the format and quality vary from unit to unit.
2. At a minimum, a Journal was kept by the S-1 (personnel), S-2 (Intelligence), and the S-3 (Operations) sections of the battalion. It recorded the date and time for every message and order received and usually included a telephone log. Monthly periodic reports were usually prepared from the Journals and supporting documents. They were also sometimes prepared as a campaign report, but those are not typical. The Monthly and Campaign periodic reports are usually referred to as "After Action Reports" or AAR's, but technically they were "Reports, After Action", and were also sometimes termed "Histories".
3. The most details are often extracted from the unit Journals, but they can often be very telegraphic, which makes the AAR or History usually the preferred source.

Best of luck.

Rich Anderson

 

I found a PDF that is supposed to be a History of the 56th AIB. It's from the 12th Armored Museum website.

I scanned through it and it appears to be something someone threw together using a number of different sources. Not sure if it will have what you're looking for, but it may be worth checking out.

 

I forgot to add that I also found the 56th AIB After Action Report covering Jan-May 1945 in the Digital Archives at CARL.

 

Hi Rich, Hi TD-Tommy776,

Thanks a lot for your replies.

@Rich: Thanks for your detailed explanation of the record keeping during WWII. Those details are exactly what I was looking for. While I already have a copy of what appears to be the 56th AIB’s After Action Report, I will also get a copy of the 56th AIB’s S-3 Report from NARA. Hopefully they make a good complement to the AARs. Thanks for your help!

@TD-Tommy776: Thanks for sharing the files you have found concerning the 56th AIB’s history. I probably should have mentioned earlier that I’m a member of the 12th Armored Division Association and that I’m already researching the 56th AIB for about two years. During these two years I (probably) have checked most of the files available for free on the internet. So I’m already familiar with the 56th AIB’s AAR and the Battalion history compiled by John Nugent. (Nevertheless I of course appreciate your help very much!)

While Mr. Nugent’s report is quite detailed when it comes to the battalion’s operations in early 1945, it tends to become sketchier towards the end of the war in Europe. Since I’m especially interested in the time period between April 22, 1945 and April 26, 1945, when my hometown in Germany was captured, it unfortunately isn’t of much use for my researches.

Best regards,

Michael

 

Michael,

To be clear, a Battalion Operations AAR and its S-3 Report would likely be one and the same; the nomenclature varied. It could be an "AAR", "Monthly Historical Report", "Operations Report", "History", "Periodic Report", or almost any other similar title you might imagine. All were periodic reports and were compiled after the fact...ideally in the first few days of the new month, but sometimes weeks or even months later depending on the pace of operations and other circumstances. The 56th AIB records at CARL are its periodic reports. The only other thing you might want to check would be the S-3 Journal and File for the different months you are interested in, if they are extant (many are missing for one reason or another). The Journal is the daily record of events, while the File are any supporting documents.

V/r,

Rich Anderson

 

Not a problem, Michael. Have you tried contacting the NARA at College Park, Maryland to see what documents they have available? If not, check out post #2 in this thread: Unit Operational Records. Requesting an "index of records" for a particular unit is easy and shouldn't take long to receive from the NARA. If the list or index of records has a document you are interested in getting, you can either request them from the NARA or have a researcher get them for you.

 

Hi folks,

@Rich: Thanks for the clarification. When it comes to researching German units most of the relevant details can be found in a single file which always is called “Kriegstagebuch”. Hence it was a bit difficult for me to understand that American units used different nomenclatures for one and the same type of report. I appreciate your patience in explaining this fact to me. I’ll follow TD-Tommy776’s advice and will ask the guys at NARA for an index of records compiled by the 56th AIB (and 12th AD). I case they have the 56th AIB’s “S-3 Journal and File” in their archives I’ll get copies of these documents. Thanks for your help again!

@TD-Tommy776: Asking NARA at College Park for an index of records is something that I haven’t done yet. Thanks for this advice. That’s the first thing I’ll do this morning (right after replying to your posts )!

I appreciate your help!

Best regards,

Michael

 

Hi Michael,

No problem and happy to help. If you are familiar with the German system you realize the KTB was basically a daily dairy of events, so was like the U.S. Army's Journal, except the German document was prepared at end of day while the American's recorded the entries by hour and minute as they occurred during the day. So the KTB flows as a written narrative, but the U.S. Journal is simply a collection of random sentences and paragraphs. OTOH the Anlagen to the KTB were the same as the U.S. Journal File. Thus, in effect the American Periodic Reports (AKA "Histories", "AAR's", etc) were more like the KTB, but instead of being written daily they were usually written monthly.