"Official Records?" Topic

Hey folks!

I'm realtively new to WW2 mini gaming, but I've been doing ACW gaming for a while now, and I have always loved being able to go research ACW scenarios online. Specifically by searching through the Official Records of the War of the Rebellion. If you're not familiar with these, imagine a collection of all of the reports and official communiques between army officers from the very top down to brigade level (and sometimes below) for both sides of the conflict. Now imagine that's its available on the web – cause it is.

My question for the WW2 crowd should now be obvious. Does such a thing exist for the Second World War? Certainly reports were written by many many officers – are they available to the general public?

I can recall an episode from Band of Brothers where Winters is typing out his report of an engagement on the Island in Holland. And I'm thinking, I want to see reports just like that one, so I can generate my own scenarios from them!

Anyone have any ideas?

-Glenn

There is a series of "Official Records of WWII" (because of the color of their hardback covers- known as the "Green books") published by the GPO. (USA) I own a couple and so does my buisness partner. I know our local library has several volumes. Not sure how many are in the series, but there's quite a lot! Maps are also in the volumes.

Hope you can find them. Suggest checking the local library, first.

Best,
Tom Dye
GFI

Quite a few of the Green Books are already available on line, with more being added constantly:

link

No clue if anything like this exists – too much material to archive I would guess – at least for an on-line resource. I know that much of it is available in the Library of Congress in the archives section, but it may or may not be accessable.

just the footnotes in the Green Books is enough info for a scenario. I have 6-8 of them, GOOD STUUF

You might want to take a peek at the Skirmish Campaign series published by Scott Fisher and Nate Forney. Lots of good scenarios with OB and maps. More or less based on events. The best part of the series are the maps which describe exactly the kind of terrain you'll need. These games are heavily influeced by terrain. Some model companies should package the forces.

I just played 2 scenerios from the Skirmish Campaign books (from the Normandy Book). Really good games, we used Nuts and Disposable Heroes as the rules. we ran the Airborne drop on St. Marie and the Bocage Assault. Fun and bloody. A bit off topic :-) Sorry.

There's also a series for the Navy that's similar to the Army's.

Is the Navy series available on line too?

Thanks for the link to the on line version of the "Green Books"!

James

Thanks for the answers guys. I have a couple of Skirmish Campaign scenario books. They are great. But I guess I was really looking for the source material that Scott uses to write those books. Looking through his bibliographies, it appears that he uses quite an assortment of source material. Nothing so all-inclusive as the OR for the ACW. I guess that means I'll have to read more history! Whoo-Hooo!

GPruitt;

I am greatly involved in WWII and ACW research. The ACW OR (which sits on my shelves) is in a class by itself, several levels above anything you would find in the USA "Green Books" for WWII. Although they are impressive, and certainly contain a wealth of information, they are summaries, not official documents. They do not have, for example, detailed OBs or TO&Es, detailed lists of commanders, strength, casualty returns, etc. Those types of documents exist only at the National Archives in College Park, Maryland.

Hope this helps.

Mark E. Horan