'Block' at Cambrai

[mortimer]

Bar to MM awarded to a Sgt in the 9th R Fus for holding a 'block' until relieved despite wounds...but what is it? Might it be one of those barbed with tangles in a frame which drops into a trench? No sniggering please...ask & you shall receive...the answer

[Andy Wade]

A pillbox perhaps? Blockhouse?

[centurion]

Bar to MM awarded to a Sgt in the 9th R Fus for holding a 'block' until relieved despite wounds...but what is it? Might it be one of those barbed with tangles in a frame which drops into a trench?

You've answered your own question. There were various designs but all intended to allow it to be dropped or pulled into the trench to stop progress along it. Some times also referred to as a stop or bomb stop.

[mortimer]

I bow to the superior knowledge of a Lt Gen - THANKS

[nthornton1979]

When entering enemy trenches, blocks were formed on either side of the attacking section to prevent the enemy from attacking your flanks. If your objective was further on, men were left to defend the blocks whilst the rest pushed on. Also, they were often used in trench raids to hold back enemy whilst you carry out your tasks on the alloted section of trench. If blocks were to be made, men often carried empty sand bags which they filled once in enemy lines to use as the block.

Here is a citation for a Military Medal from my collection, awarded for a trench raid.

"With his knowledge of German he was able to warn his party officer of an impending bombing attack by a party beyond an artificial block. He took part in the defeat of this party and protected with his bayonet his officer who dropped his revovler in the struggle"

Neil

"

[nthornton1979]

I noticed the date was the first day of the German counter-attacks around Bourlon Wood where they entered the British lines in many places. In this case the blocks would have been used to hold back the enemy. I have a DCM to a chap who was awarded it for the same action (and for bombing up a trench)

Anyway, this from 'The Royal Fusiliers in the Great War'.

"The 8th and 9th battalions felt the full shock of the German assault. The 9th, on the right lay in trenches south of the Gouzeaucourt-Cambrai road. A t 6.45am on November 30th an intense artillery bombardment began, and at 7.40 infantry attacks developed. Almost immediately the resistance of the 35th Brigade and part of the 55th Division on the right of the 9th Battalion was overcome, and C company was forced to withdraw, taking up a position astride the Cambrai road. The German's advanced down the Hindenburg front line after the troops of the 35th Brigade to the Brigade Headquarters. B company at once delivered a counter-attack over the open, forced back the Germans 200 yards, when bombing blocks were made in all the trenches and the position was held firmly. D company on the left, were surrounded, and most of them became casualties. Only one officer and 13 other ranks succeeded in fighting their way back to the main body of the battalion. Contact was made on this flank with the 8th battalion, who had taken up the trench near the road running via Good Old Man Farm to Ribecourt; but the right flank was still in the air until 10:00am, when the Royal Sussex manned the reserve line immediately in the rear of the battalion, and this position was connected with that of the 9th battalion. Throughout the day bombing encounters continued........."

Neil

[centurion]

Contemporary sources define them as "barricades". In a defensive mode they were as originally said, usually made of wooden frames festooned with barbed wire, sometimes square in section sometimes triangular. Usually kept just behind the trench with a rope attachment they were light enough for one man to pull down and block the trench if attackers had got in and were "bombing down it". Their open construction allowed a defender to position himself back from it, say behind a traverse relatively safe from grenades, and fire through it. Its shape usually jammed it in position once pulled into the trench. The Osprey book on trench works shows a number of examples.