War Diary and Logs

[Rosencrantz]

Hello everyone!

I'm not sure if this has been discussed here before, but I think quite many of us likes to keep somekind of WD or Log during patrols. With SHIII I have used to keep a bit simplyfied WD in German Navy style and now, with SHIV, I would be interested in to make my notes maybe more in "US Navy style". Only problem there is that I haven't ever seen the "layout" of real, original US submarine WD. I have read patrol reports of Wahoo, for example, and even if those documents are more than interesting, they are still only kind of "short reports".

So, if anyone knows a link to the original US sub WD, or could at least tell me, how it looked like and how the entries were usually made, I would be very grateful.


Greetings,
-RC-

[Raptor1]

Something like this:

http://www.ussarcherfish.com/warptrl/patrol5.htm
?

It's the Patrol Report of Archer-Fish's 5th War Patrol (The one where she sank the Shinano) (Hehe, they even identify the Shinano as similar to the Hayataka class, which didn't exist outside of the US Navy's imagination)

[Rosencrantz]

Hello Raptor!

Actually not. I think that's a "short report", based on originally war diary but writen after the boat was back fm the patrol. However, the link you send is great and worth of studying! :up:

Made some studying. It's a model of Deck Log what I'm looking for. That's the proper name. Sorry...

Found one pic, not WWII era but later. Don't know yet, how useful it'll be. Check here:
http://www.nukestrat.com/dk/greenfish.htm

It's in the middle of the page.

Found another, much more useful link. It's a log of DD at Pearl Harbour/Sea 1st of Dec. - 31st of Dec 1941. You can found it here:
http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/ships/logs/DD/dd139-DL.1241.html

Third, really good but DD again:
http://www.ussbush.com/index.htm

-RC-

[Newinger]

Sorry for bringing up this old thread. I found it while searching for how a "war diary" or log was written and formatted in U.S. submarines. The term "deck log" was very helpful. Using Google, I found this nice site:

https://www.archives.gov/research/military/logbooks/naval-deck-logs.html

esp.

https://www.archives.gov/research/military/logbooks/navy-deck-logs-1941-1959.html

which describes the format,

and

https://www.archives.gov/research/military/logbooks/navy-submarine-deck-logs.html

for submarines. So it seems while the standard deck log format was used, the deck logs of submarines didn't include any details on warfare itself. This kind of information was put in war reports instead. Since the 1960s, it seems, the deck logs of submarines barely contain any useful information at all other than "yep, we're on patrol". Instead classified secret deck logs are used.

[Majestik 909]

KOM.ADM U-BOOTE f.d.u. 33 Von U-796 - Large Convoy Sighted 65 Km east of Smokey Cape 4:37pm 1943 June 17 - Waiting for nightfall - SK

[Newinger]

I made a deck log template here:

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=223904

(Just thought I should add it in this thread here, too...)