Beselare Posted 11 October , 2012 Share Posted 11 October , 2012 On 31st July 1917, L/Cpl. Leslie Andrew lead two sections in an attack on La Basse-Ville near Warneton. Having captured a machine-gun near the railway line, they then moved to towards Warneton where they found another machine-gun in a trench at Der Rooster Cabaret. The position was cleared and they returned to their company. He was awarded the VC, age 20, for his actions. Does anyone know if there is still a trace of the Der Rooster Cabaret estaminet? Many thanks Bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mebu Posted 11 October , 2012 Share Posted 11 October , 2012 Bob, a quick look on Google earth shows a Cafe au Rooster on the site, looks like it's stopped trading. Regards Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crunchy Posted 12 October , 2012 Share Posted 12 October , 2012 The site of Der Rooster Cabaret is on the opposite side of the road (N515) to the present Cafe au Rooster. It now appears to be a house. Regards Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beselare Posted 12 October , 2012 Author Share Posted 12 October , 2012 To Peter & Chris I thought this was going to be a tough task for anyone, so thank you very much for your speedy help. Bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wendy Macpherson Posted 11 August , 2013 Share Posted 11 August , 2013 If you need any further information about Warneton please let me know as I have a lot of information. ie: trench maps and aerials and photos of this area when the New Zealanders attacked in July 1917. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beselare Posted 11 August , 2013 Author Share Posted 11 August , 2013 Hi Wendy Thanks for the offer. Do you happen to know the location of the actual trench where L/Cpl. Andrew found the machine-gun? Bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wendy Macpherson Posted 11 August , 2013 Share Posted 11 August , 2013 (edited) I believe the main objective of Leslie Andrew's platoon was to capture the German machine gun post at De Rooster Estaminet and he and another soldier deviated to a second German machine gun position by the railway line most likely in 'Unclean Trench' As you can se by the map there are only two trenches in the vicinity of the railway line, Unbent and Unclean. Trench's corrected to 18.07.17 Edited 11 August , 2013 by Wendy Mac... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wendy Macpherson Posted 11 August , 2013 Share Posted 11 August , 2013 A bit more infomation about the Wellington Regiment at La Basse-Ville here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wendy Macpherson Posted 11 August , 2013 Share Posted 11 August , 2013 Trenches corrected to 19.09.18 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wendy Macpherson Posted 11 August , 2013 Share Posted 11 August , 2013 (edited) The Australian 28th Infantry Battalion was also in the Warneton and La Basse-Ville area December 1917.This set of diaries of the 28th's have some cracking good trench maps and aerials.You will be looking for December 1917 Appendices part 3 and 4. These are on PDF.(Part 4 has some useful maps of the same area) and January 1918 Appendices part 13 and part 14.'28 U' is the aerial grid for Warneton area.Don't stay up all night looking at the files Edited 14 December , 2013 by Wendy Mac... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beselare Posted 12 August , 2013 Author Share Posted 12 August , 2013 Hi Wendy Thank you very much for providing such detailed information. I hope it has been of use to others on the Forum as well. Bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walbeer Posted 13 December , 2013 Share Posted 13 December , 2013 Une stèle est irrigée en face de l'ancien café du ROOSTER, en hommage au VC Leslie Andrews. Walbeer Warneton Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
towisuk Posted 13 December , 2013 Share Posted 13 December , 2013 Merci Walbeer....est-ce cela??...... regards Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ploggy Posted 13 December , 2013 Share Posted 13 December , 2013 Tom,yes this the plaque who remembers Leslie Andrews. Claude Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
towisuk Posted 13 December , 2013 Share Posted 13 December , 2013 Thank you very much for the confirmation Claude regards Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CROONAERT Posted 13 December , 2013 Share Posted 13 December , 2013 As you can se by the map there are only two trenches in the vicinity of the railway line, Unbent and Unclean. There was actually another one too that, for some reason, doesn't seem to appear on most British trenchmaps. Immediately west (500 ft or so) of 'Unclean Trench' (NOT the trench depicted as the front-line on early 1918 maps), it followed the western side of the road from the 'T' junction to the north-east of Rooster Cabt. and followed it across the railway and beyond. I don't know its British name (as said, it doesn't seem to appear on British maps!), but its German name was Derneue Graben and it seems to have appeared in the late summer of 1916. (a very small section of it appears as a disused trench on the September 1918 map shown in post# 9) Dave. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
towisuk Posted 13 December , 2013 Share Posted 13 December , 2013 Another View showing the Plaque in relationship to the Cafe au Rooster (above the car on the near right of the photo) Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
towisuk Posted 13 December , 2013 Share Posted 13 December , 2013 There was actually another one too that, for some reason, doesn't seem to appear on most British trenchmaps. Immediately west (500 ft or so) of 'Unclean Trench' (NOT the trench depicted as the front-line on early 1918 maps), it followed the western side of the road from the 'T' junction to the north-east of Rooster Cabt. and followed it across the railway and beyond. I don't know its British name (as said, it doesn't seem to appear on British maps!), but its German name was Derneue Graben and it seems to have appeared in the late summer of 1916. (a very small section of it appears as a disused trench on the September 1918 map shown in post# 9) Dave. Does it show on here Dave?.......... Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CROONAERT Posted 13 December , 2013 Share Posted 13 December , 2013 Does it show on here Dave?.......... No... but if 'Warn Lane' was a little lower and continued to follow the road to the west and also eastwards towards the Rooster T-junction, then that would be it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
towisuk Posted 13 December , 2013 Share Posted 13 December , 2013 Aerial...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
towisuk Posted 13 December , 2013 Share Posted 13 December , 2013 regards Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CROONAERT Posted 13 December , 2013 Share Posted 13 December , 2013 the 'rogue' trench on an August 1916 trenchmap....... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
towisuk Posted 13 December , 2013 Share Posted 13 December , 2013 Ok Dave, it could be the one seen in the first aerial, assuming that the German map is not very accurate, the aerial is dated the 28th of Dec 1917 I think there still might be a vestige of it in the photo if their map was accurate... regards Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
towisuk Posted 14 December , 2013 Share Posted 14 December , 2013 Playing with Aerial photo and Google Earth, the brick plinth and plaque to L/Cpl Leslie Andrew appear to be right over the trench (just under the blue N515) in this overlay regards Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
towisuk Posted 14 December , 2013 Share Posted 14 December , 2013 Hi Wendy Thank you very much for providing such detailed information. I hope it has been of use to others on the Forum as well. Bob I agree Bob, excellent information from Wendy, a wealth of useful material, some of which I've utillised in the postings above... thanks Wendy.... regards Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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