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Announcing the Internet’s Largest Interactive WWII Collection

Today, in conjunction with the National Archives and Records Administration, we announced the launch of the internet’s largest interactive World War II collection.

Some of the information in the collection has been on the site for a while, but this week we released two important additions, an interactive USS Arizona Memorial Wall and over 8 million Hero Pages created from U.S. Army enlistment records.

Some of the other titles in the collection include:

You can read the full press release here, or begin exploring the collection here.

20 Comments

  1. Peter G says:

    Looks great. Is there anyway to link WWII pages to SSDI pages for the same person?

  2. Peter says:

    That’s a great question. We have thought of some options and are trying to decide on the best one. For now, you can use the “Related Pages” and just put “Same Person” or something like that in the description. We’re working on tools to match folks up in a more direct and integrated way.

  3. Craig Crofoot says:

    Has Footnote.com thought of putting the War Diaries of the US Pacifc and Atlantic Fleets for the war, plus the deck logs of its ships?

    I have first hand knowledge (I have 6 of them) about how big just one month would be.

    Regards,

    Craig

  4. […] Announcing the Internet’s Largest Interactive WWII Collection […]

  5. Sherry says:

    Is there an explanation of what this file does not contain as it does not contain many of my family members who served. Is it because they were drafted rather than volunteered?

  6. Tim Reynolds says:

    Nice post. Thank you for the info. Keep it up.

  7. Peter says:

    Sherry,

    Here’s some information on the Army Enlistment Records that we used to generate the WWII Pages.

    As we went through and created the pages, we found many records that were incomplete or had problems, so some of them had to be discarded.

    Hope that helps.

  8. Craig Crofoot says:

    Sir,

    I just noticed that the last update for the Submarine War Patrols was from December 2007. Do you have any idea when the rest of the War Patrols will be posted?
    I am going through the publication from NARA to see which ones are missing.

    Craig

  9. Peter says:

    Craig,

    We’ve posted all the images from NARA microfilm publication M1972, which is the collection of Submarine War Patrol Reports we’ve been working on.

    You can learn more about that collection here or see NARA’s pamphlet about the publication here.

    If you find something missing, it’s probably a problem with the indexing and we’d love to know about it. You can use the Contact Footnote page to send us a note about any problems you find.

  10. Craig Crofoot says:

    Peter,

    I’m working on putting a list together now of what it should be.
    I’m already through the “A”s and there’s about a dozen changes that need to be made.

    So I don’t clog the blog or the contact message box, please send an e-mail to my regular mail box and I will pass on what I see.

    Craig

  11. Peter says:

    Thanks Craig.

  12. Jerry says:

    I just found my Uncle Stan Goldsmith’s Muster Records from the USS California at Pearl Harbor. Needless to say I was very excited as he was one of the fortunate ones to survive after the attack.

    Thank you so very much,

  13. Carole Mixon says:

    Why is it everytime I try to contact you via your home web site, I get an error message?

    Also, when I search for “Westbrook” in Oklahoma, I get “Logan County, Oklahoma OR ETHIOPIA?” What does that mean?

  14. Peter says:

    Carole, That’s very odd. I’ll have our support folks contact you and we’ll see if we can figure out what is going on.

  15. Craig Crofoot says:

    Peter,

    Do I have to contact you or go through the content group about missing reports, re: do you contact the National Archives directly or does the contact group? There are several reports missing from the website and I don’t see them anywhere.

    Craig

  16. Carolyn says:

    If I upload photos of WWII servicemen from my father’s
    photos (all identified) will these be searchable? My goal us for these to be available. I have found no way to search uploads like, say ancestry has. Thanks.

  17. Peter says:

    Great question. Yes, images you upload will be indexed. We index the name and description of the image as well as any annotations, comments, connections and other things that are added to the image. It can take a day or two for the index to be updated. If you have any questions about how this works or suggestions for how we can make it better, please let us know.

  18. Peter says:

    Craig,
    The content folks can help with that since you have a special in with them :).

    For most folks, the best way to let us know about a problem with images or data on the site is to use the Contact Footnote link in the footer at the bottom of most pages on the site.

  19. Jane says:

    Thank you for this. We interview a lot of WWII vets as part of our personal history documentary business and these resources will prove very useful.

  20. Peter says:

    Hi, nice links. Seems to be I am going to find out what I was searching for long days. Thanks.