What's Here, and How to Find It
The content of this web site is made up, primarily, of "public domain" (non-copyright) materials in English: Content
- Official government histories (United States and British Commonwealth/Empire), including military, administrative, and civil topics;
- Source documents (diplomatic messages, Action Reports, logs, diaries, etc.); and
- Primary references published by the military services and government agencies (Field Manuals, training manuals, glossaries, reports, etc.)
Wherever possible, hyperlinks between these histories and documents have been included.
- "Order of Battle" information compiled by the HyperWar authors. This currently includes pages for each of the ships in the U.S. Fleet; a start on pages for U.S. Army Divisions; and a smaller start on pages for U.S. Marine Corps Divisions.
The main sources of material for HyperWar are the U.S. Government and the Governments of the United Kingdom and the countries of the British Commonwealth (Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and India-Pakistan). Navigation
The Commonwealth histories have been published as unified series, including various civil and military subseries. These are all filed and linked under the countries of origin.
The U.S. histories do not adhere to any central organization. Independent histories have originated from the various armed services and other departments and agencies of the Executive branch. They are filed and listed under the individual services (Army, Army Air Corps, Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard) or under the U.S. Government (non-military agencies). These links are especially important for the reference materials, such as Field Manuals, which are not specific to a particular Theater or campaign.
In addition, individual histories and documents are linked from the topic pages for the various Theaters:
- Diplomatic and Political Documents -- policy declarations, diplomatic exchanges, declarations of war, wartime conferences, surrender documents, treaties, etc.
- European Theater of Operations -- the war against the European Axis, including campaigns in the Atlantic, Africa, and the Middle East
- Pacific Theater of Operations -- the war against Japan, including Nimitz' Pacific Ocean Areas and MacArthur's SouthWest Pacific Area
- China-Burma-India Theater of Operations -- the war against Japan on the Asian continent, including the Sino-Japanese conflict from the seizure of Manchuria in 1931, the Russo-Japanese conflict of 1939 ("Nomonhan"), the campaigns in South and SouthEast Asia, and the airlift and air combat operations from India and China
- American Theater of Operations -- the war in the Western Hemisphere, including military operations, preparations for defense, industrial mobilization of war industries, etc.
Work has also begun on an alphabetically arranged Topic Index for subjects which do fall into the standard categories shown above (eg, amphibious tactics, development of radar, geographic locations, etc.)
Last, but not least, resources may be found serendipitously thru hypertext links from other documents. Wherever the text, bibliography, or footnotes of one document reference another document, the link will open that other document in a new window. Where related documents exist, but are not specifically referenced by the text, HyperWar will insert parenthetic remarks linking to the related material.
Examples:
Campaign Histories:
The U.S. Army history of the campaign on Guadalcanal, Guadalcanal: The First Offensive is physically located in the US Army directory and linked from that page:
"United States" --> "U.S. Army" --> "UNITED STATES ARMY IN WORLD WAR II" (Series) --> "War in the Pacific" (Subseries) --> Guadalcanal: The First Offensive
The same history is also linked, along with all other related materials, from the Theater/Campaign page:
"Pacific Theater of Operations" --> "I've Served My Time in Hell" (Guadalcanal)
Reference Publications:
The operations manual for US Navy Combat Information Centers (CIC) is physically located in the "ref" subdirectory of the "USN" directory and linked from that page. As the Topic Index is updated, it will also be listed there. There is no other obvious place from which to provide a link to the document.
Similar situations exist for other Navy, Marine Corps, Army and Army Air Corps publications which are not directly related to any specific combat operations.
Serendipity:
Volume I of History of U.S. Marine Corps Operations in World War II, Chapter 2, "Evolution of Modern Amphibious Warfare, 1920-1941" refers to Earl Ellis' "Advanced Base Operations in Micronesia". That title is linked to the document. Similar reference is made to the Tentative Landing Operations Manual, which was eventually modified as published as "Fleet Training Publication 167" (FTP-167) and Army Field Manual FM 31-5. Both titles are linked to the respective documents. A parenthetical remark has been inserted directing the reader to additional documents related to amphibious doctrine and operations.
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