When a soldier goes through many Army schools, he has to write a paper of some kind. These papers range from a few pages to the book-length theses of the War College, and exhaustive Area Studies done at the Special Forces Operations & Intelligence Course. They vary widely in quality, too: some of the Sergeant Majors Academy papers are an ordeal to read.
If the paper isn’t classified, it tends to wind up on the Combined Arms Research Library, a web page where anyone (like you!) can enter a search term and receive near-instant edification.
There are cool things here. Remember the two Merrill’s Marauders papers a week or two back? They came from here. There’s lots more good stuff just waiting for your search — or for your serendipitous discovery. Like:
Here’s a wartime history of the 51st Troop Carrier Wing, which operated in the Mediterranean and China-Burma-India theaters.
Here’s a paper making the case for a 6th and coequal service solely for special operations.
And if you want something a little more directly related to weapons, here’s an after-action report of the 713th Tank Battalion (Armored Flame Thrower) (Provisional) recounting its conversion to flame-thrower tanks, and its preparations and landing on Okinawa.
There’s a whole section of World War II Operational Documents. In fact, there are 15 collections in all that can be accessed here:
Bruce C. Clarke Library Digital Repository
Center for Army Lessons Learned Repository
CGSC Student Papers
CGSS Student Papers, 1930-1936
Combat Studies Institute (CSI)
Command and General Staff College Foundation
Fort Leavenworth History
Frontier Army Museum
General Military History
Master of Military Art and Science Theses
Military History, 1900 – 1939
Military Review
Obsolete Military Manuals
Operational Leadership Experiences
School of Advanced Military Studies Monographs
The Nafziger Collection of Orders of Battle
US Army Artillery School
US Army Combined Arms Center Repository
USASMA Digital Library
World War II Operational Documents
These documents are quite a wide range, and one search window accesses them all. It’s a Wednesday Weapons Website of the Week that you can get lost in.
Enjoy.
http://usacac.army.mil/cac2/CGSC/CARL/index.asp