"The casualties suffered by a typical American infantry regiment serving in World War II were horrendous. For example, by the end of January, 1945, the 47th Infantry Regiment (which fought in France and Germany) had lost well over 100% of their strength to battle casualties, where men were either killed, wounded, missing, or taken as prisoner of war. Other units had similar grim statistics.
Fortunately for modern-day researchers, the Army kept meticulous combat diaries and journals to record their battlefield activities for a given period of time. At a minimum, these records, prepared daily, describe the daily actions of the unit (typically a Division or a Regiment), including intelligence information on the enemy forces faced, the geography of the area, weather conditions, and the success or failure of the day's fighting. Some of these reports, known generally as "After Action Reports" (AAR), may describe the day's combat in as little as a paragraph, or across several pages. Similar reports are also called unit journals or diaries.
It is impossible to know what will be in a given AAR. However, AARs for smaller units, such as Field Artillery Battalions, Combat Engineer Battalions, Armored units, or Military Police outfits, tend to provide more detail in connection with the individual service of their collective soldiers…."
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