Leipzig redoubt / Authuille Wood Aerial Photography

[the_ageing_young_rebel]

Hi Everybody,

                I've searched for aerial photography of the Liepzig redoubt / Authuille Wood during the battle of the Somme over the years, but have usually come up blank. The best that I've managed to do is this single photo which was in The Bousfield Family Tragedy by Mike Royden (http://www.roydenhistory.co.uk/eportwarmemorial/soldiersrecords/bousfieldbrothers/bousfieldbrothers.pdf).

        I've even failed to find a higher resolution version of this image. Can anybody point me in the direction of the original, or an other similar images?

        Thanks in advance!

 

Edited 5 April , 2023 by the_ageing_young_rebel

[WhiteStarLine]

TrenchMapper, from The Western Front Association has three, 1918 georeferenced aerial photos covering this entire area.  Two of them have a lot of detail showing features still clearly visible in 1918.  This other extract is from July 1916 but is of a smaller area in square R.31.  One in particular shows the area (I think) starting 115 metres NE of Leipzig Redoubt and has sufficient detail to let you zoom right in to the trench system.  PM for a zoomable extract.  Click each image below to enlarge.

The title of the image is "The Point before and after being shelled":

[the_ageing_young_rebel]

Thanks, Those are really interesting!

[brianmorris547]

No photographs but the October 1916 WD of 57 Field Co RE (49 Div) has two good maps of Authille Wood with trench names.

TNA WO 95/2784.

Brian

[the_ageing_young_rebel]

1 hour ago, brianmorris547 said:

No photographs but the October 1916 WD of 57 Field Co RE (49 Div) has two good maps of Authille Wood with trench names.

TNA WO 95/2784.

Thanks Brian! I had a very low resolution version of this map with unreadable names, so this is very helpful. One of the problems i've had is that I've seen this image online claiming to be of the Leipzig Redoubt, but I can't match any of the trench names

[WhiteStarLine]

8 hours ago, the_ageing_young_rebel said:

claiming to be of the Leipzig Redoubt

Yes, it is.  That panorama shows a number of trenches and some map references.  The Redoubt was in square 57d.R.31.c and that reference appears twice.  This 1916 map has Eighth, Cabbage and Kitten.  If you can find the original negative number (usually an IWM accession number preceded by Q) then the full documentation sometimes lists the photographer's location and date - these panoramas required a bit of setup and plenty of patience!

[brianmorris547]

I think it was taken from Leipzig.

This map is in the June 1916 WD of the Commander RE 47 Div. It shows The Naze and the two locations in R 31 c can be plotted.

TNA WO 95/2779.

Brian

[the_ageing_young_rebel]

3 hours ago, WhiteStarLine said:

Yes, it is.  That panorama shows a number of trenches and some map references.  The Redoubt was in square 57d.R.31.c and that reference appears twice.  This 1916 map has Eighth, Cabbage and Kitten.  If you can find the original negative number (usually an IWM accession number preceded by Q) then the full documentation sometimes lists the photographer's location and date - these panoramas required a bit of setup and plenty of patience!

That's amazing! Thanks! It didn't occur to me that they would be German trenches

1 hour ago, brianmorris547 said:

I think it was taken from Leipzig.

This map is in the June 1916 WD of the Commander RE 47 Div. It shows The Naze and the two locations in R 31 c can be plotted.

TNA WO 95/2779.

Brian

Thanks again Brian. Thats really helpful!

[WhiteStarLine]

15 hours ago, brianmorris547 said:

57 Field Co RE (49 Div)

One of the fascinating things about many maps is the human interest stories.  Expand Brian's map and find the RE Dump.  Follow the tramway up to Authuille Wood.  Look at the ammunition stockpile.  Spare a thought for those who unloaded it and stacked it.  For those who carried it back to the trenches and distributed it.  For those who loaded it and carried all that heavy brass into battle.  For those on the receiving end.

Just at this one little spot I can see annotations showing two million rounds of small arms ammunition, 22,000 grenades and 4,800 trench mortar (indecipherable - shells?).  A similar dump is just north of Black Horse Bridge.

[the_ageing_young_rebel]

In case anybody else is ever looking for that panoramic photo; it appears in this book in an slightly cropped version. Now I need to find a disk drive to see if it’s on the included cd.