Davidson Dugout Hill 60 March 1915

[David_Blanchard]

I am looking for more information relating to Davidson Dugout in the railway cutting near to Hill 60.

Based on information from the Liverpool Scottish website this dugout was constructed on the orders of Colonel Davidson of the Liverpool Scottish, a renowned engineer before the war, in March 1915. 

I don’t have access to the various histories of the London Scottish which may have more information and further details from Davidson’s diary. The war diary has no information. It is also mentioned in the book about the Liverpool Rifles by Kevin Shannon.

I am particularly interested in the dugout being used as an aid post during the mine attack on Hill 60, April 1915. 
 

 

Edited 7 October , 2021 by David_Blanchard

[gmac101]

I mention this on twitter but the panaorama i sent the link to is also avaialble as individual photos and I have assembeld them to form a higher resolution version - There is an entrance to a dugout  (maybe more than one) visible in the cutting left of the bridge 

[David_Blanchard]

A friend on Twitter- private message- sent me this photograph of the railway cutting, you can just about seeing a man sitting outside dugout- approximately the right position for Davidson dugout ? 

Edited 8 October , 2021 by David_Blanchard

[mebu]

David, have you looked in the relevant/associated RE dairies? Could well be something there to pinpoint the location.

Peter

[David_Blanchard]

Yes, sadly nothing there. One of Davidson’s letters mentions pioneers of the battalion building the dugout.  Not sure what this means- no pioneers in the 9 Brigade as far as I could I can see either. Would like to see if there is any more information in Davidson’s dugout.
 

David 

 

 

Edited 8 October , 2021 by David_Blanchard

[David_Blanchard]

Pleased to find this description of ‘Davidson’s Dugout’ in Ann Clayton’s book ‘Chavasse Double VC’ - and more importantly was used by Chavasse as an aid post.

[IRC Kevin]

8 hours ago, David_Blanchard said:

A friend on Twitter- private message- sent me this photograph of the railway cutting, you can just about seeing a man sitting outside dugout- approximately the right position for Davidson dugout ? 

Davidson dugout was much further to the left, well out of camera shot. The row of sandbags in the cutting is one of the night time sentry positions. There was a whole series of dugouts along the cutting, dug between March and May 1915. (probably more added later, too). The position of Davidson dugout on the sketch map below is accurate.

[gmac101]

The attached trench map is from the 1st Royal West Kent war diary late April / early May 1915.  My GG Uncle was killed whilst serving with the 2nd KOSB (they were both in the 13th Brigade and the 2nd KOSB war diary was abit sparse).  It shows trench 38  that runs along the railway cutting and provides access to the dugout.  Its also the trench that is mentioned in the diary extracts