Quote:
Originally Posted by Andrew Jackson
Eric - the kind words regarding the site are much appreciated. The war diary entry for 1 July 1916 - my own transcript, I should add! - can be found at:
http://www.pals.org.uk/pals_diary.htm
It's almost inevitable that a project of this size will contain errors. I'd hope that anyone who sees a mistake would wish to let me know so that it can be corrected.
Andrew |
What intrigues me about the war diary is that added sentence, mentioned in your note. Editing of war diaries and unit records in general, and cabinet minutes, etc. is troubling. However, in this case, there may be some truth in the addition of the sentence. In (and I think I am correct) Martin Middlebrooks fine book on the first day on the Somme, the author does mention that there were eye-witness accounts of some members of the Pals reaching their objective ... altho' it is not clear if the added sentence in the war diary is the source Middlebrook uses, or if there were actual accounts, other than this.
There is an interesting appendix to this book which lists the battaliions fighting on that day according to the number of casualties they suffered ... in this list the Pals come very high at number 5 ... (the dubious honor of being number 1 belongs to the 10th Battalion of the West Yorkshire Regiment, with the 1st Newfoundland Regiment holding down #2). A terrible day.