Where are all the War Diaries Then? Hidden on yer Hard Drive, that's where.

Discussion in 'Unit History' started by von Poop, Jan 21, 2011.

  1. 4jonboy

    4jonboy Daughter of a 56 Recce

    muggins likes this.
  2. muggins

    muggins Member

    Thanks Lesley, very kind.
    I was hoping there'd be a list as I'm not very fussy whose diary I read.

    I'm passed the specifics of my research but still like to do comparisons. A diary with a veteran's account or version of events. Or a diary of one unit with another in same Div/Brigade.

    Should really have said why I was asking. Back to the search facility it is. :)
     
  3. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

    You need to visit the 1940 section ;)

    I believe there may be more diary extracts in that section than the rest of the forum put together ?
     
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  4. hutt

    hutt Member

    I've photographed the first 6 months of the diary for the 70th Medium Regiment RA during their time in Italy. I would be happy to make it available if the interest was there. Is there any concensus on the best method and file sizes etc. It currently consists of 230+ jpg files of about 78mb. Would the site gallery be the best place?

    WO170-1010 Medium Regiments 70 Med. Regt 01 January 1944 - 31 December 1944
     
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  5. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    Hi, Hutt,
    First of all - good man.

    As the attachment limit per entry in posts & the WD database is 10mb, it makes perfect sense to me if people were to upload to the (unlimited) gallery, and then we can sort links from the database to that album.
     
  6. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    Right.
    With the Able assistance of dbf, I think we've got some more order/sense into the fields & categories for the War Diary & Documents Database:
    http://ww2talk.com/forums/page/Databases/war_diaries_database.html
    (Normal access via the 'Databases' tab above.)

    Do feel free to add stuff to the DB.

    Good for sharing Info.
    Good for your own reference (apparently).
    Adding scanned/photographed diaries via a mass upload to the Gallery & a Link from the DB seems sensible for the non-transcribers.
     
  7. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

    Thought I'd bump this up and encourage some of the forum members to post more of their research from my visits to Kew for them.

    I know over the last 12 months I've uncovered some great stories and one in particular from the Green Howards that I can still remember. Come on ladies and gents, share your stories and getting posting the war diary pages I've copied-Some of them are far to brilliant not to have on here in the public domain.

    Cheers
    Andy
     
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  8. Bob_Mackenzie

    Bob_Mackenzie Member

    I have some diaries that could go up, but can't work out how to make an album to upload too

    Also I need a free tool to mass resize pics to a more sensible size. I don't have the time to do them one at the time

    Cheers

    Bob
     
  9. ritsonvaljos

    ritsonvaljos Senior Member

    Although not the only valid and creditable source of accurate information these days the War Diary is the backbone of much of the useful research into campaigns, particular battles and sometimes individuals.

    Some years ago when I was doing research for my university studies (Battle of Normandy) War Diaries had not been released. Sometimes alternative documents, photographs and personal memories as well as going to visit the locations could verify research findings. Now that most War Diaries are accessible exact dates and times can be checked but personally I would also tend to allow for the occasional inaccuracy and, if possible, perhaps try to cross check from other documentary sources.

    Obviously it takes some time and effort to hunt out the War Diaries at the National Archives. So we should give a big 'thank you' to those who help others on this site by digitising and sharing them. :)
     
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  10. dbf

    dbf Moderatrix MOD

    Hi Bob
    an alternative would be to post up a list of which diaries you have copies and perhaps offer to do the occasional look-up for a particular date?
     
  11. Recce_Mitch

    Recce_Mitch Very Senior Member

    Hi Bob I use SnipClik to resize all my diaries that I've posted.

    Cheers
    Paul
     
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  12. Bob_Mackenzie

    Bob_Mackenzie Member

    Thanks Paul I will take a look

    Now if someone could explain how to make an album in the gallery please?
     
  13. Sheldrake

    Sheldrake All over the place....

    This is a serious issue. There is little point documents without indexing them so they can be retrieved.
     
  14. dbf

    dbf Moderatrix MOD

    I wouldn't say that at all: they can still be searched for, and found. Most references to them being under this sub-forum Unit Documents or under Gallery

    The problem with an index is that it relies entirely on the contributor to notify others of their additions. Some might remember that there was an attempt made at a database (external links, internal links, gallery, transcripts etc) within the old software version of the forum, but not everyone added to it.

    All I'd ask folks to do is to ensure whenever they post up WDs, whether it's images in gallery or attachments, or as transcripts or links, that they add either a full description incl unit/year, a TNA ref or at least a Tag.
     
  15. Stuart Avery

    Stuart Avery In my wagon & not a muleteer.

    Paul, that's sounds like a good idea. How do's it work? I'm kind of hoping you don't have to do page by page? picresize is the case unless I'm using it wrong..

    Regards
    Stu.
     
  16. Recce_Mitch

    Recce_Mitch Very Senior Member

    Basically to use SnipClik you just select all the images and click process after you select your settings.

    Cheers
    Paul
     
  17. OpanaPointer

    OpanaPointer Pearl Harbor Myth Buster

    There Otto be a way to these docs more accessible...
     
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  18. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    Look at all these people pottering about on the site analytics, quite possibly inspired by Armistice day to look up relatives. (I say quite possibly, I mean definitely - every year, the 11/11 bump.)
    I bet they'd love to see a few more War diaries, documents etc.
    Eh.
    Eh.

    Capture.JPG1.JPG Capture.JPG
     
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  19. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

    I can confirm that things have got busy regarding people asking for help, especially at work. Definitely a connection with armistice making people think about relatives that served..
     
    Chris C likes this.
  20. Rich Payne

    Rich Payne Rivet Counter Patron 1940 Obsessive

    The trouble with posting diaries is that most of the interesting (= BEF) diaries are hand-written and difficult if just posted straight up and transcribing is a time-consuming bore unless there is a grateful end-user waiting for it.
     

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