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MAP OF FRANCE AND BELGIUM,
THE AREA OF THE WESTERN FRONT IN WWI
Below is a
Google map, on which I have pinpointed some places on the Western Front
connected with
the Bagshaw brothers. Information is taken from battalion war diaries
and from officers' files. You can drag it one way and the other, and also
zoom in and out on it.
If you click on individual pointer, there is more detail on exact date
and the event.
(Key: pointer with blob
=Billy; pointer with no blob=Horace; pushpin=Ken.
Colours: pale blue=1916;
mauve=1917; pink=1918)
View Larger Map
View Larger Map
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NUMBERS OF SOLDIERS in a British infantry battalion.
A rifle Squad (known as a section) = 8 men.
Three sections of 8 men (= 24 men) make up a rifle Platoon -
plus Platoon commander, Platoon sergeant & a Light aid detachment
(medic, signaller, 2 man light mortar team) making 30 men in all.
Three rifle platoons (= 72 men) make up a rifle Company - plus a
headquarters platoon of medics, signallers, cooks, clerks, drivers & the
company sergeant major, company commander & company
second-in-command, around 120-130 men all told.
Usually three rifle companies (around 300 men) make up a Battalion.
Together with these there is a Headquarters company & a fire support
company (with a recce platoon, mortar platoon, anti-tank platoon & also
usually a machine gun platoon & an assault pioneer platoon). These add up
to a battalion of about 600 men.
To read about the Bagshaws’ different battalions, visit these pages on
the Manchester Regiment site:
2/9th – 2nd
line Territorial battalion (Billy)
19th – 4th
City Pals’, a service battalion (Ken).
20th – 5th
City Pals’ (Billy and Horace)
1/7th –
Territorial force (Ken attached to them 11 May 1918)
Battalions are grouped together into Brigades with an operational
role. An armoured brigade, for example will have several armoured infantry
battalions together with other combat arms & support. There could be up
to 3000 men in a Brigade.
Several Brigades make up a Division, totally between 6000 & 10,000
men.
A page on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission site describes the Army
structure very well.
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BOOKS
Robert Graves "Goodbye
to all that"
Graves was in the Royal Welch Fusiliers during WWI, and
wrote about his experiences - much of it in the La Bassee area, where
Billy was in 1917.
You can read extracts on line here
Siegfried Sassoon "Memoirs
of an Infantry Officer"
In the 2nd Battalion The Royal Welch Fusiliers, Sassoon had an overview of
the 1 July 1916 action at Fricourt when the RWF was in reserve until 4 July.
Read a short biography and description
of Sasson's war experiences here.
Wilfred Owen, the poet, was in the Manchester Regiment, though in the
2nd Battalion. He was killed on 4 November 1918.
You can read about his
war service here
John Masefield (1878-1967)
volunteered as a medical orderly the Red Cross during World War I, as he was
too old to serve as a soldier. He was later recruited into the Ministry of
Information, and in 1917 wrote the short propagandist book “The Old Front
Line”, which describes the landscape around Albert and the
preparations and the start of the Battle of the Somme.
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