Woumen near Dixmude - Trench Map

[JohnC]

Does anyone know what happened at Woumen, just south of Dixmude, around or just after July of 1917? I have this map, below, and would dearly like to know the action it relates to. It's Belgian, dated 29th July 1917, is highly detailed at 1:5,000 with multiple coloured overlays. The overlays are printed, not drawn by hand, and include two yellow lines from top to bottom. I've never seen anything quite like it.

The German trenches seem to have the fire bays pointing backwards, not towards the enemy. Is this just a plotting convention, or are they captured trenches? And what does the green overlay signify? Key roads are highlighted in orange, with circles at junctions - Artillery targets? I'm guessing that the red blocks with arrows represent MG nests.

On the left I take it that the green overlay shows the Belgian trenches. Through them, hand drawn in pencil, is a multitude of arrows showing what I presume to be attack routes from an assemby area behind the Yser, over bridges and around the marshes. There are unit boundaries in red between them.

This is obviously a very detailed plan for some specific purpose, but what? The nearest reference I can find is mention of 'a reconnaissance in force on the Chateau of Woumen' in October 1917. The map came with the adjacent sheet to the south (with only the blue overlay showing wire and trenches) dated 20 August 1917, so perhaps that moves the date of the attack a bit beyond the map's print date.

Any suggestions as to the event would be much appreactated.

Thanks, John

[PRC]

Just a thought but given the location and timing was it possibly prepared for Belgium Army operations in support of the British Operation Hush?

https://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/battles/battles-of-the-western-front-in-france-and-flanders/operation-hush-including-the-battle-of-the-dunes/

 

Cheers,

Peter

[JohnC]

Hello Peter. The timing seems right but I'm not sure about the location. Woumen is some 10km south of Nieuport, which itself was at the south end of the Hush area. But what a fascinating operation! I have never heard of it until now. The allied planners were decades ahead of their time - mobile landing pontoons and climbing ramps for tanks - so pre-emptive of Mulberry and Hobart's Funnies in 1944. It's a shame the planners of the raid on Dieppe in 1942 didn't consult their history books as to means of getting tanks off of beaches. Thank you for the link.

John

[PRC]

It was just a thought - senior commanders were obsessed that one more push would see a return to open warfare, so nearby forces would have to be prepared to take advantage should the opportunity present itself. And if a bulge was created but was contained by the Germans, then potentially Belgian troops  around Dixmude would have been either in the way of a pincer movement by the Germans to snuff it out, or would have been in a position to attack such a pincer in the flanks.

 

What made me think of it was when I googled Dixmude to jog my memory of where it was and a picture of the "Trench of Death" came up, alongside a dyke \ canal. It reminded me of the scenery around where the Northants and KRRC found themselves on the 31st July 1917, cut off and mopped up by the German Marines in Operation Strandfest.

 

So many lessons from history get lost or mis-interpreted. British Army Officers watching the Battles of the US Civil War saw barbed wire, machine guns, snipers targetting officers and ncos, the domination of artillery and trench warfare and came away with the conclusion that Cavalry still ruled the Battlefield. They had 50 years to prepare for the Great War and didn't.

 

(Looks sheepish, gets down of soapbox, sidles off to the Rant Thread

 

Peter

[JohnC]

Good points Peter. Plans for a wider follow-up would have been prudent; that it never happened would explain the lack of reports of anything of substance in the area. Interesting that the arrows show the Belgian movements originating from behind the Yser, rather than the front line. That seems to indicate a movement in force, as per your suggestion, rather than a trench raid or recce.