Tracking a unit of the Royal Garrison Artillery

In cases where a researcher is trying to establish where a man was killed or wounded, and even just trying to follow his movements in a theatre of war, there is a reliable approach that is described on this page. The degree of accuracy that can be achieved depends on what was recorded at the time. With luck, an amazingly precise identification of location can be found – but in most cases, the location may end up being just something like “near village XYZ”.

I am going to illustrate the method by reference to the death of Gunner 11680 John Purcell of 81st Siege Battery RGA. He lost his life on 7 September 1916 and is buried in Englebelmer Communal Cemetery, Soome, France [Commonwealth War Graves Commission records].

Find and read the war diary of the man’s unit

Each unit (in the case of the RGA, usually a battery) recorded its locations and activities in a war diary. They are held by the National Archives as document series WO95, and for those in France and certain other theatres of war they can be downloaded as PDF digital documents. Where they have not been digitised, the original document can be examined at the National Archives. Unfortunately, however, not all have survived and some only cover parts of the unit’s time overseas.

For my example of John Purcell, the war diary of 81st Siege Battery is National Archives piece WO95/225.

Unusually, the diary names two Gunners killed on 6 September 1916, one of which was John Purcell (which calls into question the date on his gravestone). The diary gives no detail of the battery’s location that day except (higher on the page) it says it was at Englebelmer. It had arrived there during June 1916 but no exact location is stated.

Go up a level to artillery group diary

Without an exact location from the battery’s diary (or if there is no battery diary), it is a good idea to go up one level in the chain of command.

See my page Allocations of Siege Batteries (in this case, batteries 81st to 100th) to determine what that next step up in command was at the time.

This is the entry for 81st Siege Battery in “Allocations of Siege Batteries” (National Artchives WO95/5494). It shows that in September 1916, 81st was part of 16th Heavy Artillery Group.

The war diary for 16th Heavy Artillery Group is National Archives WO95/216.

The Group headquarters diary says that it too was is Englebelmer but, like the battery diary, talks only of targets and rounds fired at them, and gives no location detail for when John died. Sadly, it does not give that detail at any time. Some of these diaries give excellent, detailed location information – but not this one.

16th HAG came under orders of the Commander Heavy Artillery of VIII Corps and, as luck would have it, the diary at that level is also devoid of good location information at the relevant time. Luck of the draw: all we can say for certain is that John Purcell died somewhere near Englebelmer.

Here is an example to illustrate the precision that can sometimes be achieved. This is a page from the diary of the Commander Heavy Artillery of VI Corps. In June 1918, his command included 4th RGA Brigade. I have highlighted a single location occupied by two of the 9.2-inch howitzers of that brigade’s 129th Siege Battery. The location is given by grid map reference Q.36.c.0.8. These fearsome weapons could fire a shell at a range up of to about 10,000 yards (over 5.5 miles). Q.36.c is a square on the relevant map, equating to 500 yards by 500 yards on the ground.

Translate location information to contemporary and present-day maps

Grid locations such as the Q.36.c.0.8 given above can be identified on contemporary trench maps.

VI Corps was holding an area south and west of Arras, and Q.36 is a map square that lies west of the village of Bellacourt. Q.36.c is its lower left-hand quadrant.

I have placed a red flag at Q.36.c.0.8. Each quadrant was subdivided into a ten by ten grid, and ).8 can be found by going 0 across from bottom-left and 8 up. The map and flag have been produced using Memory-Map and Linesman software in this instance, but there are several other ways to obtain trench maps.

Linesman also let me leave my red flag in place but overlay it onto a present-day map. Using this, it would be possible (assuming access to the land) to reach the position of the two howitzers by walking the field tracks shown.

But you might want to take your wellies! The two howitzers lay just ahead of the camera and were firing at enemy positions beyond the horizon.

Links

See RGA war diaries for a complete listing of the diaries available.

How to read a trench map