Trench ID - Oblique Trench

[michaeldr]

Can anyone identify this trench?

Oblique Trench

It should be somewhere in the area covered by this map

 

Westlake's British Regiments at Gallipoli mentions it on page 4 (1/4th^th Royal Scots)

quote: “Relieved and to Eski Line (21^st December). Positions held between 'C' Avenue and Small Nullah also Oblique Trench. Moved to Redoubt Line and new trench in front of Eski Line between Mule Trench and Oxford Street (22^nd Dec).”

 

Thanks for any assistance here

Michael

Edited 11 January , 2019 by michaeldr

[john white]

Dear Michael and Members

             Firstly a very good map.It shows Clapham Junction and also the Redoubt Line,  This was  the distance travelled by the 2nd Australian Brigade in it's ill- fated attack at the 2nd Battle of Krithia on May 8th 1915. What was the total length of it's advance? Charles Bean gives the distance as 1400 yards but I'm not sure. The advance cost the Brigade 1056 casualties.

                                            Regards

                                                 John White

[michaeldr]

John,

I'm not an expert on Bean or the Australian OH, and I'm further hampered by the above map having no scale. I have however had a look at another version and as far as I can see the straight line distance is about 1,200 yds, so Bean wasn't that far out was he. It may just be a matter of exactly where at Clapham Junction you started and where on the Redoubt Line you finished

 

[michaeldr]

A little re-think here

I'm not clear that Clapham Junction is 'fully' seen on the first map

To qualify for the title it must have been the multiple crossing/intersecting of trenches seen at the foot of the second version above

If the distance is measured from the lowest point of that inverted triangle then 1,400 yds is the figure (and agrees with your Bean quote)

 

Force Order No.28 of 7th November 1915 lists the map square (ref.) for Clapham Junction as 17.I.6

 

My thanks to Mike Crane for the copy of Force Order No.28 and the above map

 

Edited 15 January , 2019 by michaeldr

[john white]

Dear Michael and members

                                     Please find attached photocopies of the result of Bean's investigation into the distance travelled by the Australian 2nd Brigade on May 8th 1915. It 's taken from "Gallipoli Mission" published in 1948. The book can be read online via the Gallipoli Association website.

                                               Regards

                                                      John White