THE FIRST WORLD WAR: A DOCUMENTARY RECORD
Series One: European War 1914-1919, the War Reserve Collection from Cambridge University Library

Part 2: Trench Journals, Personal Narratives & Reminiscences

This is a major microfilm series making available - for the first time - the riches of the Cambridge War Reserve Collection. This collection is acknowledged to be one of the finest sources of documentation concerning the First World War in the world, with much unique, rare and ephemeral material. Professor J M Winter, Department of History, Columbia University, New York, is the Consultant Editor for the microfilm edition. The emphasis is on the inclusion of materials unlikely to be held in most libraries.

Part 2 focuses on Trench Journals, Personal Narratives and Reminiscences.

These sources provide an immediate and personal perspective on the war. They bring home the realities of trench warfare, and describe the experiences of infantrymen, officers, airmen, the medical corps, those at training camps, the tank corps, sappers, captured troops, soldiers on their way home and soldiers new to the front. There is much gallows humour and many eye-witness reports of major events. The material comes from the complete spectrum of participants. British, Australian, New Zealand and Canadian troops are most heavily represented - as one would expect - but there are also significant German, French, American, Spanish, Swedish and Polish sources and additional materials from Belgium, Denmark, Italy, Singapore, South Africa and Switzerland.

118 Trench Journals are included. These were often cyclostyle publications created at the front. Some bear evidence of having been read in the trenches before being mailed to Cambridge to form a part of this Collection. The titles of the journals conjure up images by themselves. Examples are: The Gasper; The Iodine Chronicle (journal of No 1 Canadian Field Ambulance); Chronicles of the NZEF; La Baïonette; Le Claque á Fond; Pulham Patrol; Anzac Bulletin; Breath o’ the Heather; The Mudhook, incorporating the Dardenelles Dug-out Gossip; The Dead House Corner Gazette (Canadian BEF); Aussie; The Eaglet (US Forces Magazine); The Codford Wheeze; The Fag-End (NZEF); Poison Gas; The Wormlet; and The Whizz-bang.

Many of these titles include poetry written at the front, observations on the merits of officers, cartoons, and special features, as well as some operational details and reviews of past events. Some - such as The Anzac Book: written and illustrated in Gallipoli are lavishly illustrated with drawings and photographs.

Internment camps produced their own magazines including Deutsche Internierten-Zeitung; Journal des Internés Français; and Lager-Echo. Journals dealing with specialist forces include The Tenedos Times: journal of the Mediterranean destroyer flotilla; Doings in German East Africa; Canadian Sapper; Barrak: The Camel Corps Review; The Whippet (a tank corps journal); and The WRAF on the Rhine.

68 Personal Narratives and Reminiscences are included. We have concentrated on titles published before 1925, and on titles that were privately printed and thus received only limited circulation. All manner of experiences are recorded in these as some sample titles will suggest: Australia in Palestine, 1919; N-Fraser-Tytler, With Lancashire Lads and Field Guns, 1922; J Krafft, Das Kriegstagbuch; J’accuse! Feuillets du Journal d’un soldat - homme de lettres, 1915; W Bellows, A Carnet de route, 1917; F M Gum, With Riflemen, Scouts and Snipers, 1921; Sven Hedin, Bagdad, Babylon, Ninive, 1917; Mme E Colombel, Journal d’une Infirmiére d’Arras, 1916; A E Casales, A young soldier in France, 1916; E Moraht, Unser gemeinsamer krieg, 1915; and Danske soldaterbreve, 1918.

The collection is rounded off with two gatherings of manuscript letters from the front and miscellaneous items such as dictionaries of trench slang.

Our coverage by no means exhausts the resources of the War Reserve Collection in this area and a future part will make available a further selection with a particular emphasis on journals incorporating sketches and photographs. Scholars working on personal reminiscences should scan the relevant sections of the card catalogue and manuscript listings for further details. What is provided is a rich and probably unparalleled collection of these sources, which will provoke much new research and teaching.