SAS War Diaries

An eight page extract of the SAS War Diaries is to be included in next weeks Saturday Telegraph with a further eight pages in the Sunday Telegraph. Plus, a competition to win one of only 22 editions of the complete diaries. Worth a try.
telegraph.co.uk/saswardiary

That's interesting but it doesn't sound like the official War Diaries as held in the National Archives at Kew.

Apparently the book is worth £15,000. (Fifteen thousand pounds)

The Telegraph blurb says that they were written in 1946 and kept secret since, but the following War Diaries are just some that have been available at Kew for some time and may be read for free...

WO 218/98, WO 218/173, WO 201/721, WO 361/718, WO 361/717 etc.

Wouldn't mind winning it though.

Nick

Hi,
A bit more information on the book can be found here http://www.saswardiary.co.uk/home/

I think I will stick to reading the copies at Kew at that price.

Regards

Danny

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 03/11/2013 03:01:35

I see there are cheaper editions than the one talked about in The Telegraph - even so, I agree with you Danny and I'll read them at Kew.

nick

Mike Blackman who was an Intelligence Officer with the SAS at the wars end and put together a scrap book from files and photographs that they held covering the period 1941 - 1945, Blair Mayne kept the scrapbook himself and was called by many as 'Paddy Mayne's Diary'. On his death in the 50's his brother Douglas had it and made it available to authors on request, I believe Virginia Cowles (The Phantom Major) was most likely the first one to use it. P.M.D.'s was eventually donated to the SAS Regimental Association who would let authors continue to research it, people who contacted the Association for information regarding relatives who served in the wartime SAS had there request's checked from this. It does hold some amazing information including the first Nominal Roll, Operational Instruction for Operation Squatter and escape reports from some of those who were captured during this operation, some of the info is though a bit misleading as the document for Operation No.1 shows only 24 names of those involved, David Stirling himself is not even mentioned so some of the early documents are not exactly totally accurate but this of course can be forgiven considering the circumstances.
It is I believe this scrapbook which was published as the SAS War Diary 1941 - 1945, the description of the original scrapbook is as follows

A large leather folder (17 x 12 x 4 in ) stamped CHRONIC der Gemeinde Scheeren, Kreis Neustad a.Rhge. ( Records of the Parish of Scheeren, District of Neustadtin the Rhineland

The above was replaced on the cover of the published diary with SAS War Diary 1941 - 1945 in its place, the dimensions are the same as previously mentioned.

Published to help raise funds for the welfare work undertaken by the Association, although limited in quantity this is a very important document but it's pricing leaves it out of most peoples budgets personally I would like to see it digitised and perhapt's made available on Find My Past or Ancestory UK type websites on a Pay To View basis where you can save pages relevant to your research. I for one would forego my Sunday lunch time pint of mild to access the files in this way, it would also bring in revenue for their continuation of their welfare work, until something like this happens though it looks like the pint of mild is on the menu for the forseable future,then again though the price of The Daily Telegraph perhapts a dry Sunday.
Regards,
Alan.

There is a previous forum post about the discovery:

War Diary of the SAS uncovered

This message was edited 5 times. Last update was at 27/11/2013 01:48:12

Whilst a fantastic resource containing a wealth of pictures and documentary material, the factual accuracy of many of the documents it contains cannot, in my opinion, be assumed. As Alan points out, it was compiled by Mike Blackman at the end of the War. In the absence of much primary source documentary material (making and retaining records was not the strong point of the wartime S.A.S.), Blackman was tasked with cobbling together what little remained, and combining this with possibly hazy memories to produce the 'scrapbook'.

Being that the first published narrative of the wartime S.A.S. - "The Phantom Major" by Virginia Cowles - drew on material in this "War Diary" (then known as the "Paddy Mayne Diary") , as indeed did many subsequent published narratives, Blackman's scrapbook has informed what has become 'accepted wisdom'. The actuality of events is far less certain, and the 'truth as it happened' is by no means definitively recorded in this tome.

I wrote a short item describing one example (of personal significance, since it concerns a relative) that demonstrates how documented accounts within the diary can differ in fact from other primary source material: http://www.sasoriginals.com/viewtopic.php?f=146&t=811