9th Battalion Yorkshire Regiment

[rosijayne]

Hi
I wonder if anybody knows if the 9th Battalion Yorkshire Regiment diaries for ww1 are available to download from The National Archives?

Grateful for advice on this one.

Gill

[MaxD]

Periods Aug 15 to Oct 17 and Sep 18 to Feb 19 are the first two here:
http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/results/r?_cr=WO&_dss=range&_ro=any&_p=1900&_q=%289+AND+yorkshire%29+AND+%22diaries%22

The period Nov 17 to Sep 18 was when they were in Italy - need to look more closely for that - others may know.

MaxD

[MaxD]

Italy period included here in the brigade: http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C4557391
(Don't worry about the title it includes 9 Battalion)
MaxD

[rosijayne]

Thats really helpful of you, many thanks.
My main reason for asking is that I wanted to know where my Grandfather was on 4 November 1918,  wondering if he was involved with the battle of the Sambre, Mormal Forest on that date.
Gill

[mmm45]

Gill

http://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/army/order-of-battle-of-divisions/25th-division/

Looks like they were

Ady

[rosijayne]

Hi Ady
Many thanks for that, this makes interesting reading. My Grandfather originally enlisted in 5th Battalion Buffs and was transferred to 9th Yorkshire at a later stage. I was lucky enough to be able to find some surviving pages of his war record on Ancestry, and your information and MaxD's will help me to trace his units movements also.

Many thanks
Gill

[MaxD]

In the interests of completeness and accuracy I should have said:
a.  The two Western Front diaries are on Ancestry
b.  The Italy period has not been digitised so needs to be copied.

Specifically, on 4 November 1918, the battalion moved from Mal Garni (the diary calls it Malgani) (Fontaine au Bois on the maps)  3 miles west of Landrecies.  At two o'clock they crossed the canal north east of Landrecies by means of two petrol tin float bridges, took an enemy outpost on the other (eastern) side and captured an enemy gun battery and some prisoners.  They continued advancing next day via Old Mill des Pres to Maroilles. 

The area can be seen on the map at:
http://digitalarchive.mcmaster.ca/islandora/object/macrepo%3A78949/-/collection
Fontaine au Bois on the top left, canal crossing point to the north east of Landrecies and Maroilles at the left.  Easily found on present day maps or Google Earth, search Landrecies France.

MaxD