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Remembered Today:

Operation War Diary launch, 14th January 2014


lukesmith

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Hello!

I spent the morning at The National Archives for the press event for the launch of two related projects: the release of digitised versions of WO/95 for online access and Operation War Diary. Both things -- Operation War Diary and the online access to WO/95 -- officially launch tomorrow, 14 January.

As we say on the site, “The story of the British Army on the Western Front during the First World War is waiting to be discovered in 1.5 million pages of unit war diaries. We need your help to reveal the stories of those who fought in the global conflict that shaped the world we live in today.”

We’d love members of the Great War Forum to have a preview of the site at: www.operationwardiary.org

Please help us to spread the word from midnight (14 January) when the site officially launches. More importantly, please get involved by following the tutorial and getting started.

The site has a fully featured discussion board. This is a long term project and there are sure to be ways we could make it better. Please tell us how at:

http://talk.operationwardiary.org/#/boards

And find out about why IWM initiated this project on the project blog at:

http://blog.operationwardiary.org/

I sincerely hope that some of you will share your deep expertise, help those new to First World War history and work with us to make an outstanding contribution to the centenary.

many thanks,

Luke (Smith)

IWM

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Thanks for the preview Luke. First signs are interesting to say the least!

Jim

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Thanks Luke. Agree with Jim, looks very interesting and look forward to launch. Just had a quick look. I think it's going to be busy.

Any indication of cost? (there may be, but I didn't see it)

Mike

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There's no cost to participate in Operation War Diary - to download the full war diaries from The National Archives website will be the standard £3.36 fee.

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Great to see the coverage in the media this morning, although one or two news organisations seem to think that a War Diary was something kept by individual private soldiers. The programme of getting the Diaries on-line seemed to have hit the buffers recently, but I guess that NA were holding some back to maximize publicity for 2014.

My only concern stems from personal disappointment with some of the on-line diaries that I have looked at in respect to missing annexes, supplementary reports and maps. In some cases, the NA on-line versions seem not as comprehensive in this regard as the original bound hard copies in regimental archives.

Tony

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I've been contributing to the forum for some time in a personal capacity, some people already know this (and anyone who follows the link to my blog could very quickly find out) but I actually work in the Digital Preservation department at The National Archives.

I've had some direct involvement in the war diaries project, largely checking the technical characteristics of the master images to ensure we have best possible chance of preserving the the image files themselves in the long-term.

It has taken a long time. There are over 1.5 million images in total, which is the largest digitisation project we have managed in house (the 1911 census has more images, but the digitisation is then the responsibility of the partner chosen to deliver the project). These images have erquired a lot of sorting and checking, and there's also been quite a lot of recataloguing done to get a good balance between providing sensible amounts (and divisions) of information for each downloadable item, while avoiding excessive download times.

As to Tony's query, what we hold now as WO 95 had been used by the official historians to prepare the official history before the material was transferred to what was then the Public Record Office. Unfortunately, the historians chose to dispose of Part II orders, and what they saw as duplicate material, while they were working on it. Sometimes you may find that order etc that are present in the version held by a regimental archives are present only at Brigade or Division (rather than Battalion) level in WO 95. Remember also that what was previously online was indeed generally missing this supplemental material, as it wasn't included in the microfilmed versions from which that was prepared. For the present exercise we have gone right back to the original paper, and everything in every box has (or at least should have been!) imaged.

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I meant also to say that this release comprises the records of the units of the original BEF. To be slightly more precise it covers those divisions which made up the original BEF, but the coverage extends throughout the war, so the war diaries for units that only joined those divisions later in the war will also be present. This is the first thre cavalry divisions and the first seven infantry divisions (WO 95/1096 to WO 95/1156, and WO 95/1227 to WO 95/1670)

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To add to David's answer to Tony....

- From my experience sometimes the maps were too large to fit in the WO 95 boxes such as mining schemes from some of the tunnelling companies and now are in WO 153

- Maps from the diary for 1/4 Royal Berks in WO 95/2762 are now in MPH 1/1096 so there are probably others in that situation

- Some higher level (divisional) diaries were held back when they were released to the public and are in WO 154. I think these usually involve sensitive court martial material such as SAD cases.

David has answered the main point quite well though.

Glen

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It is certainly going to be interesting to see what the level of take-up is as far as crowdsourcing is concerned. Will there be thousands of willing transcribers/spotters of useful information, or just the few tens of fanatics? Will it peak early and then decline as people realise what they are in for? Will it need conscription halfway through the war? Will there be medals? :thumbsup:

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Really glad to see there's been some interest (and discussion) surrounding Operation War Diary already. We'd be really interested to hear your feedback on the project, particularly any suggestions on how we can improve the site or any interesting facts/stories you've found in the diaries (if you've had a go at tagging them) on the discussion boards for the project:

http://talk.operationwardiary.org/#/boards

Matthew

IWM

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Luke/Matthew

May I ask about the background photo on the front page of the website. It seems that the men are displaying their 'mementoes' from a recent action. The only cap badge I can see is in the top right and it looks like a Fusilier badge. Is there a caption/background for this photo as to who they are please?

Hywyn

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Luke/Matthew

May I ask about the background photo on the front page of the website. It seems that the men are displaying their 'mementoes' from a recent action. The only cap badge I can see is in the top right and it looks like a Fusilier badge. Is there a caption/background for this photo as to who they are please?

Hywyn

Hello Hywyn

A bit more detail here: http://www.lookandlearn.com/history-images/XD151336/British-soldiers-wearing-captured-German-helmets-Battle-of-the-Somme-World-War-I-1916

Will

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Luke/Matthew

May I ask about the background photo on the front page of the website. It seems that the men are displaying their 'mementoes' from a recent action. The only cap badge I can see is in the top right and it looks like a Fusilier badge. Is there a caption/background for this photo as to who they are please?

Hywyn

Hi Hywyn,

Here's the link to the photograph in our collections (the image is © IWM Q 777), that has some more information on the picture. The image is of the 13th Royal Fusiliers.

I hope this helps.

Thanks,

Matthew

IWM

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I meant also to say that this release comprises the records of the units of the original BEF. To be slightly more precise it covers those divisions which made up the original BEF, but the coverage extends throughout the war, so the war diaries for units that only joined those divisions later in the war will also be present. This is the first thre cavalry divisions and the first seven infantry divisions (WO 95/1096 to WO 95/1156, and WO 95/1227 to WO 95/1670)

Yet, I cant see the artillery for most of these unit e.g. 15th Bde RFA and 8th Bde RFA?

Mark

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Mark

15 Bde is in WO 95/1528/1 and WO 95/1528/2 while 8 Bde is in WO 95/1274. The TNA website is running extremely slow or else I'd have provided actual links.

Glen

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Well Signed up and started on a RE diary will be a hard slog, deciphering the pencil writings is hard enough starter for ten!

Anyone else signed up, just taken the tutorial?

Mandy

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Signed up and working on different diaries.

Quite addictive really!

Agreed, Dave. Just finished page of 56th Field Co RE, as it reasonably close in number to the 76th which my grandad served with.

Mandy

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Anyone else signed up, just taken the tutorial?

Mandy

Yep and working on 1st Bn Glos Regt. However there are a LOT of issues with the tagging and also with the workings of the site which it seems to me should have been sorted at Beta testing phase. Judging by some of the problems I can only imagine there WAS no beta testing phase... Does seem that it could be so much better if the categories of some of the tags had been better thought through. I do agree it's very addicitive though!

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I meant also to say that this release comprises the records of the units of the original BEF. To be slightly more precise it covers those divisions which made up the original BEF, but the coverage extends throughout the war, so the war diaries for units that only joined those divisions later in the war will also be present.

I noticed the London Scottish diary only covers up to the end of January 1916. Is the rest of the diary online and I'm missing it, or has it yet to be added?

Mike

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