Archives Research, Questions and info regarding archives

Could someone please explain the difference between a romanian army's "Jurnal de Operatii" and "Registru Istoric"?

Furthermore, allied generals all maintained personal diaries, as well as a diary of the unit they commanded. Does anyone know whether Romanian generals and romanian units had a similar habit? If so, what are these documents, or diaries called? Simply "journals", or do they have a naming convention that an archivist or historian will recognize?

Based on what I've experienced while researching ARR, I believe "Jurnal de Operatii" (Combat Diary) was kept only during armed conflicts, while "Registru Istoric" (Historical Register) was a more general unit diary, kept all the time.

Gen. Dénes

This post has been edited by Dénes on March 10, 2006 07:25 pm

Thanks, Denes. Does that mean that the "Registrul" was kept both during peacetime and during war, or just during peacetime?

So, for instance, were both kept during war, or did one replace the other depending on whether it was peace time or war?

Thanks again for any info.

According to the dictionary, Jurnalul de operaţii or Jurnalul acţiunilor de luptă is a document militar în care sunt descrise zilnic pregătirea şi desfăşurarea acţiunilor de luptă (a military document to record on a daily basis the preparation and the evolution of combat operations). It does not make any reference to "wartime only".

The historical register on the other hand records all the events in the history of the unit. From this point of view it is quite possible that there is a certain overlap of the information contained in the two documents. But I do not think that one contains the other (e.g., not all that is in the diary appears in the register and vice versa).

In this sense, acţiuni de luptă (combat actions) happen only during armed conflicts.

Gen. Dénes

This post has been edited by Dénes on March 11, 2006 12:08 am

Also the level of detail of the information in an operations diary and in a historical register isn't comparable. The operations diary may contain hundreads of pages for a few monts, while the historical register is much thinner for the same period.

Thanks for your answers, guys!

I guess what I'm getting to is the following:

Let's say I'm interested in the 1st or 3rd or 4th Romanian Armies in 1944-45, for example. And let's say I'm trying to learn as much as I can about one of these armies and its superior commanders. What archival documents should I be reading, besides the Journal of Operations? And what documents are there besides the Journal of Operations?

The journal of operations is useful, but it's really only a series of orders and detail is lacking.

I would think that there is some form of unit diary, a daily log or other journal kept by the commander which details in greater depth the morale of the troops, daily events, administrative items, etc.

Could you please give me some guidance? I am asking everyone, but especially those people who have researched the archives in the past.

My other question, which would actually benefit all researchers on the forum, is as follows: What archives outside of Romania contain material which make reference to or relate to the Romanian Army and its commanders during WWII?

For instance, I have heard that the Hoover Institute at Stanford University has a significant archival collection pertaining to WWII and Cold War-era Romanian politicians and military operations.

Also, I know that the OSS archives have material relating to Romanian military operations during WWII.

If anyone else knows of other locations, or of more precise information, let's build a list of worldwide archives and libraries with such documents. I think it would help any of us who either are already researchers or are trying to start research in this field.

Thanks for any guidance and answers.

Things aren't that simple. "The diary" that would contain everything you want to know, doesn't exist. Unfortunately serious research involves the study of many documents, taking pieces from each and putting them together.

Besides the operations diaries (in case they exist, because there are cases when they don't exist anymore), there are many reports, the so-called "dari de seama", which can go into the details you are looking for, but not necessarily. You can be surprised to find details on an action in the awards proposals for different officers and soldiers. It basicly depends on what the archival fund you are interested in contains. There may also be interesting reports in the funds of the General Staff, evaluations etc, etc.

Thanks, Victor.

I guess it's even more difficult than I thought.

You see - Patton, Eisenhower, Montgomery, Hughes, Hodges, Collins, Gerow, "Butcher" Harris, Hap Arnold, ABC Cunningham, Leigh-Mallory all kept detailed logs and personal journals, and most, if not all, ended up well catalogued in libraries, whether at Kew or D.C.

I was hoping that Romanian commanders had a similar habit, but I guess not...

I'll be in Romania for a couple of weeks this summer, so I'll have to set aside at least 3-4 days for a trip to Pitesti.

(Actually, I know I could spend months searching through those papers, but obviously my time is limited)



This post has been edited by mabadesc on March 13, 2006 04:32 pm