Diaries, Memorials, Personal Reminiscences

WWI Document Archive > Diaries, Memorials, Personal Reminiscences

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Alphabetically arranged by name of memoir writer (if available) or by title keyword(s).

A

Robert R. Abercromby.Lest we Forget – a personal self drive experience

Following Australian Footsteps

Through the Battlefields of the Western Front.

Eugen R. Aichele. Return to the Western Front. A German Artillery Soldier's Story.

As reported in 1967, fifty years after the fact, to his son while visiting the sites of his service.

Frederick and Evelyn Albright. An Echo in My Heart: Diaries of Fred Albright, ed. and comp. by Lorna Brooke.

Note: This is part of a larger website that includes correspondence between Frederick and his wife Evelyn.

Frederick died at Passchendaele in October 1917.

History of the American Field Service in France, 1914-1917, Told by its Members.

New York and Boston: Houghton Mifflin. 1920.

Also see the website on AFS in World War I prepared by Alan Albright as a part of his American Field Service site.

Dikran Andreasian. Comment un drapeau sauva quatre mille Arméniens.

Paris: Fischbacher, n.d.

- en français -

In Memoriam - The Last Anzacs

The Archive of War Diaries Online (Interfaces in English and German)

See especially the Great War section.

A high number of links to World War I diary facsimiles and transcripts.

Arizona's War Dead: WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Southwest Asia

The Arizona Republic, 31 May 1999

Armistice à Cap Pelé

- en français -

Australian Army War Diaries - First World War

A subset of Australian Army War Diaries from the Australian War Memorial.

Samuel E. Avery, Soldier's Mail: Letters Home from a New England Soldier

1916-1919

B

Harry E. Barnes, Leopold Berchtold, Alexander Hoyos, Friedrich von Wiesner, Gottlieb von Jagow, Wilhelm II von Hohenzollern, Alfred Zimmerman, Michael T. Florinsky,

Did Germany Incite Austria in 1914?

Current History, vol. 28, no. 4. (July, 1928), pp. 619-640.

(Eight views on the controversy)

Belgian writer, Stiijn Streuvels. In oorlogstijd. Het volledige dagboek van de Eerste Wereldoorlog.

English translation: In Time of War: The Complete Diary from the First World War.

The collected Flemish-language war diaries of the famous Belgian writer Stijn Streuvels (1871-1969), compiled in 1979.

Olga Bing. Gestes d'Infirmières, Croquis 1916 1917.

Paris: Léon Marotte, 1917.

- en français -

Battle of the Somme, a web portal of the Imperial War Museum.

Click on "Personal Stories" for diaries, letters, etc.

British & German rations

1914 & 1916

Leslie Buswell.With the American Ambulance Field Service in France. Personal Letters of a Driver at the Front.

Boston,1916.

Joseph G. Butler. A Journey Through France in War Time.

Cleveland : Penton Press, 1917.

C

John Bruce Cairnie.

The Great War Diaries - 1915 (5th Seaforths).

The Great War Diaries - 1916 (5th Seaforths).

The Great War Diaries - 1917 (King's African Rifles).

The Great War Diaries - 1918/1919 (King's African Rifles).

Submitted by Alan Cairnie [alancairnie59@gmail.com OR anguscairnie@live.com]

Canadian Letters From the Front

Transcribed letters from the Canadian Great War Project.

Canadian War Diaries

Transcribed and searchable diaries from the Canadian Great War Project.

CEF: Canadian Troop Strength in Siberia,

1918-1919.

Harold Chapin. Soldier and Dramatist.

1916

Christmas Truce 1914: Operation Plum Puddings

A project to document the Christmas Truce.

Includes letters, songs, and other works about this astonishing event.

Georges Clemenceau. Discours de Guerre.

Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1968.

- en français -

Georges Clemenceau. Grandeurs et misères d'une victoire.

Paris: Plon, 1973.

- en français -

Ella Cordasco. Recollections of the Russian Revolution.

(March - October 1917).

Fred G. Coxen. My Diary: From Notes and Well Remembered Incidents

(August 4, 1914 - May 6, 1915).

Benjamin E. Cruzan. A Soldier's Diary.

(December 1917 - June 1919).

The War Diary of George Culpitt, Royal Welch Fusiliers

The diary of George Culpitt, kept by him, in tiny notebooks, in the trenches of the First World War. He served from 1915 to 1919 in the 10th and 13th Battalions of the Royal Welch Fusiliers "The London Welch."

Edward E. Cummings. An Enormous Room.

New York: Boni & Liveright, 1922.

(Polish translation of the Foreword and Czech translation of Chapter One available separately)

Marine Flyer in France: The Diary of Capt. Alfred A. Cunningham.

November 1917 - January1918

D

Kenneth Sydney Day.

Diary During My Service with the Australian Imperial Forces - 1914-15-16-17.

Kirkland H. Day. Camion Cartoons.

Boston: Marshall Jones, 1919.

Declarations of War

Dates of war declarations by country.

Diary of Section Eight.

Privately printed, 1917.

Gerhard Friedrich Dose. Das Infanterie Regiment 187 in den Vogesen 1915-1916

German original.

    Gerhard Friedrich Dose.     Infantry Regiment 187 in the Vosges Mountains, 1915-1916

    English translation.

Gerhard Friedrich Dose. Das Infanterie-Regiment 187 im Rumänienfeldzug 1916/17

German original.

    Gerhard Friedrich Dose.     German Infantry Regiment 187 in the Romanian campaign, 1916-1917

    English translation.

    - Part I -     - Part II -     - Part III -     - Part IV - .

Gerhard Friedrich Dose. Das Infanterie Regiment 187 in Lothringen und bei Reims 1917

German original.

    Gerhard Friedrich Dose.     German Infantry Regiment 187 in Lorraine and at Reims, 1917

    English translation.

   - Part I -     - Part II - .

Gerhard Friedrich Dose.

Das Infanterie Regiment 187 in Flandern, bei Arras und Cambrai 1917/18

German original.

    Gerhard Friedrich Dose.     German Infantry Regiment 187 in Flanders, at Arras and Cambrai, 1917-1918

English translation.

- Part I -     - Part II -     - Part III -     - Part IV - .

Gerhard Friedrich Dose.

Das Königlich Preußische Infanterie Regiment 187 auf dem Lingekopf, Oktober bis Dezember 1915

An illustrated tour of German Infantry Regiment 187 at the Linge.

-- requires PowerPoint software --

Ralph Dorchell Doughty. Lieutenant R.D. Doughty, M.C.

Diaries and Photos of a New Zealander in World War I.

Norman Cecil Sommers Down

Cecil Summers

Cecil Somers

SEE: Cecil Sommers.

General Lionel Dunsterville. Diaries - 1911-1922

E

Stapleton T. Eachus. The Great War Diaries.

Sherwood Eddy. With Our Soldiers in France.

New York, 1917.

Anonymous. An Eye-Witness at Louvain.

London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1914 .

F

Fred A. Farrell. The 51st (Highland) Division - War Sketches.

I Figli della guerra.

Venice: Istituto Veneto di Arti Grafiche Venezia, 1919

- in italiano -

Fliegertruppe

Memoirs and recollections of German flyers from 1911 through 1920.

Maréchal Ferdinand Foch. Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire de la guerre de 1914-1918.

Paris: Plon, 1931.

- en français -

Lieutenant Elmer J. Focke. A Young Lieutenant in War

Fifty-two letters written by Elmer J. Focke while he served as an officer in the American Expeditionary Forces, 1918-1919.

War Prison Barracks Three: Fort Douglas, Utah

German and Austro-Hungarian Civilian Internment Camp for the Western United States

1917 - 1920.

Friends of France. The Field Service of the American Ambulance, described by its members.

Boston, 1916.

G

Ruth Gaines. A Village in Picardy.

New York: E.P. Dutton, 1918.

The work of the Smith College Relief Unit in the Somme.

Ruth Gaines. Helping France.

New York: E.P. Dutton, 1919.

The Red Cross in the Devastated Area.

Gedenkbuch des Reichsbund jüdischer Frontsoldaten

Memorial to German Jewish soldiers who fell from 1914-1918.

S.l.: Reichsbund jüdischer Frontsoldaten, 1932.

James W. Gerard. Face to Face with Kaiserism.

New York: George H. Doran, 1918.

James W. Gerard. [American Ambassador to Germany]

My Four Years in Germany.

New York: George H. Doran, 1917.

Anonymous. Translated by J. Koettgen.

A German Deserter's War Experience.

New York, 1917.

German Verse from the Trenches

- auf Deutsch -

The War With Germany:A Statistical Summary.

GPO, 1919

Hugh Gibson. A Journal from Our Legation in Belgium.

New York: Doubleday Page, 1917.

Un veteran se rapelle: Gould Interview

- en français -

Remy de Gourmont. Pendant l'orage.

Paris: E. Champion, 1915.

Charlie and Wally Gray. Letters

Site maintained by the government of Ontario, Canada.

Basil J. Green. World War One Diary

Transcriptions of a diary held in the Imperial War Museums Archive Department.

H

Herbert Halliday: From the Western Front to Salonika

Research into his service with the British 27th Division, Royal Field Artillery.

Research, photographs and overview of the British Army in World War I by his grandson, Chris Morton.

Donald Hankey. A Student in Arms.

New York: Dutton, 1917

Alexander J. Hemphill. "Belgium Under the Surface".

New York: The Commission for Relief in Belgium, [1914-1918]

Paul B. Hendrickson. The Letters, Diary, Postcards and Pictures of a World War I Soldier.

[U.S. 33rd Division.]

Aubrey Herbert. Mons, ANZAC & Kut.

London: Hutchinson & Co., 1919

Col J. Bentley Mott. Myron T. Herrick, Friend of France.

Garden City, NY: Doubleday Doran, 1929.

[Herrick was American Ambassador to France

at the beginning of the War].

George A. Hill

Go Spy The Land: Being the Adventures of I.K.8 of the British Secret Service.

London, Cassell & Company, Limited, 1932

Memoirs of Daniel Holmes of the Royal Engineers.

Albert Huet

WWI Diary of Albert Huet - en français

Huet served in the Ardennes for two years, having survived a massive gas attack that killed most of his company.

Facsimiles through the University of Florida Digital Collections.

Transcriptions and biography courtesy of Huet's great-granddaughter, employed at the University of Florida.

Letters of Jean Hurpin - A French Soldier in the Trenches Writes to New Hampshire.

James H. Hyde. Avanti Savoia: impressions du front Italien.

Suresnes: Crémieu, 1917

J

William D. James. Calendar Diary and Handwritten Journal Notebook

Detailing experiences at Army basic training (Camp Lewis, Washington) and World War I in France and Belgium.

Includes excerpts from a scrapbook kept by his future spouse, Elsa Katherine Ewert.

Edited by D. Montijo in 2020.

(1918)

Edwin E. Jones. Memoirs & Diaries: France, Egypt, Mesopotamia.

(1915 - 1916).

K

Charlotte Kellogg. Women of Belgium.

New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1917.

Dora Lourie Klein. Stranded: A Young Boston Teacher Stuck in Switzerland as Europe Erupts into War.

(July-August 1914).

Burton W. Knight. His Diary of the Great War.

Sergeant assigned to Field Hospital 104, American Expeditionary Forces, France.

1917-1918

Josef Kobza. "Návrat" ("Return")

Handwritten & iIllustrated diary in Czech.

Digitized in Europeana 1914-1918.

1914-1919.

Fritz Kreisler. Four Weeks in the Trenches. The War Story of a Violinist.

New York, 1915.

L

Lucien Lambert. Souvenirs de Lucien Lambert: Guerre de 14/18.

With facsimiles of diary entries.

- en français -

William H. B. Lamin. WW1: Experiences of an English Soldier.

Diary entires being posted as blogs exactly 90 years after their writing (1917-1918).

Claude Léger. Le 165e Bataillon d'Infanterie d'Outremer

- en français -

David Lindsay. The War Diary of David Lindsay

Egypt and Gallipoli memoirs, 1914-1915.

Thomas Fredrick Littler. First World War Diaries, 1914-1919.

Including cartoon postcards, war.co.uk/famphoto.htm photographs, and other materials.

George O. Lunn. 36 days in 1915.

The War Diary of George Oliver Lunn.

Rosa Luxemburg Letters from Prison to Sophie Liebknecht

July 1916–October 1918; English translation by Eden and Cedar Paul

Rosa Luxemburg Five Letters from prison)

1918; English translation by Dave Hollis and Mike Jones

M

John McClintock. Notes from a Diary Kept by Private John McClintock.

(Company E - 101st Infantry - 26th Division ["Yankee Division"] - American Expeditionary Force)

1917-1919.

L.C. McCollum. History and Rhymes of the Lost Battalion.

1918.

Patrick MacGill. The Great Push

1916.

Patrick MacGill.

Soldier Songs of World War I.

WWI Diary of Robert Lindsay Mackay.

Covering the years 1915-1918, day-by-day!

A Family at War: The Diary of Mary Martin

An online exhibition by MPhil students in Digital Humanities at Trinity College, Dublin.

Mémoire des hommes. Journaux des unités (1914-1918)

Diaries and histories of French combat forces maintained by the French ministry of defense.

Christian Meurer and Fernand Mayence.

"The Blame for the Sack of Louvain"

Current History, vol. 28, no. 4., (July, 1928), pp. 556-571.

(German and Belgian views on the controversy)

The World War I Diary of A. W. Miller

With entries from February to November of 1918.

The diary of Fred Mitchell, an artilleryman.

Entries range from January 1 - March 23, 1916.

(More information on artillery on a separate page.)

Percy Mitchell.The American Relief Clearing House: Its Work in the Great War.

Paris: Herbert Clarke, 1922.

N

De Eerste Wereldoorlog door Nederlandse ogen = The First World War through Dutch Eyes.

Edited by Rob Kammelar, J.M.J. Sicking & Menno Wielenga, 2007.

Fragments from numerous Dutch diaries during the First World War.

Martin Niepage. The horrors of Aleppo . . seen by a German eyewitness.

London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1916 .

O

James Oakleaf. Some Notes on the 108th Infantry.

1921.

The O’Mahony Bulgaria and the Powers: Being a Series of Letters on the Balkans written from Sofia, Dublin, Sealy

1915

P

Burton J. Hendrick. The Life and Letters of Walter H. Page.

Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Page & Co., 1923.

[Page was American Ambassador to Great Britain].

Maurice Paléologue. [Last French Ambassador to the Russian Court].

An Ambassador's Memoirs.

New York, 1925.

Walter Pfeffer. World War One Diary.

Transcriptions of a diary held in the Imperial War Museums Archive Department.

Lettres du front d'Athanase Poirier.

- en français -

Frederick A. Pottle. Stretchers.

New Haven,1929.

G. Ward Price. The Story of the Salonica Army.

New York: Edward J. Clode, 1918.

Percival W. Probert. East African Campaign Diary - Tanzania & Mozambique.

(1917-1919).

R

R.P. Joseph Raymond. Froc et Epée.

1916

- en français -

The Diary of Thomas Reginald Part:

An Australian Soldier Who Fought at Gallipoli and in France before being killed.

William Hard. Raymond Robins' Own Story.

New York, 1920.

James Rennell Rodd [British Ambassador to Italy before and during the Great War].

Social and Diplomatic Memories. Third Series. 1902-1919.

London, 1925.

Charles Rooke. A Few of My Experiences Whilst "On Active Service".

(1917 - 1918).

Testimony before the 102nd US Congress, November 1991, concerning the AEF experience in Russia

at the end of the Great War and the possible abandonment of American POWs.

S

Admiral Reinhard Scheer. Germany's High Sea Fleet in the World War.

1920.

(English translation)

William Schira. Personal Diary.

1919.

John E. Schroeder. World War I Through the Lens of One Private's Camera.

1917 - 1919.

Alan Seeger. Letters and Diary

1917.

Alan Seeger. Poems.

1916.

Henry Sheehan. A Volunteer Poilu.

Boston, 1916.

Clayton M. Sherwood. "Writing by Moonlight." An American’s Diary of Foreign Service, August 1917 to February 1919.

James T. Shotwell. At the Paris Peace Conference.

(1937 - Appendices IV-VII - Extracts)

The Smith College/Sophia Smith Archivesof World War I

La dernière lettre écrite par des soldats tombés au champ d'honneur 1914-1918.

Paris: Union des pères et des mères dont les fils sont morts pour la Patrie:

la ligue des chefs de section et des soldats combattants:

E. Flammarion, 1922.

- en français -

Events, Commemorations and Accounts of the Somme

The 80th Anniversary, 1 July 1916 - 1 July 1996.

Cecil Sommers. Temporary Crusaders.

London, 1919.

Cecil Sommers. Temporary Heroes

London: John Lane, the Bodley Head, 1917 (excerpts).

Josef Šrámek Diary of a Prisoner in World War I

Edited by his grandson Tomáš Svoboda, 2012

David R. Stanford. Discharge Certificate from the Great War era.

Polk County, Iowa, replacement for lost or destroyed certificate, 1922.

Clair Stanley. In Memoriam, The Great War

(An artistic collage, 1997).

William Yorke Stevenson. At The Front In A Flivver.

1917.

William Yorke Stevenson. From "Poilu to "Yank".

1918.

Ronald Storrs. Lawrence of Arabia, Zionism and Palestine

London: Penguin Books, 1940.

Friedrich Graf Szápáry. Das Verhältnis Österreich-Ungarns zu Rußland.

(The Attitude of Austria-Hungary Towards Russia)

- auf Deutsch -

Friedrich Graf Szápáry Aus den Krisenjahren

(The Years of Crisis, 1908-1913: Extract)

- auf Deutsch -

T

Oberst von Thaer Aus den Tagebuchnotizen

(Diary Notes from 1 October 1918)

- auf Deutsch -

English translation of the original diary notes also available.

A. C. M. Thomson. Field Diaries of the First World War

(June 1915 - May 1917).

Thomas Tiplady. The Cross at the Front:

1917

Laura de Gozdawa Turczynowicz.
When the Prussians Came to Poland: The Experiences of an American Woman During the German Invasion.

New York, 1916.

The Sinking of the Tuscania, February 5, 1918

V

Demetra Vaka. In the Heart of German Intrigue.

1918.

Verlustlisten des 1. Weltkrieges

Separate categorized lists of German soldiers lost in the First World War.

(Lists are neither comprehensive nor complete.)

W

A War Nurse's Diary. Sketches from a Belgian Field Hospital.

New York: MacMillan, 1918.

Herbert Ward. Mr. Poilu. Notes and Sketches with the Fighting French.

London, 1916.

Robert D. West. MN Doughboy 1918.

140th Infantry, 35th Division AEF.

Diary and letters, 1918, with illustrations, timelines and maps.

C.H. Weston.Three Years with the New Zealanders.

n.d.

Letters of Herbert H. White.

(1918-1919).

William B. Whitmore. England & The Somme.

(1915 - 1916).

Memoirs of Fred Rothwell Wigglesworth.

Albert Rhys Williams.Through the Russian Revolution.

New York: Boni & Liveright, 1921.

John Caspar Wister.Experiencing War.

Library of Congress: Veterans History Project

Henry James Wright.
One of Ten Thousand: Letters home from Henry James Wright, an Australian soldier serving with the AIF.

(1915-1918).

Jack Morris Wright.
A Poet of the Air. Letters of Jack Morris Wright, First Lieutenant of the American Aviation in France, April 1917-January 1918.

Boston: Houghton & Mifflin, 1918.

Z

The Great Zeppelin Raid.

January 31, 1916.

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See additional first-hand accounts at FirstWorldWar.com.

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WWI Document Archive > Diaries, Memorials, Personal Reminiscences

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