War Diaries & Typewriters

[JMB1943]

I am reading a WD, in which the entries are variously hand-written (HW) and type-written (TW), as follows...

Aug 14-Jul 15 HW

Aug 15 TW

Sep 15-Jan 16 HW

Feb 16 TW

Mar-May 16 HW

Jun 16 TW

Jul-Sep 16 HW

Oct 16- 1919 TW

Since I have read only the one WD, I have no idea whether this is typical or atypical. From the HW entries, it is obvious that the identity of the Intelligence Officer changed over time.

Is this use of a typewriter due to skill level or by choice of Intelligence Officer, or due to Army Orders ?

Regards,

JMB

[ss002d6252]

I've seen diaries which are all handwritten and some which are are typed (and combinations in between). Whether it was typed or not is probably down to the specific situation the unit found themselves in. The typewritten ones for front line units may have been handwritten and then typed up later, for rear line units I would have thought that typing them was pretty standard.

It may also have depended on who got the job of writing the diary that month.

Craig

[Moonraker]

Not all that relevant to JMB's query, but this

old thread

relates to typewriters.

Moonraker

[centurion]

I've seen diaries which are all handwritten and some which are are typed (and combinations in between). Whether it was typed or not is probably down to the specific situation the unit found themselves in. The typewritten ones for front line units may have been handwritten and then typed up later, for rear line units I would have thought that typing them was pretty standard.

It may also have depended on who got the job of writing the diary that month.

Craig

Some commanders would dictate their diaries to a senior NCO/junior officer who would take notes/shorthand and then go away and type them up. The typed first draft could then sometimes be amended by the commander and retyped by his 'military secretary'

[Muerrisch]

At battalion level I believe the adjutant was RESPONSIBLE for the daily entry, very possibly written by a member of the Orderly Room, and often initialled by the Adjt.

At the end of the month the unit CO seems to have signed off the month.

This I have deduced from RWF diaries, so it may only be regimental practice of course. Gave me a superb set of adjt. and CO initials/ autographs, an unusual collection.

[squirrel]

From the War Diaries I have seen and in some cases studied in depth, type written battalion diaries of time spent in the trenches are few and far between. Most typewritten entries are of spells spent behind the lines for one reason or another. The execeptions seem to be those which describe a raid or a major action and I suspect that these were typed up after the event when all the relevant information had been collated.

[Keith Iles]

My Grandfathers Battalion Wd's for the 2/KRRC started of type written but soon reverted to hand ( I still reckon that the man they gave the job to carry the type writer to, decided on the retreat from Mons that it was too heavy and dumped it along the way, who knows it might have been granddad himself! )

[centurion]

My Grandfathers Battalion Wd's for the 2/KRRC started of type written but soon reverted to hand ( I still reckon that the man they gave the job to carry the type writer to, decided on the retreat from Mons that it was too heavy and dumped it along the way, who knows it might have been granddad himself! )

Or perhaps the ribbon ran out and the nearest Staples was a long way away

[Gardenerbill]

My Grandfather was in the 9th East Lancs and I have studied their war diary at the Lancashire Regiments Museum Fulwood Barracks Preston. The museum has both a typed copy and a handwritten, I haven't studied the hand written version so I don't know if it is complete, however typed copy is complete suggetsing it was created at a later date.

[Muerrisch]

The typed versions at regimental museums are, in my experience, only secondary evidence and I do know of errors that crept in during the transcriptions ...... inevitably.

[John_Hartley]

Gave me a superb set of adjt. and CO initials/ autographs, an unusual collection.

I was in touch with someone ages back where the signature of the CO was welcomed as the only evidence that the man had been transferred to the battalion, rather than sent home "under a cloud".

[JMB1943]

Thanks to all for the info.

Squirrel, your observation is spot on for the only WD (2 RSR) that I have read.

As an aside, I have not physically seen this WD, so another question comes to mind. Are the WD's set up as one top copy and one (or more) carbon copies, or as single top copy only ?

Regards,

JMB

[Guest]

I am reading a WD, in which the entries are variously hand-written (HW) and type-written (TW), as follows...

Aug 14-Jul 15 HW

Aug 15 TW

Sep 15-Jan 16 HW

Feb 16 TW

Mar-May 16 HW

Jun 16 TW

Jul-Sep 16 HW

Oct 16- 1919 TW

Since I have read only the one WD, I have no idea whether this is typical or atypical. From the HW entries, it is obvious that the identity of the Intelligence Officer changed over time.

Is this use of a typewriter due to skill level or by choice of Intelligence Officer, or due to Army Orders ?

Regards,

JMB

Having transcribed rather a few, I would say

1. The vast majority of 1914-1915 War diaries are handwritten. Take the BEF Infantry and cavalry War diaries for 1914 example - only 2.58% of all diary pages were typewritten (493 pages of 18670 pages). This is just the narrative diary and does not include Operational Orders (often typewritten at Bde level and upwards) or signals, messages, notes etc.

2. Occasionally one sees whole diaries that have been typed. I believe these are transcriptions made after the event. Often these were composites of a number of diaries.

3. Often the diaries are supplemented with personal diaries and these have a higher chance of being typewritten. These were typically added to the diaries by the OH staff when compiling info for the Official Histories. Occasionally where a Form C 2118 (Official Unit Diary /Intelligence Report Army Form) is lost a personal diary has been substituted. Some of the correspondents with the OH staff provided these after the war.

4. Very few C 2118 were written on the day. Most were written up days or even weeks later from notebooks. It was impractical to carry around the C 2118 book and this was usually maintained by the orderly room NCO.

5. In early Sep 1914 there was an attempt to make all diaries typewritten. It lasted less than a week, so very often one sees a few dates in early Sep 1914 typewritten and the remainder all handwritten

6. The reason they were handwritten is that they were written in pencil, which every good soldier (and officer) knows should be sharpened at both ends and is used because it is waterproof. Also typewriters and trenches dont really mix that well.

MG

[IRC Kevin]

The only typewritten diaries I've seen so far are all transcripts made after the war by Edmond's secretarial team to help him compile the official histories. Having compared these with the originals, as Grumpy mentioned above, a number of typos certainly crept in, mostly with regard to trench names and map references. Much easier to read than the originals- but don't have any of those little sketches that help so much when reconstructing an event.

[JMB1943]

Thanks to all,

I had naively assumed that the WD would have been written up overnight, so the comments have set me straight.

Martin--thanks for showing just how atypical it was to use TW.

Were they single copies only, or any carbon copies (either HW or TW) ?

Regards,

JMB

[Guest]

Thanks to all,

I had naively assumed that the WD would have been written up overnight, so the comments have set me straight.

Martin--thanks for showing just how atypical it was to use TW.

Were they single copies only, or any carbon copies (either HW or TW) ?

Regards,

JMB

I have seen carbon copies (CC) of both HW and TW. TW more common especially in Op Orders for obvious reasons. Percent of CC in the 1914-1915 diaries is extremely low in the narrative parts but higher when one delves into appendices.MG