handwriting help
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by
shuli
Hi there, I can't make out the first couple of lines: "they ??? our own and the enemies were to be low and bad"
I'm very curious to know what it says!Posted
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by
josiepegg
i think it says - "they reported our own and the enemies wire to be low and bad"
Posted
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by
cyngast
moderator
Yes, I agree with josiepegg.
Goodness, that's a difficult page to read all through!
Posted
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by
ral104
moderator, scientist
I third that!
The next few lines are:
Very few shell holes of any size for cover in no-man's land. They also observed an enemy working party, and when our patrol returned, they pointed out the position to our Lewis gunners, who opened fire immediately.
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by
shuli
Thank you. The rest of the page is also difficult but I think I managed to understand the gist of it.
Somehow I always end up on the diaries with the difficult handwriting.Posted
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by
cyngast
moderator
For your next diary, if it's still up when you're ready for a new one, some of the 11th Royal Irish Rifles is actually typed!
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Cynthia I was going to post this same message as well. From page 33 almost every page was typewritten to the end of the diary on page 104. There was one page dated 1-24th July1917 which was vert faint but readable, where the typewriter ribbon needed changing - being the least of their worries. The next page being easier to read but this was a duplicate of the faint typewritten page – they must have changed the typewriter ribbon.
The link I gave you for the Officers of this Battalion which showed their photographs was a good reference if the Author of the diaries writing was not so good – but they were typewritten pages and in this case the names were easy to read. Don’t know if the pages before number 33 were typewritten, thus makes it easier for those just starting the diaries.
A useful link once again for those who may be just starting to tag certain daries: http://www.ww1infantrycos.co.uk/british regiments.html Also The Mess Hall Board/Useful Tips Section is helpful.
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by
shuli
Strange to think of someone sitting in a trench with mortars flying overhead, banging away at a typewriter!
I sometimes think the handwriting reflects the writer's personality and state of mind and find it fun to decipher.Posted
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by
cyngast
moderator
Handwriting can indeed reflect something of the writer's personality as much as what they write.
However, these diaries, being official records, were kept by the adjutant (usually) or someone else on the unit's headquarters staff, so they were usually at least a small distance behind the front line trenches. That's also why some had typewriters available for all the official documents they had to fill out. Still, most that I have worked on have been handwritten.
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by
ral104
moderator, scientist
I remember one diary where the author was really excited to have got hold of a typewriter.
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The Adjutant In one of the books I read about WW1, mentioned that they guarded their typewriters like gold, making sure they knew where they were and well packed up when they moved.
Images of typewriters in ww1. Link:
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