Please note: Only the First and Second World War official histories are available here in digital format.
The official war histories are our enduring national record providing a comprehensive, authoritative, and accessible account of the Australian experience of war. They comprise an invaluable resource for researchers at all levels, from the scholar to the general reader. They are a detailed, chronological record of all services and theatres of conflict. The works are the first published official record of Australia’s involvement in war. The Australian official war histories contain the authors' own interpretations and judgements and do not follow any official or government line. The official historians are granted unrestricted access to closed period and security classified government records. Official histories are "official" in the sense they are commissioned by government as the national record of Australia’s involvement in particular conflicts. The rest of the world now awaited the fallout from the events engulfing Mainland Europe - a fallout soon destined. Hitlers forces used fast-moving tactics to put the hapless Allies on the defensive. The event forced the British, French and others into war. In 2004 the Federal Government authorised the writing of a fifth official history relating to peacekeeping and Post–Cold War operations. On September 1st, 1939, Hitlers Army crossed into Poland to mark the start of World War 2.
Australian governments have commissioned four separate series of official war histories over this period, one for each of the major conflicts in which Australia has been involved: the two world wars and the Cold War–conflicts in Korea and south-east Asia. Since its inception, the Memorial has sponsored Australia's official war histories.