jim489558 Posted 26 March , 2009 Share Posted 26 March , 2009 Firstly many thanks to members who have given me information. I am now lead to believe the forming up area for the attack was 'Sherwood Trench or trenches just N of that.' I have several trench maps of the period but cant find Sherwood Trench, can anyone please help? Jim M Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
connaughtranger Posted 27 March , 2009 Share Posted 27 March , 2009 Firstly many thanks to members who have given me information. I am now lead to believe the forming up area for the attack was 'Sherwood Trench or trenches just N of that.' I have several trench maps of the period but cant find Sherwood Trench, can anyone please help? Jim M Rat's Alley indicates Sherwood Trench as being situated in S24c into S30a. There is a trench that straddles these 2 squares but it isn't named on the map. This could be it Regards Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stiletto_33853 Posted 27 March , 2009 Share Posted 27 March , 2009 Jim, The 11th Rifle Brigade War Diary notes on the 1/9/16 "We conform to the 10th RB's plan of attack to start from the front line trenches Lamb and Edward trenches, the 11th RB being allotted the right sector. 2/9/16. Final preparations. The battalion moves up to their assembly trenches at 8pm, the night is particularly quiet. Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stiletto_33853 Posted 27 March , 2009 Share Posted 27 March , 2009 This from the 10th RB's war diary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MBrockway Posted 28 March , 2009 Share Posted 28 March , 2009 Pals, For info, this Topic is a logical continuation of this earlier one: 11 Bn Rifle Brigade, Guillemont There's some additional info there from Andy. Cheers, Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MBrockway Posted 29 March , 2009 Share Posted 29 March , 2009 Jim, If you want to have a tour of this area as it is now, this might be interesting for you: Google StreetView - Guillemont Road Cemetery looking East towards Guillemont (only press this link if you have Broadband!) Use the controls in top left to look around. Arrow Head Copse no longer exists, but was roughly due S. The assembly trenches (Sherwood, Lamb and Edward etc) lay to the W either side of the road towards Trones Wood (D64 - Rue d'en Haut). If you press the white arrow, you can move forward along the D64 (i.e. eastwards) towards the village. You will see a small shrine appear on the left hand of the road. 59th Brigade's Start Line on 3rd Sep 1916 extended southwards from this approximate area. Continuing along the road towards the village, you'll shortly come to a crossroads with Rue Sarrazin to the left. This was Park Lane in 1916 becoming Mount Street where it turns eastwards. Mount Street was the N boundary for the Brigade. The track to the right is the first Sunken Road. This line of Park Lane and the first Sunken Road was the 59th Brigade Objective A. (see Operation Order No.37 in Andy's Post in the original Topic) If you use the zoom feature to take a look along the first Sunken Road towards the near horizon, you can see the cutting deepening. The enemy had a machine gun strongpoint at the SW end of this cutting, which lay towards the left hand of 11/RB's front of attack. During the morning of 3rd Sept this was attacked with liquid fire and a push pipe mine, but unfortunately the push pipe got turned off course. However it seems the strongpoint was heavily damaged by the opening artillery barrage and the mine did at least create a useful shallow trench. Nevertheless at Zero Hour (noon) 10/RB and 11/RB encountered stiff resistance here and endured heavy losses. About halfway between the Rue Sarrazin crossroads and the village, the second Sunken Road would have come in from the right. It no longer exists, but you may just make out the former line of this road in the Satellite Photo view. 59th Brigade's Objective B (see Operation Order No.37) was this second Sunken Road and a line extending northwards from its junction with Rue d'en Haut (here known as Down Street) to Mount Street 6/OBLI (attached from 60th Brigade as a 5th battalion to 59th Bde) led the assault on the second Sunken Road passing through 10/RB and 11/RB who were holding the first Sunken Road. 10/KRRC attacked in parallel on the N of Down Street. These attacks were successfully completed by 12:30 hrs. Objective C (see Operation Order No.37) was a line from the crossroads in the centre of Guillemont passing through the church square and extending southwards from the junction of Rue d'en Haut and Rue de l'Eglise along the W edge of the orchards. Objective D (see Operation Order No.37) was the Rue de Combles forming the E edge of the village. The assault to reach these began at 12:50 hrs with 10/RB and 11/RB leading, with 6/OBLI and one company of 10/KRRC in support and the rest of 10/KRRC and 11/KRRC in reserve. After some intense hand-to-hand fighting in the village and the orchards to the S the objectives were achieved by about 13:30 hrs. Objective E (see Operation Order No.37) was the road running N-S about 500m E of the village from Wedge Wood towards Ginchy. 20th Division pushed onto to this at about 14:00 hrs which was reached without heavy casualties despite many small parties of the enemy dispersed in bunkers to the E of the village and near the cemetery on Mount Road. Many prisoners were taken. The final objective for the Division was a line from the W corner of Leuze Wood in a NW direction across Mount Street towards Ginchy. However it became clear that progress by the 7th and 5th divisions, to the left and the right respectively, had not been so successful. The front line commander wisely decided to push patrols forward and to his flanks rather than launch an all-out assault towards Leuze Wood. This was vindicated when fire began to come in from the flanks and with consolidation in the village still under way, and enemy counter-attacks expected, it was decided to dig in on the Wedge Wood road and strengthen the flanks. If you continue eastwards in Google StreetView along Mount Street beyond the village as far as it will let you, look for a white van by the roadside and then pan right and zoom in to the SW quadrant of the Mount Street-Wedge Wood/Ginchy crossroads, you can see the 20th (Light) Division Memorial. which commemorates the losses of the Division in this very important battle. Hope that all works - it's a pretty cool way of doing a battlefield tour eh?! Cheers, Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MBrockway Posted 29 March , 2009 Share Posted 29 March , 2009 Mark, cracking link, i like the four bemused looking chaps in Hardecourt lol It's pretty cool isn't it! There seems to be a lot of the areas of interest on the Western Front available. If you "pick up" the icon of the little man in the Map pane, then the StreetView-enabled roads appear in blue after a short delay. That shows you what's already been digitised. Great news for us Pals who can't get over to F&F that easily. Off to look for the chaps in Hardecourt now Cheers, Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MBrockway Posted 10 October , 2010 Share Posted 10 October , 2010 Pals, There's more good stuff on the topography of Guillemont in these Topics ... 73rd Hanoverian Fusiliers Guillemont and Sunken Lane, Guillemont Both very informative and well worth close reading. Enjoy! Cheers, Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MBrockway Posted 20 November , 2014 Share Posted 20 November , 2014 Some other relevant topics ... Guillemont Quarry.August 1916 Somme 1916 researching battle for Guillemont 8th to 11th August 1916 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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