# American Military Histories?



## Brian G Turner (Aug 16, 2016)

In the WWII biographies of German soldiers, after the war they are sometimes asked to help provide information for "American military histories".

However, I can find no further reference to what this was - was it a general compilation for the public or private record, or simply individual projects into individual theatres?

Does anyone have any idea? Judging by the figures who refer to it, it must be a potentially valuable resource - wherever it is!


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## Foxbat (Aug 16, 2016)

Only a guess but I would imagine individual historians probably interviewed Germans to gain a balanced account of events. It wouldn't surprise me if they mainly went to Germans who had already produced memoirs (chances are they would have a wealth of information to access).

If this is the case, the only place you'd find  names and sources would probably be a list of acknowledgements in whatever book that particular historian produced.


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## MWagner (Aug 16, 2016)

I think what you're looking for are the official U.S. army histories (aka the Green Books) put together after the war by the military itself. These are exhaustive accounts of every action carried out by U.S. military forces during the war. Canada has them as well, as do the UK, etc. They're basically the official record of the military, written and used by the military itself but also available to the public.

Here's an example from the volume on the Ardennes where a German officers input would have been helpful:

German military poverty was nowhere more apparent than in the stocks of ammunition and POL which had been laboriously amassed to support the attack. The _Sixth Panzer Army_ artillery commander, for example, had pleaded for twelve to fifteen units of artillery ammunition for the first ten days of operations.24 On 16 December there were only one and a half units with the _Army Group B_ guns and only two additional units in prospect. Although _OB WEST_ appears to have estimated a daily POL consumption of 260,000 gallons per day for the Ardennes force, a number of the higher German quartermasters predicted that _Army Group B_ would burn four times that amount on each day of the operation. 25 The armored divisions had in their vehicles and trains enough fuel for perhaps go to 100 miles of normal cruising, but battle in the Ardennes could hardly be considered normal travel. Though it is a commonplace that commanders and supply officers at the tactical level always want more shells and gasoline than they probably can use, there is no question but that the Ardennes counteroffensive began on a logistical shoestring.​
These histories also reference the German unit diaries - day-to-day records that are kept by every modern military.

As far as I know, the Green Books are not available from normal retail outlets, but you can buy them direct from the site linked. They're also available for free in pdf and html format.


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## The Big Peat (Aug 16, 2016)

I imagine non-official military historians approached them as well (I mean, you would, wouldn't you) but this does sound rather like official approaches from the US Army itself.


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## Brian G Turner (Aug 17, 2016)

MWagner said:


> I think what you're looking for are the official U.S. army histories (aka the Green Books)



That's excellent - exactly what I was looking for!

And it's superb that they're free. Am downloading a few choice ones now for later research.


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## Foxbat (Aug 17, 2016)

That's an excellent site that I didn't know existed. I wonder if any other countries have got such a resource?


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## Brian G Turner (Aug 17, 2016)

MWagner said:


> Though it is a commonplace that commanders and supply officers at the tactical level always want more shells and gasoline than they probably can use, there is no question but that the Ardennes counteroffensive began on a logistical shoestring.



It's especially interesting to come across this bit, because I've just read an account by Otto Skorzeny, from the German side, in which Hitler says the German supplies will come from the allies after their glorious victory. The US version is somewhat more...diplomatic.


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## Temperance (Aug 17, 2016)

aThere were also the recorde d chat between prisoners and their interviews but these always seem to be consolidated into academic journals you'd need specific research access through a university say or a lot of money as these things just don't get printed. Ironically due to the cost.


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