gunner J T ADAMS 294th seige battery DOW 26 sept 1917

[153bde]

i am looking extracts of the war diary for the 294th seige battery , i am looking for any record of gunner J T ADAMS DOW on the 26th september 1917 at polygon wood

thanks

lionel

[Langdon]

This from SDGW:

Name: John Thomas Adams

Birth Place: Magdalen, Oxon.

Residence: Somerton, Oxford

Death Date: 26 Sep 1917

Death Place: France and Flanders

Enlistment Place: Birmingham

Rank: Gunner

Regiment: Royal Garrison Artillery

Regimental Number: 107710

Type of Casualty: Died of wounds

Theatre of War: Western European Theatre

CWGC has him here

From Dick Flory here in the Forum in 2010:

I would not waste my time going to Kew to look at the War Diary of 294th Siege Battery, RGA. The diary is only nine pages long and primarily mentions the number of rounds fired each day from March to May 1917. It does show that the battery disembarked at Havre at 7am on 31 March 1917.

Here is an extract

I also saw this in a prevous thread (2006):

294 SB was with 35 Bde from 3/9/17, to 73 Bde 9/9/17, to 66 Bde 12/9/17 until December.

Mike

[ororkep]

Lionel,

Forget the war diary. You will learn more from the Corps diary they came under at the time which was 1 ANZAC Corps; their WD is freely available to download as a PDF on the Australian Archive web site. You realise of course that much of his service was with another Sge Bty prior to 294, (288 SB); his records are available on Anc or FMP.

Rgds

Paul

[153bde]

Thanks for the information chaps ! i have this mans service file and i know he was with siege battery 288 , but as he was with batt 294 when he was gassed i thought that they must have a war diary and that was my line of thought ! Hve you got a link to the 1 ANZAC Corps Australian Archive web site ??

regards

lionel

[Dai Bach y Sowldiwr]

http://www.awm.gov.au/collection/awm4/

is the index page you need.

Class 13 is for artillery.

13/4, & 13/7 will give you an idea of what's available for 1 ANZAC

[153bde]

http://www.awm.gov.au/collection/awm4/

is the index page you need.

Class 13 is for artillery.

13/4, & 13/7 will give you an idea of what's available for 1 ANZAC

thats great thankyou very much , such a wealth of information available ! now to find mention of the 294th

regards

lionel

[Dai Bach y Sowldiwr]

Document 13-7-18 http://www.awm.gov.au/collection/AWM4/13/7/18PART1/ looks very useful.

This is the first of two parts of the September 1917 diary by the Brig.General of I ANZAC. (But not of necessity the first 2 weeks.)

Page 42 (of 86) lists the position of 294SB on 7/9/17 in 73 HAG.

p44 10/9/17 73 HAG

p46 18/9/17 66HAG at (Sheet 28) i.28.b.03.18

p48 25/9/17 66HAG at (Sheet 28) i.18.b.03.18

If you put these co-ordinates (with the number 28 on the front for 'Sheet 28', into the Great War British Trench Map Coordinates Converter Website at http://rdf.muninn-project.org/TrenchCoordinates.html

you will see exactly where the battery was on those dates. i.e 28.i.28.b.03.18 is just south east of Zillebek. (With the eye of faith, you can see a few shell craters still scarring adjacent fields?)

28.i.18.b.03.18 is bang in the middle of where Hooge Crater Cemetery is now!

Both these sites are a good few miles from Ploegsteert though.

Can I just say that the Australian on line records site is absolutely excellent.

[153bde]

thankyou for your help , much appreciated !! The Australian records are superb i too have to say very detailed indeed also i see on those records that the codename of gunner J T Adams battery was Harmonic ! Your are right about the shell craters when looking at the coordinates on the map and also when i compare the image on the map to period fotos i found online you cant help but feel for those men that had to fight in those conditions , quite sad