United States Army Center of Military History

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Center of Military History logo

The United States Army Center of Military History (CMH) is a historical institution of the United States Department of Defense . The CMH reports to the Administrative Assistant to the Secretary of the Army , who in turn reports to the United States Secretary of the Army . The historians , translators and cartographers of the CMH are responsible for the history of the United States Army .

history

The origins go back to 1864 when the United States Congress gave the War Department permission to publish on the American War of Independence . Between 1880 and 1901, 131 volumes of documents and maps were published as the Official Records of the War of the Rebellion . In a separate project, the Department of War published studies of the Union Army's military medical experience between 1870 and 1888 - the first official history of the United States Army.

The reorganization of the US Army and the establishment of the Chief of Staff of the Army in 1903 led to some historical activities. But it was only with the creation of the Historical Branch in March 1918 that the US Army got a permanent historical institution. A planned, extensive historical analysis of the US participation in the First World War did not take place due to staff cuts. Secretary of War Newton Diehl Baker Jr. believed that the Historical Branch should focus on collecting, preserving and publishing on purely military subjects. This perspective shaped the self-image of the history of the US Army for the next decades. Still, the Surgeon General of the United States enabled the Historical Branch to publish the history of the Army Medical Department in World War I in the 1920s .

The downsized Historical Branch was attached to the United States Army War College as a Historical Section in 1921 . She published, among other things, on the battle order of the US Army in the First World War. John J. Pershing as Chief of Staff of the Army had encouraged the Historical Section to be published to a target audience outside of the military. In 1924 the section became responsible for the history lines of the military units and flag ribbons . The order that the Historical Section should limit itself to purely military topics and not conduct any history of the First World War was questioned by the army leadership from 1929 onwards. The World War I studies were finally published in 1948. However, they concentrate on the American Expeditionary Forces and, overall, were a significantly less ambitious approach than the studies on the American War of Independence. A small subunit of the Historical Section produced studies of historical American battlefields between 1927 and 1933 . In 1933 this sub-unit was placed under the National Park Service .

After the United States entered World War II , new information gathering requirements were introduced. The Historical Section was overburdened, and despite the increased staff, around three-quarters were working on the documents on the First World War. They also wanted to create a basis for an extensive history of the Second World War, a project that the Historical Section of the First World War had not succeeded. A new organization, the Historical Branch , was created at the instigation of John Jay McCloy , Secretary of State to the US Secretary of War, and attached to the military intelligence service , the Military Intelligence Division (G-2). Historical Branch teams gathered information and conducted preparatory research at the theaters of war . At the request of George C. Marshall , Chief of Staff of the Army, the Historical Branch published studies on some military operations during the war.

When the Historical Branch began writing history, it became clear that the military intelligence officers in charge had little understanding of this work. The Historical Branch was therefore regrouped as the Historical Division in November 1945 and subordinated to the War Ministry. The following year she took over the staff and function of the Historical Section of the Army War College. The scope and orientation of the individual parts of the United States Army series in World War II was subject to many changes. Sun led the fact that the United States Army Air Forces to the independent armed force United States Air Force were restructured, and a shift in the subject area. The historians of the Historical Division relied in part on documents and statements from the military of the defeated enemy states. Former German officers in the Operational History (German) Section have produced a large number of studies. There was a similar program, on a smaller scale, with Japanese officers. Ultimately, the United States Army in World War II series grew to 78 volumes by 1992.

In 1950 the Historical Division was renamed the Office of the Chief of Military History (OCMH). The Korean War required measures similar to those of the Second World War. While most of the historians of the OMCH were preoccupied with the history of the Second World War, reserve officers with historical training were dispatched to the theater of war. Tight budgets after the war delayed the completion of the history of World War II and the Korean War. In 1962, five technical areas were centralized into the United States Army Materiel Command . The OCMH took over some historians in these technical areas. The OCMH was also given responsibility for US Army museums .

During the Vietnam War , the OCMH pursued a different concept of information collection. Instead of having the historians in the theater of war write detailed reports as in World War II and the Korean War, small teams were sent directly to the units to help them prepare the reports.

In June 1973 the OCMH was renamed the Center of Military History (CMH) due to a restructuring . In 1978, the CMH took on the Army Medical Department's Historical Unit , the historical unit of the Army Medical Department.

literature

  • Stetson Conn: Historical work in the United States Army 1862-1954. Washington DC, 1980.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. United States Army Center of Military History: Overview [1]
  2. a b c Johua E. Jessup Jr., Robert M. Coakly: A Century of Army Historical Work in A Guide to the Study and Use of Military History , CMH Pub 70-3, 1979 [2]
  3. a b Terrence J. Gough: The US Army Center of Military History: A Brief History in: ARMY HISTORY, PB-20-96-2 (No.37), Washington, DC, spring 1996 [3]
  4. http://www.history.army.mil/html/books/011/11-9/CMH_Pub_11-9.pdf