Diffferent time format in war diary.

Discussion in 'Unit History' started by nicks, Oct 24, 2015.

  1. nicks

    nicks Very Senior Member

    Could someone explain why the time has been recorded in different formats in this war diary entry.

    http://www.thewardrobe.org.uk/research/war-diaries/detail/19757

    Thanks in advance.
     
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  2. Fred Wilson

    Fred Wilson Member

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  3. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

  4. nicks

    nicks Very Senior Member

  5. JohnS

    JohnS Senior Member

    When was this started?
     
  6. Fred Wilson

    Fred Wilson Member

    1802
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_military_time_zones

    From:
    Allied Communications Publication (ACP) 121 - current incarnation:
    http://jcs.dtic.mil/j6/cceb/acps/

    "207.
    The requirements for military communications rapidly expanded throughout World War II.
    Consequently, it was considered essential to further develop communications systems
    in order to achieve successful co-ordination, command and control of a global war.
    The requirements for compatible equipment and procedures with Allied Forces were necessary to achieve a more efficient C2 system."
     
  7. dbf

    dbf Moderatrix MOD

    Does anyone have the original diary entry to compare?

    Could this have been an error introduced when the diary was being transcribed, ie might it read
    0630
    0730
    0830

    I transcribe onto a spreadsheet and if I'm not careful it autocorrects my times.

     
  8. nicks

    nicks Very Senior Member

    I have a copy of the original, the only time that would appear to have been transcribed incorrectly is 0070230B which should read 070230B.
     
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  9. idler

    idler GeneralList

    Are we all clear that the red 'times' are actually day/time entries, i.e. 080230B is 0230hrs GMT+2 or BDST (British Double Summer Time) on the 8th of the month? It was a convention that helps clarify the events of night ops.

    Time zone aside, I've used it as-is in Excel but you need to format the cells as text to keep the leading zeros. The default time format bugs me because it insists on the colon.
     
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  10. dbf

    dbf Moderatrix MOD

    Wasn't but am now, cheers.
     
  11. idler

    idler GeneralList

    Phew! I was concerned I was stating the bleedin' obvious. It makes more sense that they've used it in the context of a later report, rather than a diary entry per se.
     
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  12. dbf

    dbf Moderatrix MOD

    Nah, happy to learn something new.



    And thanks Nick for starting the thread.
     
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  13. nicks

    nicks Very Senior Member

    Much clearer, thank you.
     
  14. minden1759

    minden1759 Senior Member

    Nicks.

    The way it works, and is still used in the armed forces today is called DTG - Date, Time, Group.

    If the time is shown as 070230B Apr 15, this would mean 0230 on Bravo time on 07 Apr 15. Bravo time is two hours ahead of GMT.

    Regards

    Frank
     
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