Redoubts?

[armourersergeant]

i have just read a bit about St Quentin in 1918 and it talked of the redoubts held by the british 18th corps in march 1918 and i was wondering what were the redoubts. I assume they were like isolted trench works that were self sufficent but how acessible were they for relieving troops to get to. Were they connected by communication trenches or what?

Arm.

[garyem1]

Hi Arm'

If you send me your email addy, i will send you an ariel view of the drop redoubt at Dover, i cannot post it on the forum because of copywrite.

gary

[garyem1]

Try this link, click on archive, then photographs.

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/john.vaughan/

gary

[Tim Birch]

Arm

A redoubt is a heavily fortified defensive position, generally self standing, a bit like a small fort. They came into their own during the Napoleonic Wars when a string of redoubts was built along the south coast of Britain. They were larger than a Martello Tower, but smaller than a Fort. Although "self standing", the gaps between were within gun range of neighbouring forts, redoubts and martello towers.

On the Western Front they were complex trench, dugout and underground passage systems incorporating re-inforced concrete positions and pillboxes, and normally were positioned in key locations, often at a change in direction in the Line, heavily defended by barbed wire hedges and with machine guns positioned in them to provide enfilade fire along the flanks firing over pre-determined killing grounds to the front, flanks and rear. This made them capable of being defended for a considerable time, even if the Line on either side of them was broken through allowing the enemy to encircle them. Very difficult to attack, they were sometimes removed by mines eg The Hawthorne Redoubt on 1/7/16.

The concise Oxford dictionary describes it as "an outwork or fieldwork. usually square or polygonal and without flanking defences"

Tim

[Tom Morgan]

Arm,

The reference you saw was to the "outpost line." By 1918, in many sectors, the British had modified their use of a fully-manned front line in many sectors, replacing it with a series of strong-points.

Tom

[Simon Furnell]

There is a good diagram of Manchester Hill redoubt,in Martin Middlebrooks book,The Kaisers Battle,on page 264.

The redoubts ran all the way down the line from St Quentin and finished up near the end of the British held line near Travecy,a keep,held by one of the battalions of the 58th Division,the 2/2nd Londons.

The difference,between a keep and a redoubt,i am not sure of,but they seem to have been the same sort of thing.

The Kaisers Battle,has a few excerpts on the holding of the redoubts,and may be of interest.

All the best.

Simon.