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Today is Memorial Day in the U.S.—a day set aside to honor those who died in the armed forces. The ravages of war are well-known and well-documented, but there is something especially powerful in reading the diaries written at the front, amidst the bloody chaos of war.
In honor of those who have fought—and continue to fight— here are three especially evocative war diaries. Of course, tragically, there are many more. In the comments, I’d love to hear about war diaries that have moved you.
General George S. Patton (1885-1945)
George Patton goes down in history as one of the greatest war tacticians. And his diaries often read as a play-by-play of all the battles Patton was involved in.
We accompany him on his very first flight in June of 1917:
…had always thought it would frighten me but it did not and feels perfectly safe and the machine seems as steady as a church. The entire country spreads out like a map beneath and it is fine.1
And then, we march alongside him throughout the battles of World War II. In September of 1942, he writes:
The plan has finally settled and I feel very calm and contented, It still can be a very desperate venture if the enemy does every thing he should and we make a few mistakes. I have a sure feeling we will win.
But Patton is also known for his narcissism. His sense of grandeur comes through, especially in the diary pages he wrote at the beginning of the invasion of Normandy. In early June of 1944, Patton was stationed in England in order to mislead the Germans into thinking the Allies would invade Calais. Patton was restless. He wanted to be in the action:
I hope I get in before it
is all won. I need some
glory…I have horrible feelings
that fighting will be over
before I get in but I know
this is not so as destiny
means me to be in.
Patton died from injuries sustained in a car crash in 1945. You can explore Patton’s diaries online at the Library of Congress.
Molly Lamb (1920-2014)
Canada’s first female war artist, Molly Lamb went off to Europe to document the Second World War as part of the Canadian Women’s Army Corps. She used her training from the Vancouver School of Art to illustrate the lives of women in the army.
Among her artistic endeavors, Lamb kept “an illustrated diary”—as she called it— in the form of a mock newspaper. The first issue boldly declares:
GIRL TAKES DRASTIC STEP!
With her medical tests coming up clean, Molly Lamb was in the army.
She refers to herself in the third person, reporting on her daily activities with humor. Here, she depicts herself on a “quiet afternoon”:
Lamb maintained her generous, upbeat spirit throughout her life. Here, she recounts how she started the diary:
You can find more pages of Molly Lamb’s diary at Canada’s Library and Archives.
Dang Thuy Tram (1942-1970)
At 24, Dang Thuy Tram volunteered as a doctor at the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam (Viet Cong). The diaries she wrote during that time (1968-1970) portray a young woman coming of age amidst the ravages of war.
Early on, she describes operating on a soldier with insufficient anesthesia:
He even smiled to encourage me. Seeing the forced smile on lips withered by exhaustion, I empathized with him immensely.2
She also writes about her high school sweetheart, her family, and her hopes for peace. Often, she writes to encourage herself, as she does in November of 1969:
Another year of living, another year of fire and smoke on this dangerous battlefield of the south…
Here, you do not have the happiness of strolling side by side with your lover on the empty road as the violet twilight fades behind the sunset. Here you are without many things, but you are also self-sufficient.
So smile, Thuy. Be cheerful, Thuy, when the book of your life opens onto a new page full of victories and beauty.
On June 22, 1970, Dr. Tram’s diary conveys her weariness and isolation:
No, I am no longer a child. I have grown up. I have passed trials of peril, but somehow, at this moment, I yearn deeply for Mom’s caring hand. Even the hand of a dear one or that of an acquaintance would be enough.
Come to me, squeeze my hand, know my loneliness, and give me the love, the strength to prevail on the perilous road before me.
Two days later, she was killed by American forces. Among her possessions, soldiers found a radio, a notebook in which she drew the wounds she treated, and these diaries:
The soldier who found the diary, Frederick Whitehurst, was instructed to burn anything unrelated to military strategy. But, his translator read the diary and said:
Don’t burn this one…It has fire in it already.3
And so Whitehurst kept the diaries until 2005, when he returned them to Dr. Tram’s mother.
They were published in English in 2007.
Noted is fueled by you. Your ❤️’s and comments inspire me. As always, I would love to know your thoughts.
Till Monday,
George S. Patton Diaries, Library of Congress.
Tram, Dang Thuy. Last Night I Dreamed of Peace: The Diary of Dang Thuy Tram. Translated by Andrew X. Pham, Crown, 2008, p. 4.
Quoted in the Introduction to Last Night I Dreamed of Peace.
Oh how my heart fell to read that Thuy was killed two days after that last entry. This entire piece is incredible. Thank you for teaching me about amazing humans through their own words. Your work is very special.
Thank you for introducing me to Molly Lamb. I was not familiar with her work before but I love it.
Do you know the size of the journals she and Patton used? That's always one of the things I'm most interested in and hardly anyone ever mentions it, heh. You can rarely tell from the pictures.