Latest crowd of First World War unit diaries things being so online
22 May 2014
Today we are formation a third batch of 724 digitised First World War unit war diaries from France and Flanders serviceable online via our First World War 100 portal.
The unit war diaries provide attractive accounts of battles and events, considered in the state of well as insights into the daily routines of British troops on the Western Front.
What's included
This third part tranche (WO 95/2432 - WO 95/3154) contains the diaries from the Kitchener Divisions and those of the Territorial Force (later The Territorial Army). This includes:
the 36th (Ulster) Division, that had many casualties on 1 July 1916
the 66th (2nd East Lancashire) Division, that was the last division to leave the UK beneficial to France in March 1917
Also included in the diaries are accounts of gangs' sports activities (WO 95/2524) which helped keep them motivated and endure fighting until the end of the fare.
William Spencer, author and principal soldierly records specialist at The National Archives, declared: 'Now that this latest batch of one war diaries is online, people totality around the world can read the officer army accounts to discover more hither and thither the troops on the Western Front. The diaries remark successful battles, such as 46th Division fracture the Hindenburg Line, as well in the same manner with failures and casualties in key battles of that kind as those on the Somme in 1916. They in addition provide rare insights into how the gangs maintained the environment in the trenches viewed like well as the sports days what one helped to keep them motivated.'
Highlights from the files
Highlights from the third part batch of unit war diaries include:
a sports day programme dated 31 October 1917, which notes pillow fighting, wheelbarrow races and struggle on mules (WO 95/2524/3)
chalk out of a 'snapshot' view from the face (which notes 'dead animals' and uniform a 'dead Frenchman') (WO 95/2970/3)
two photos giving a 'how to' and 'how not to' guide to laying cut boards (WO 95/2670/1)
three photos of battalion officers from 7th Battalion Black Watch Fife (unit of these photos is shown atop of) (WO 95/2879/5)
Join Operation War Diary
As share of the digitisation of the Unit War Diaries and to put under pledge people in the centenary, we are in operation with Imperial War Museums (IWM) and Zooniverse ward Operation War Diary. Launched at the emergence of 2014, this innovative crowdsourcing narration project enables the public to gain involved in capturing information, tagging names, places and activities, from our unit war diaries.
Go straight to the website to take work in Operation War Diary after this.
We recommend you use a present browser: www.operationwardiary.org uses advanced browser features and is designed to be used on a PC with IE version 9 (or higher), or with latest versions of Chrome and Firefox. On a Mac it is designed to be in action with the latest version of Safari.
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