Catalogue description War Office: First World War and Army of Occupation War Diaries

This series consists of war diaries for British and colonial units serving in theatres of operations between 1914 and 1922, including Russia, at home, and in the colonies, and British military missions, and Armies of Occupation between 1919 and 1922. No diaries for the campaign in South West Africa in 1914-1915 are included in this series because no British units participated; operations were conducted under the auspices of the South African armed forces.

The diaries contain daily reports on operations, intelligence summaries and other pertinent material. The range of dates shown for individual items does not mean there is a document inside the file for each day between the two covering dates.

Digital copies of selected British Army war diaries 1914-1922 can be searched and downloaded.

For intelligence summaries of information and reports on military, economic and political matters, see WO 157

As many maps included in these diaries and certain war diaries containing particularly confidential material were extracted it is thought that these reasons account for the absence of some appendices referred to on the covers of many diaries.

Maps extracted from these diaries are now in WO 153

Extracted war diaries with especially confidential material were put into WO 154

A set of divisional orders of battle for Belgium, France and Germany, in six parts, is held at the Reference Desk; entitled History of the Great War. Order of Battle of Divisions, (HMSO, 1935-1945). This is arranged by division, not by unit. It includes a brief history of Armies, Corps and Divisions serving on the Western Front.

A contents list and Index to Battalions etc, and a list of the Brigades and Divisions to which Battalions were attached are in the reading rooms at The National Archives, Kew.