Traffic trench Serre

[KIRKY]

Hi anyone got a map showing location of this trench?

tony

[connaughtranger]

Could it perhaps have been one of the trenches allotted to one-way movement of stores etc. to and from the front line rather than a named trench?

Martin

[KIRKY]

Its mentioned as the Front line where the Accrington Pals first wave were in on 1st July.

Tony

[whkay]

Hi Tony, can I ask from where you've got that info? There's no mention of a Traffic Trench in NA Trench Map Atlas?

Mark

[John Milner]

Tony

Lt Col Rickman in his diary entry mentions billeting men in Traffic Trench under command of Capt Tough, and others in Copse Trench under Capt Livesey.

Traffic Trench is not mentioned in Rats Alley, however, Copse Trench is and I have a map with Copse Trench on it, send me a PM with your e-mail address if you want a copy.

Regards

John

[whkay]

I wonder if Traffic was the front line then as Tough led the first wave. I notice the front line trench never has a name on the maps where names are included?

Mark

[KIRKY]

Yes I wondered if that was the one but cannot understand why a front line , especially well established, is un-named?

Tony

[WilliamRev]

Somewhere (a book on the Accrington Pals?) I remember reading Traffic Trench mentioned as being 60 yards in front of Copse Trench, and where the first wave started from on 1st July, so I think that it must be that un-named front line. I have Linesman 10 which has a good selection of 1916/17 trench maps with named trenches for Serre/Hebuterne, but none of them label that bit of the front line, nor mention Traffic Trench as being anywhere else.

William

[John Milner]

I have just checked the trench map and there is an un-named trench in front of Copse Trench, which could possibly be Traffic Trench.

John

[Mr Pighills]

Tony,

I'm sat looking at a trench map - Sheet 57d NE which is corrected to 16-05-1916 - of the area and it's not noted.

I can copy it and send it to you, if you wish.

Let me know.

Cheers.

[connaughtranger]

First Wave: Two platoons each of W and X Companies under Capt A B Tough, occupied numerous bays of the front and the traffic trench between Matthew and Mark Copses

( from History of the East Lancs in the Great War pg 526, also quoted in The Accrington Pals by William Turner pg 140)

The word traffic in both instances begins with a lower-case letter

Lt Col Rickman does record it as Traffic Trench in his Report of Operations

Martin

[KIRKY]

Thanks for all contributions.

James i have that map and like you cannot find it.

Probably description of the useage and it stuck!

tony

[KIRKY]

I remember there was a topic last year about the front line at Serre being in a different position to that shown now in the Woods, can any one point me in right direction for that thread as I cannot find it!

Tony