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Remembered Today:

NZ Division and b.RIR 20 - Somme 1st - 3rd October 1916


charlie2

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Can anyone help with the actions of the NZ Division or its component regiments against the Bavarian Reserve Infanterie Regiment 20 during these three days. 
Equally welcome would be any information regarding the b.RIR 20 and in particular its No. 11 Company. I have managed to piece some information together using the regimental histories of b. RIR 16, 17 and 21. The regimental history of b.RIR 20 only exists in manuscript form in the Munich archives, but I‘m working on a solution.

Charlie

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Hi Charlie,

McCarthy's 'The Somme Day by Day Account' has 2nd NZ Bde attacking on 1 Oct and 2nd Canterbury taking Circus Trench to the junction on the right with Goose Alley, and 2nd Otago taking The Circus. I would presume there was a bombing fight on the right flank of the red circled line on the map above between the men of the former battalion and the 20th Bavarians. I'll see if I have a war diary for the unit in question.

Regards

Colin

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Mate,

I have the NZ Div History by Stewart

The action mentioned covers pages 110 to 118

No mention of the German units in the book I can see?

Do you want a copy of the pages?

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The New Zealand Division History mentioned by stevenbecker is available online at https://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-WH1-Fran.html.

Also available are individual histories for the Canterbury and Otago regiments, which may have more detail, although once again the identification of individual German regiments is unlikely. The regimental war diaries will also be available online through the New Zealand Archives.

https://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-WH1-Otag.html

https://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-WH1-Cant.html

Edited by Tawhiri
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10 hours ago, Colin W Taylor said:

I'll see if I have a war diary for the unit in question.

 

Thank you Colin, sometimes the war diaries go into more detail.

10 hours ago, stevenbecker said:

Do you want a copy of the pages?

Thanks for the offer Steven but as it is online it is not necessary.

7 hours ago, Tawhiri said:

Also available are individual histories for the Canterbury and Otago regiments

Many thanks for the links, excellent.

I wasn‘t expecting any mention of the German Regiment but sometimes there is a bonus that x amount of prisoners were taken. It is always interesting to read both sides of a story and it sometimes helps to fill in the gaps.

Charlie

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Charlie,

PSA for the 2nd Canterbury Regt war diary for Oct 1-3. Hopefully they are of assistance. There is mention of parties of Germans being shot down as they retreated, PoWs captured and mention of a half-hearted bombing counter-attack; probably not much use for researching the 20th Bavarian Regiment. 

Source of documents The National Archives, WO95/3699.

Regards

Colin

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Many thanks Colin

11 hours ago, Colin W Taylor said:

probably not much use for researching the 20th Bavarian Regiment. 

Not directly but it is another piece in the jigsaw.

Charlie

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