NAA (Australia) World War II service records to be digitised

Discussion in 'Service Records' started by BFBSM, Oct 8, 2019.

  1. BFBSM

    BFBSM Very Senior Member

    timuk, Deacs, Chris C and 2 others like this.
  2. KevinBattle

    KevinBattle Senior Member

    They've always been helpful and appreciative of the debt owed to their Service people.
    It would provide a good training ground and source of employment if the UK digitised everything they have on WW1 and WW2 to be freely available, rather than expect families to pay to obtain their grand- or parents records.

    Either that or make a payment level that would be self financing
     
    BFBSM and Incredibledisc like this.
  3. bofors

    bofors Senior Member

    I am looking forward to that as I have some WW2 medals, but was not willing to fork out the money they were asking.
     
  4. bamboo43

    bamboo43 Very Senior Member

    That's great news and as KB says, the Aussies are showing the way forward in regards to records and access.
     
    timuk likes this.
  5. Pat Atkins

    Pat Atkins Well-Known Member

    Kudos to them, they're an example to the UK. Our approach is pretty poor, really.

    Pat
     
  6. Tullybrone

    Tullybrone Senior Member

    Hi,

    You’ve got to remember the numbers involved. British army was almost 3 million strong - a lot more than 200,000 records to copy.

    I speak as someone who has spent a few bob for relatives service papers over the years.

    Steve
     
  7. Pat Atkins

    Pat Atkins Well-Known Member

    That's a very fair point, Steve, and one I hadn't really considered; even so, I do feel we could probably be a bit more open and accessible. However, it's surely better to focus on the 'kudos to the Aussies' aspect of things, all in all.

    Cheers, Pat
     
  8. AB64

    AB64 Senior Member

    Canada and New Zealand have also made the WW1 service records available online for free - hopefully they will do likewise and follow on with WW2 at some point soon (I believe Canada may have made a start with WW2 casualties records).

    Alistair
     
  9. Tullybrone

    Tullybrone Senior Member

    Hi Pat,

    I think the other reason that the previous Empire Dominions show “more interest” in their 20th Century military heritage is that as “newly self governing Nations “ they are rightly keen to share the contribution to the 2 world wars by their predominantly volunteer citizen armies/navies & air force’s ....on the other hand GB has many centuries of involvement in war to reflect on....

    Steve
     
    Last edited: Oct 12, 2019
    BFBSM likes this.
  10. Pat Atkins

    Pat Atkins Well-Known Member

    Another fair point, Steven. The remit of my family research has been WW1 and WW2, so I would admit to a certain degree of tunnel vision!

    Pat
     
  11. AB64

    AB64 Senior Member

  12. Waddell

    Waddell Well-Known Member

    I came across this page the other day that had an expected timeline for the records availability at the bottom-

    Digitising World War II service records | naa.gov.au

    Note that they are digitising the CMF records first, not the AIF records unfortunately.

    Scott
     

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