This diary is a unique survivor of the Second World War. Spotted with rain and occasionally unintelligible due to hurried, faded handwriting, it was carried in the pockets and kit bag of Victor Sadgrove, a young British officer.

It accompanied him from a military training camp at Pontefract, West Yorkshire, to the shattered towns of Normandy, and across the winter landscapes of Holland.

Found among his possessions after his death, the diary was never intended for publication. It is not a polished memoir, written with the benefit of hindsight. Nor is it a grand historical treatise on military strategy.

1944 War Diary: The book

The handwritten pages shown on this page accompany the book: 1944 War Diary, which includes an introduction, a complete transcription, and a commentary on each week of Victor Sadgrove’s 1944 diary.