The use of War Diaries in the history

Mention has been made in the introduction section to the importance of War Diaries in telling the story of the Brigade. Some information on the approach taken to this aspect of the work might assist the reader and this is set out below.

What I set out to do was identify the full range of units related to 70 Brigade.

Generally speaking, for most of its life, 70 Brigade was, as might be expected, subordinate to a Division - initially to 23rd (Northumbrian) Division, and from mid 1942 until the Brigade's disbandment, 49th (West Riding) Division. Between those spells, the Brigade acted for some months as an Independent Infantry Brigade, and then came under the orders of Alabaster Force, and subsequently Iceland Force, while stationed in Iceland - effectively these Forces were an enhanced 49th Division.

For completeness, therefore, I obtained the full War Diary files for 23rd Division, and selected material from 49th Division, together with material from higher commands, to which the Brigade found itself working from time to time.

The most obvious subordinate units were the three Infantry Battalions but, in addition, there were complete units, such as the 187th Field Ambulance, RAMC, which supported the Brigade. Engineer Companies and Artillery Regiments supported the Brigade at differing times, either in whole or in part, and I have tried to make sure that, if a unit was in this position, the appropriate War Diary was obtained and documented.

Some units were attached to the Brigade for relatively short periods, and I have attempted to give information, where available, on where they were before and after that involvement.

"Divisional" troops presented a particular difficulty as a unit such as a Machine-Gun Battalion would be allocated by the Division in a support role by Company, or even by Platoons - and whether the War Diary of such a unit allows linkages to be made to the Brigade depends on how detailed those documents were.