Catalogue description War Office: Allied Expeditionary Force, North West Europe (British Element): War Diaries, Second World War

Search within or browse this series to find specific records of interest.

Date range

Details of WO 171
Reference: WO 171
Title: War Office: Allied Expeditionary Force, North West Europe (British Element): War Diaries, Second World War
Description:

This series of war diaries pertains to the British element of the Allied Expeditionary Force which invaded North West Europe in the summer of 1944 (Operation Overlord). They contain the daily record of events, reports on operations, intelligence summaries, etc, of Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Forces and of Headquarters Formation and Unit Commanders.

Date: 1943-1946
Arrangement:

The series is arranged in the order Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force, 21 Army Group, Armies, Corps, Divisions, Brigades, Lines of Communication, Areas and Garrisons; followed by Units of the Royal Armoured Corps and other Arms of the service, not in order of precedence. Apart from Supreme Headquarters, whose branches' war diaries in some cases span the years 1944-1945, the series is grouped in years.

The war diaries of Special Forces, including those in Norway and the Channel Islands, will be found at the end of each yearly group.

Related material:

For Military Headquarters papers of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force covering the invasion of Northern Europe, 1944 to 1945, see WO 219

Held by: The National Archives, Kew
Legal status: Public Record(s)
Language: English
Physical description: 11102 file(s)
Access conditions: Open
Immediate source of acquisition:

From 1972 Ministry of Defence

Have you found an error with this catalogue description?