From today the UK’s National Archives has placed online thousands of digitised First World War unit war diaries from France and Flanders. Around 1.5 million pages of war diaries have been digitised and more will be released as the year goes on.
Diary of Gallipoli: entry for 25th April 1915.
This first batch of unit war diaries tells of the first cavalry and infantry divisions who were part of the earliest deployment of British army troops in France and Flanders and totals just over 300,000 pages.
There are also diaries from soldiers of the 5th Royal Irish Lancers who saw action continuously between 1914 and 1918 and includes the last British soldier to die in the conflict, Private George Edwin Ellison – who was killed in action on 11 November 1918.
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