US Naval War War College Releases Adm. Nimitz's WWII Diary

ucfgrad93 · Feb 25, 2014

For all of you history buffs out there, I hope you find this as interesting as I do.

FoxNews.com said:
The U.S. Naval War College released a trove of World War II information Monday by posting online the operational diary kept by the Pacific commander, Adm. Chester W. Nimitz, during the war against Japan.

The 4,000-page multivolume collection includes a running summary of the situation for every day of the war in the Pacific compiled by Nimitz's planning staff. It is the only known similar document to survive from the war, said Prof. John Hattendorf, who teaches maritime history at the Naval War College in Newport, R.I.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/02/24/adm-nimitz-wwii-diary-to-be-published-online/

US Naval War College said:
The Command Summary of FADM Nimitz was compiled by the War Plans Section of the Pacific Command Headquarters in Hawaii during World War II. It contains daily estimates of the situation, command decisions, and running summaries of communications from December 7, 1941 to August 31, 1945. Naval War College Historian Douglas Smith avers that it is "the most authoritative source on the Pacific War available anywhere".

It is a long document that has been scanned into several pdfs.

http://usnwc.edu/Academics/Library/Naval-Historical-Collection.aspx#items/show/849

Scepticalscribe · Feb 25, 2014

As a historian, I love to see original sources made available to the public.

Nothing beats reading an original source, in some ways, it is like having a direct line to the past.

Thanks very much for posting this.

rhett7660 · Feb 25, 2014

This is awesome! Thanks for the link!!!

monokakata · Mar 1, 2014

I'll join in thanking the OP for the link.

Most of my research and most of my creative writing have involved the Solomons, much of it during wartime or -- just as important for what I've been interested in -- the native peoples' perception of the war, well after it was over.

I'm anxious to read the volume leading up to the American landings at Torokina, on Bougainville, but it's downloading very, very slowly.

monokakata · Mar 1, 2014

I just finished the July-December 1943 PDF.

Unfortunately, "diary" in this context means daily summaries of reports from the field, initialed by Nimitz. I had forgotten that use of "diary," and had been hoping for a more intimate view of the Admiral's command decisions.

The only trace of the man himself appears to be his initials on each report.

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