Schwaben Redoubt - location

[John_Hartley]

The easiest way to orientate yourself with Jack's map is to use the excellent NLS trench maps. This allows you to slide between the British trench map and the modern aerial view. Map 57DSE1, to 15/8/16, positions the Redoubt with its eastern edge on the Grandcourt road at the large group of buildings there (hedged in on three sides by trees) and its far edge, west from there till it touches the track over to St Pierre D.

http://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=9&lat=50.0645&lon=2.7620&layers=101465290

[Don Regiano]

Somewhere up here John (track from St Pierre-Divion)

Reg

[horrocks]

 

 

This is the Schwaben. The dark shadow running across the tilth to the right roughly tracks the course of the main trench. It crossed the track near the summit, then returned roughly along the line of the hedge on the skyline. My back is to the communal cemetery. Prior to the war a lane ran along the southern (Thiepval) face of Thiepval Wood, crossed Mill Road and then crossed this track just in front of my viewpoint, joining the Grandcourt Road opposite the row of farm labourers cottages - the hedgeline on the left survives to show its course.

Edited 13 April by horrocks

[Victor56]

When visiting the Ulster Tower in (I think) 2012 I walked around outside the perimeter. The back of the surrounded terrain was covered with low bushes. There, more or less hidden, I found an opening in the ground. It probably had been an entrance or a ventilation shaft, because I remember that on a trench map the location matched a marked point along a trench. When I again visited the tower in 2021 I could not find the location due to the changed ground. Most likely the hole was closed on purpose. This made me think that the outline of the redoubt was in line with the perimeter of the tower groundings.