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Remembered Today:

50th Battery 34 Brigade RFA location 21-22/03/1918


2470pte

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Dear ladies and gents,

I will be visiting the Somme in the next few weeks and would like to locate the position(s) of 50th Battery 34 Brigade RFA on 21-22 March 1918 during the first 24 hours of the Kaisers offensive.

I have looked at the war diary and cannot establish the exact location, any assistance would be very much appreciated

Many thanks in anticipation,

John.  

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all batteries seems to have been 'in and adjacent to Gouzicourt wood', so a mile of so west of Gouzeaucourt village [spellings seem to vary] - the war diary WO-95-385-2_116.jpg gives map coordinates. 4 [?] guns at Q.28.b.67 and 2 guns at Q.30.b.33 if you find some online maps .. a useful if small map in 2nd Division History shows positions of 2nd Div artillery and nearby units and their withdrawal..[incl. 34th Army Bde being an old 2nd Div brigade.. as you probably know]. The modern wood looks similar shape to that shown in 1918 on GglEarth

Edited by battiscombe
typo
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Thank you so much, I'm getting onto the maps and will post when I'm happy I've got it exactly right.

Once again many thanks.

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I would suggest that is you wish to track all this you consult the various war diaries which run to several pages of detailed descriptions ..- 2nd Division RA diaries and history also include detailed maps showing all their battery positions over some days of movements .[.. which 34 Bde interacted with..]. and shows routes taken by all units including 34 Bde as they withdrew .to various prepared positions.. all documented in war diaries.. ..  The 2nd Div history [also using 34 Bde narrative in their diary] suggests that wood in 2nd GgleEarth picture was indeed Gouzicourt Wood with Pas de Calais/Nord boundary running around it..

 

- I would wonder if top map position is correct as so close to front line which ran down east side of Gouzeaucourt village ..past Aldi, ... but maybe these were advance/anti tank guns, as there were a couple of similarly forward 'anti-tank guns', further north '..- but 9th Division records may also include maps ..

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  • 8 months later...

My Father -in -law was in 34 Brigade RFA 40th Division 181 Battery, in his personal diary he states they had taken Gouzencourt.  Diary ends there but we know that he was injured in Nov. 1917 at Bourlon Wood just west of Cambrais.  After being injured and returned to Selly Oak Birmingham for treatment he was returned to duty in April 1918 and then appears to have been put in 245 Brigade.  Can anyone tell me if this would be the normal way of things in WW1?

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