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Remembered Today:

How do I find details of where field hospitals were?


mithrandir1967

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I had a look through numerous diaries looking for 14 Corps or 8th Division  'Medical Arrangements' for Le Transloy Oct 1916. The only one I found is for 8th Division in the 24th Field Ambulance diary dated 20/10/1016. Unfortunately  I can't place a link to a map with these places as the map site has gone wrong. I should be able to edit this later and add a link.

 

As I said before the CMDS at Carnoy had a fairly close railway siding used for evacuating wounded to Grovetown Casualty Clearing Stations which were numbers 34, 56, 48 & 55.

 

TEW

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You can try this site to convert the coordinates to a location on a modern map http://rdf.muninn-project.org/TrenchCoordinates.html (so long as you don't use Internet Explorer).  National Library of Scotland also useful for trench maps http://maps.nls.uk/ww1/trenches/

 

And as TEW knows, if you're really lucky going through war diaries you might find a plan of a casualty clearing station https://halfmuffled.wordpress.com/2016/12/10/36-casualty-clearing-station-located/

Edited by David_Underdown
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I couldn't check the map refs I gave in post#26 as Macmaster Maps wasn't working yesterday, it's still a bit slow.

 

I think the maps refs in post#6 relate to different map sheets. Their objective, Zenith Trench is on sheet 57c squares N.28.d & N.34. The CMDS in Carnoy has to be on sheet 62c, the Corps Walking Wounded Station must be sheet 57c.

 

I suspect all the refs are sheet 57c except the CMDS in Carnoy.

 

The original order would have come from the Deputy Director Medical Services of 14 Corps who favoured having Corps medical arrangements rather than divisional set ups. The extract in post#6 does imply it's valid for 8th Division which may be good enough. I'm still trying to access the ADMS (divisional) diaries for the other divisions in 14 Corps to see if they have an original Corps 'Medical Arrangements'.

 

Will try to link to maps later tonight.

TEW

Edited by TEW
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Here's the map links I promised earlier, site still seems to be slow to me.

 

How to read WWI map references.

 

The sheet with almost everything you need is 57c, Macmaster have several of these for 1916. As an example this one is dated 7/10/1916 and has some trenches marked.

Carnoy is about 3000 yards to the SW of Montauban on sheet 62c.

 

I looked at 25th Infantry Brigade diary and they have a good set of Operation Orders for the Le Transloy for the 23rd Oct. If you have ancestry that link starts with the Brigade march up to the trenches on the 20th Oct. By following through the next 10 or so pages you could actually extract the routes taken by the 2/Royal Berks to their support position in Larkhill, Spider and Fly trenches. On the 23rd they were in support but moved up to the assembly trench (Rainbow) 57c.N.27.b - 57c.N.34b. All the objectives etc are given. As a bonus they have a Medical Arrangements which helps with the locations in post#26. Specifically, the 'one Advanced D.S' is called Watling Street, the 'Divl, Dressing Stn.' is in Bernafay Wood and the T.18.c relay post is in Cocoa Lane, Delville Wood.

 

The Battalion diary for the 2/Royal Berks also has a good narrative for the operations.

 

You'll see from the locations in post#26 that there is a separation of lying or sitting wounded going to either Bernafay Wood or Carnoy CMDS, this may depend on the nature of the wound or that they alternated groups of wounded from one to the other. Walking wounded seem to have had to walk to Carnoy and then to Montauban.

 

Wounded could be evacuated from both Carnoy and Bernafay Wood by railway direct to the Grovetown CCS (34, 48, 55 & 56).

 

It's worth pointing out that the Railway line visible on the trench map running through Bernafay wood  and continuing south to Carnoy may have been used as well but this is more of a light railway line using light trolleys, plus this doesn't connect directly with Grovetown.

 

The trench maps don't show this railway line. But a Linesman Map in this post does show it.

 

The railway line running direct to Grovetown has a siding at the south end of Trones Wood and another 'Plateau Siding' south of Lapree Wood, Carnoy. It's feasible to use the light railway from the field (Morval?) back to Bernafay Wood and then move the wounded across to the Trones Wood Siding, ditto for Carnoy.

 

I'm sure that will keep you busy for a while! There's enough to plot out a lot of battalion movements/objectives and the locations of medical posts. If you get stuck with finding trench locations ( I couldn't find Larkhill, Spider and Fly trenches) or more specific queries I'd suggest starting a new topic with a specific title.

 

TEW

 

 

 

 

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