Selected First World War and Army of Occupation War Diaries

The National Archives has digitised some of its most frequently ordered War Diaries from the First World War.

The original diaries are held in the series WO 95. They are for British and colonial units serving in theatres of operations between 1914 and 1922.

They contain daily reports on operations, intelligence summaries and other pertinent material. The majority of the diaries cover activity in France, Germany and Belgium.

Many maps and plans were included in the original diaries and particularly confidential material was removed before the files were made available. This accounts for the absence of some appendices referred to on the covers of many diaries.

Searching the diaries

In August 2009 the way the diaries are arranged on DocumentsOnline changed. You can now download an entire piece for £3.50. This means that with each download you will typically receive the diary of several battalions covering a period of several years. This will be divided into several pdf files, which you can save to your computer. You can then scroll through the pdf files to locate the battalion and dates that you are interested in.

You can search by battalion/ brigade and catalogue reference:

Further research

You can see an enlarged version of the Ministry of National Service poster.

For more information see the guide British Army War Diaries: First World War, 1914-1918.