Records of the Millitary History Section (Army) - Other 1905-1976

Accession Number AWM113
Collection type Official Record
Object type Paper document
Maker Commonwealth Government of Australia
Date made 1905-1976
Copyright

Item copyright: Commonwealth of Australia copyright
Copying Provisions Copyright restrictions apply. Only personal, non-commercial, research and study use permitted. Permission of copyright holder required for any commercial use and/or reproduction.
Description

The creation of a war records section for the Second World War was approved by Cabinet in early 1940. An Historical Records Section was consequently incorporated by General Sir Brudenell White in plans for the formation of an overseas administrative headquarters for the Second AIF (Australian Imperial Force), and this section functioned initially in the Middle East. As the Second AIF was not a compact force, but comprised a number of divisions in separate theatres, it was soon proposed by Major J L Treloar (Director of the Australian War Memorial [AWM] and liaison officer for the Department of Information and the AWM) that, while maintaining representation at AIF headquarters, the section should have field teams attached to each formation (division) headquarters. This scheme was approved by General Thomas Blamey, and the section was reorganized accordingly in June 1941 and renamed "Military History and Information Section". With the section's return to Australia later the same year, publicity functions it had performed in the Middle East were taken over by the Army Directorate of Public Relations and the section became known as the Military Historical Section (MHS). It became part of the Staff Duties Directorate of the General Staff Branch. Treloar was the officer-in-charge of the MHS until 1946.

The MHS's wartime functions were generally threefold:

(i) collect and collate historical material relating to the Army
(ii) gather war relics for the AWM
(iii) provide, by photography, film, art and written narratives a comprehensive record of the day to day life of the Army.

From its headquarters in Melbourne the MHS despatched and directed the activities of the field teams. Each team consisted of an officer-in-charge, a cinematographer, a photographer and a caption writer. The teams collected unit war diaries and sent them to the MHS which registered and classified them. Other files and documents relating to strategy and operations, and considered useful for the Official Historian were collected and listed by the MHS. This large collection of historical material was transferred to the AWM from September 1946. The MHS was also responsible for culling and classifying an additional 9,000 boxes of "obsolete written records" between 1947 and 1951, before transferring them to the AWM.

The MHS was reorganized after the war, but the collection of records and relics was continued by detachments of the MHS attached to the British Commonwealth Occupation Force (BCOF) and the British Commonwealth Force in Korea (BCFK). Most of the section's technical resources had been transferred to Japan. The section's post-war responsibilities included:

(i) historical research concerning the Department of the Army and the Australian Military Forces (AMF)
(ii) policy for the preparation, retention and disposal of Army records
(iii) liaison with the AWM, Official Historian, AMF units, public and private agencies, etc concerning historical materials
(iv) liaison with the Commonwealth Archives Division concerning the disposal of records.

The MHS continued to operate until the early 1960's, when its functions were taken over by the Archives Sub-Section in AHQ Registry.

The series is made up of miscellaneous historical materials and administrative records collected or created by the MHS. It is in three parts, each with a different numbering system:

(i) A single number system (1-31), imposed by the AWM - group of miscellaneous original records;
(ii) A two number system (MH 1/1-259), imposed by the MHS before transfer - original historical records collected and arranged by the MHS, including unit histories, operational records, correspondence, Army administrative and policy records, press clippings, etc;
(iii) A multiple number system (1/1/1-26/1/10), originally imposed by the MHS - the MHS's own administrative registry files, consisting of correspondence between the MHS and the AWM concerning the collection, acquisition, transfer, preservation, etc of, and requests for, records.

Gaps in the numbering sequence of this part of the series suggest that it might have been culled before transfer. It includes some original historical material.