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General => Armed Forces => World War One => Topic started by: Krazykat87 on Sunday 19 November 17 21:41 GMT (UK)
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Anyone know of places I can read two war diaries?
Thanks in advance
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Most of them for the Great War can, where they exist, be downloaded for £3.50 from the National Archives. They are also on Ancestry if you have a sub.
MaxD
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Some are not available online - generally those from the smaller theatres of war.
Ancestry only has some of those available from TNA - and the Ancestry indexing/search is somewhere between dire and appalling.
They are all available if you visit TNA (providing they still exist).
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There are also a small number of transcripted war diaries to be found (usually by chance in my case) on regimental museum web sites or those devoted to a particular regiment or battalion (including the Berkshire and Wiltshire regiments at the Wardobe which Newburychap is well acquainted with). One recent find being a London Heavy Brigade RGA.
MaxD
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I think the war diaries on Ancestry aren't name indexed although you can apparently search on unit, date etc. Use the card index to see what's available - put the word diaries in the keyword field.
Jane :-)
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A search on diaries only brings up the very top level of two sets of war diaries - the France/Belgium/Germany set and the Gallipoli/Dardanelles set. Each one then requires you to navigate from regiment or corps or brigade, to division to the specific unit.
While I agree with newburychap that the Ancestry filing system (for want of a better word) is eccentric, like everything else, once one understands the eccentricities then it becomes relatively easy. The National Archives catalogue headings are not without fault. I have in the last week downloaded a diary that was mis-titled - to their credit, NA acknowledged the error and provided the right one.
If you need help finding the ones you are after you know where to come!
MaxD
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The two main ones at the moment are the 1st 5th duke of wellingtons and the 8th border reg.
I have just gained a little more evidence on my great grandad that he was in the 6th platoon, B Com, 8th Battalion ( knew he was 8th borders from medals) and he was captured so i wanted to see for myself what they doing and where abouts as to him being captured.....
the DWR one i am looking for area hints for 2 family members.
Iv had certain info sent on here by people but im a little OCD when it comes to the 'source' so i like to see it myself and if poss print the piece i need so its there for future generations :-)
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8th Border have just one diary here: http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C7353391 covering the whole of their time in France.
1/5th Duke of Wellingtons have 5 diaries covering April 1915 to April 1918 all here:
http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/results/r?_aq=1%2F5%20duke%20of%20wellington&_ep=diaries&_nq1=2&_cr=WO&_dss=range&_ro=any&_p=1900&_st=adv. Need to choose your time frame
Do you have an Ancestry sub? If so I can direct you on there (need the time frame for 1/5th).
MaxD
PS Have you found GGrandad's POW record?
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Yes max I downloaded the 2 POW records you sent the link to :-)
I can use my friends ancestry but my issue is I can’t always read the writing on there when trying to look at the diaries so that’s why I wondered if there was anywhere else. I mainly also use my phone so obviously the writing is tiny.
For the 1st 5th one of the dates relative died is October 1916 and the other is sometime in 1917 but can’t remember which month exactly without getting my file out.
Kk
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They are going to look the same on a phone whether you download from NA or look at them on Ancestry and it is unlikely they have been transcribed anywhere.
If it suits your purpose, I'd be happy to look at each for you if you give me specifics and, withing reason, make a transcript if I can find what it is you are looking for - remember soldiers' names are rarely found.
I'll send you my email by PM if that would help.
MaxD
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Just to give an initial taste - a very brief outline of GGrandad's story is that his division were heavily attacked in what became known as the Battle of the Lys, the German offensive starting on 9 April 1918. All four companies of 8 Borders were cut off by the enemy advance in the area of Le Bizet near Armentieres While some eluded the enemy, many were captured, his POW record shows he was one of the many captured on 10 April. That month the battalion had some 333 missing.
The action of 9-11 April is written up in detail in the battalion diary.
MaxD
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I think the war diaries on Ancestry aren't name indexed although you can apparently search on unit, date etc. Use the card index to see what's available - put the word diaries in the keyword field.
Jane :-)
If only Ancestry was that good! When searching for a specific war diary using the battalion you might be lucky - if not give up and go to the TNA website. There you can get the Piece number of the diary and use in as the Keyword in the Ancestry search (leave all other boxes blank). As an example the 5th Battalion Dorsetshire diary is indexed under Various (Infantry Bridages, 11th Division) - yes that is how they spell brigade and yes there are other battalions indexed identically.
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Thank you. Sorry iv been unwell so not been on in a while. Illness has flared due to our silly cold weather here. Will look up more specifics when I get a few spare minutes :-)