National Archives

In preparation to going to France and Belgium this spring, I decided to research the activities of the regiments that my uncles were in. I don't have time to do the long walk from Normandy to Antwerp, but I WILL go to Antwerp from Belgium, and find where my uncle Bill died. It was at a lock on the Albert Canal just north of "Fort 1" just to the east of the city of Antwerp. Should be able to get there by city bus! Better than marching down the road to bagpipes like my uncles did!

I did not know until yesterday that all the regiments kept a "war diary" of their activities. The above pictures are from the war diaries of the Calgary Highlanders. They are surprisingly interesting...they read like a really good blog! Well, they ARE a diary! Seems the war diaries of all the regiments EVER are in the National Archives right here in Ottawa! Most everything is in there...names of officers injured and killed, gone home, or new arrivals. Orders of battle. Lots of battle maps, with coffee rings and cigarette burns. The originals! I felt honoured to be pouring over the same maps as the Colonels of those great regiments! Missing was the nominal roles of the men, and the names of those k-w-m, as well as those recommended for medals and why. These are in some other archive I have not found yet....I expect they are "dispatches" which may be in the Brigade diaries. (Several platoons make up the Companies, four or five Companies make up a Regiment, and all Regiments belong to Brigades)

If you click on the images and enlarge them, you can read the actual entries. These entries were actually made right in the field, in the bottom of slit trenches, back of trucks, sometimes even under fire! They are personable, and often well written, though later on, particularly during the difficult Battle of the Scheldt, they got more clinical, and MUCH longer. I liked the top entry, for 14 July 1944, as they describe a lady in a liberated city cutting up her daughter's hair ribbon and giving the French flag coloured pieces to the officers as souveniers. And of course, how difficult it was for the Commanding Officer to pull his Adjutant away from the pretty girls. All this in the afternoon, but in the morning they had undergone shelling, and had a couple of wounded! Man! What a life that must have been! Note that there was a VERY good reason why the only PT the guys got that day was deepening the slit trenches!

They are almost always written in a very optomistic fashion. I am reminded sometimes as I read these notes of the orders Nelson used to give to his carpenters (people who fix battle damage on ships) to always grin, and smile, no matter what! They used to say they could tell the carpenters below decks by the fixed "death's head" grins they always wore as they ran around trying to stop leaks below the waterline. These diaries are no different. No matter how bad they got mauled, they always say something like "well, we gave as good as we got, and the CO was very proud of his men."