19 DIVISION 56 Infantry Brigade, Brigade Machine Gun Company

Full colour facsimile reprint of the original First World War, War Office war diary of the Brigade Machine Gun Company, 56 Infantry Brigade, 19th Division, covering February 1916 to February 1918 across 187 pages. It names 75 places across 103 dated entries. Alongside the daily entries the volume carries seventeen reports, narratives and plans, fourteen Operation Orders, one appendix and two maps. Among the papers are: Operation orders for the 25th September 1915 Comdg. 56th Brig M.G. Coy; 56 Coy. M.G. Corps. operation order No. 115A.; Table of Reliefs Appendix to 56 Infy Bde. order No. 123; Addendum to 56th Infantry Brigade order No. 124; Table of Moves Appendix to 56th Bde order No. 125; Amendment I to operation order 3 a; Amendment II operation order 3 a; Relief orders No. 2 Appen I; Barrage Sections Preliminary operation orders; 56 Coy M.G. Corps. Company orders by Capt R L. Hartley.; Relief orders; Company operation orders by Lt. E.W.C. Flavell. The diary opens at Havre on 9 February 1916. 1916 is spent at Domesmont, La Huit Maisons, La Chaussee, Kemmel and Aveluy. 1917 at Klein Vierstraat, Hebuterne & Bayencourt, Locre, Siege Fm and Scherpenberg. 1918 at Havrincourt Wood. It closes at Havrincourt Wood on 10 February 1918. Havrincourt Wood is where it spent longest, 51 days, including a single unbroken stay of 41 and it came back to Locre four separate times. Trench and battlefield features named in the diary include Havrincourt Wood, Trenches & La Clytte, Ploegsteert Wood, Mametz Wood, Klondyke Farm Kemmel and Stuff Trench. In 1916 it is also recorded at Merville, St Venant, Euston Coy H.Q, Paridis, Euston Corner, Lestrem, Linghem, Bellevue, Villers-Bocage and Rainneville. In 1917 it is also recorded at Beauquesne Coigneux, Hebuterne And Bavencourt, Vauchelles, Longuevillette, Ligny-S-Canche, Pethonval, Sachin, Laires, Cohem and Sercus.