Trench Codes

[Guest Murray Graham]

I was reading a battalion diary , and found mention of a work party for carrying RATs. THe work party was 700 strong, and it was in preperation vor the Vimy Ridge attack

I believe RAT to be a code group from the No.3 Trench code.

Can anyone tell me what it refers to?

Thanks, M. Graham

[themonsstar]

Hi Murray

Is it not short for rations?

[CROONAERT]

I concur with themonsstar. I've come across this reference on occasion previously and they seem to apply to rations carrying parties.(though a 700 strong group seems a little excessive for any type of carrying party to be honest!)

Dave. (even in modern terminology rations are sometimes referred to as "rats" (24hr "rat-packs" etc.).

[Guest Murray Graham]

I concur with themonsstar.  I've come across this reference on occasion previously and they seem to apply to rations carrying parties.(though a 700 strong group seems a little excessive for any type of carrying party to be honest!)

Dave. (even in modern terminology rations are sometimes referred to as "rats" (24hr "rat-packs" etc.).

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I wonder about that,but and someone on another website suggested Ration, Ammunition and Trench Stores.

But this party is carrying stuff out of a front line trench just before a major attack, it appears.

Must be someone that has the answer

[A Co. 27th Bn.]

Old threads never die they just get resurected. Trawling through old threads I came across this one that did not appear to have been given a definitive answer. This I believe is it. The following is a direct quote from a book published in 1918,

'Over There And Back' by Lieutenant Joseph S. Smith.

Quote; "A RAT is a rat, and in France and Belgium it is a four-legged animal varying in size from a squirrel to a fox terrier, depending on the bloodiness of the part of the line in which he is born and raised.

In British army slang there is also another rat. It weighs more than a hundred pounds, is four or five feet long and black in colour, with a waist line of about eighteen inches. Some rat! you will say. It surely is some rat! Its killing power-just one rat-may be anywhere from fifty to five hundred men in the same number of seconds.

The rat is a cylindrical container which holds gas- that foul stinking, strangulating form of gas that the Prussians gave to the astonished world on April 22, '15, at Ypres" End Quote

Given the size of the cylinders and the distance they would be required to be moved over by hand to get them in and out of the front line; 700 men does not seem excessive to be engaged on the task.

Ian

[green_acorn]

I would think Murray was on the right track when he asked the question, RAT may well be a "Commodity Code", the concept of a three letter code describing all of the different commodities needed in the field, including soap, uniforms and underwear, was commonly used in low level radio and telephone communications as late as the 1970's. To save confusion they were used in enclaire administrative messages and weren't in themselves further encoded/enciphered, though locations in the message would have been "Playfair" encoded. As Ian has just suggested the code "RAT" may have been for Chlorine or other gas.

Does anyone have the Trench Codes Murray mentioned back in 2005?

cheers,

Hendo

[Ron Clifton]

I wonder about that,but and someone on another website suggested Ration, Ammunition and Trench Stores.

But this party is carrying stuff out of a front line trench just before a major attack, it appears.

Must be someone that has the answer

Are you sure that the RATs, whatever they might be, were actually being carried out of the front line? It seems more likely that the work party was sent back to bring items such as rations, ammunition and trench stores (sandbags, wire, wire-cutters etc) up to make dumps just behind the front line, in preparation for a major attack.

Ron

[green_acorn]

Ron,

Murray does not appear to be with us anymore, he last visited in 2006,

cheers,

Hendo