Recommended reading - Bouzincourt ridge 38th welsh

[Dbaulch]

Hi forum

Can anyone recommend a source for detailed information concerning the attack on Bouzincourt ridge by units of the 38th Welsh division on 22nd April 1918?

Many thanks

Dav

[clive_hughes]

Dudley Ward's Regimental Records of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers Vol. III covers the action, though I find the sketch map it contains inadequate. Since 2nd Battalion RWF were involved, J.C.Dunn's The War the Infantry Knew and Frank Richards Old Soldiers Never Die contain further details.

The (lamentably short) History of the 38th Division likewise. Beyond that, the various unit, brigade, and division war diaries can now be downloaded from the NA.

It was a costly little action, and the fatalities are many of them buried on the spot at Bouzincourt Ridge Cemetery, and in the Bouzincourt Communal Cemetery & Extension not far away. The ground is much as it was in 1918, and the bare slope up which the Welsh Division attacked can still be appreciated - as well as the tactical value of seizing even a small portion of the top with its views over Albert and the river valley beneath.

Clive

[Dbaulch]

Thanks Clive! lots for me to get into.

As far as the battlefield itself, is there much to see and is it accessible do you know?

[clive_hughes]

Yes, the Ridge is accessible with a (steepish) track up to the Cemetery at the top. If you use the Cemetery Search feature of the CWGC website and click on the "location" for Bouzincourt Ridge Cemetery you'll get a good aerial view. Interestingly I've only been up there once, in a large car after heavy rain, without a lot of difficulty despite (apparently) warnings that it isn't really suitable for such vehicles! I wasn't driving, I might add. My driver then took the track continuation down the other side towards Albert, slightly startling a local who probably didn't expect to see a car there.

It's a fairly bare hill, agricultural land, with no post-war development. You can easily visualise the men toiling up the muddy slope under fire and wonder how any of them got up there in the face of resistance, and not much helped by what was seemingly an "inadequate" covering bombardment. A trench map of the right period might help you locate relative positions on the ground, as an overlay. There was a second assault some days later by an RWF battalion which improved the minimal gains of 22nd April 1918 in terms of observation gained.

Clive

[Dbaulch]

Many thanks Clive. Very useful info, may have to add this as a quick stop to my tour in September