16th Highland Light Infantry

[glasgow]

Hello

I've been trying to get a general map or trench map showing the position of the 16th on the morning of the 1 July 1916. Can anybody help?

I'm not sure what their objective was on that day.

[aliecoco]

Hi Glasgow,

I have the 16th HLI war diary for the whole of July, so if you PM me with your address I can send some copies to you. I'll copy out 1st July and the map I have.

Alie.

[glasgow]

Thanks Alie I will be in touch PM

Does the war diary list or mentioned C Company? and/or individuals within it?

[CROONAERT]

I've been trying to get a general map or trench map showing the position of the 16th on the morning of the 1 July 1916. Can anybody help?

Their first objective was the "Wonder Work" and their last on 1st July was Mouquet Quarry.

Here's a map from the OH showing their location on that fateful morning...

Dave.

[CROONAERT]

...and here's atrenchmap extract from mid-june 1916. The 16/HLI were holding the trenches roughly from "Tyndrum Street" northwards.

Dave.

[glasgow]

thanks to you both this is very helpful.

Dave - what is the OH you mention?

[Adam Harland]

The OH is the Official History, the multi volume history of the war prepared by the Historical Section. It is exactly what it says on the cover ie it is the War Dept, and by association the british governments explanation of what happened during the war. The french and Germans had similar enterprises, and it is generally regarded as an excellent starting point on factual matters. It is itself part of the debate about the more contentious issues of the war, but if it says that such and such a battalion was engaged somewhere, it is pretty much always correct.

The 16th HLI Battalion history only mentions C Coy briefly in the chapter on the first day of the Somme, and this to mention that about the only thing that went well for 16 HLI was when one platoon of C Coy strayed towards 17th HLI to their south, and were involved in the capture of the Leipzig redoubt. The chapter itself is sparse on detail, most probably because 80% of the Officers and 2/3rds of the men engaged that day were casualties. There just were not many people left to explain what had happened, and those who were had other things on their mind. C Coy started the day as a support coy.

Adam

[CROONAERT]

Dave - what is the OH you mention?

Sorry! Using abbreviations is abad habit of mine that I'm going to have to try and stop doing.

Thanks for explaining, Adam.

Dave.

[glasgow]

Does anyone know which German units were in the opposite trenches when the 16th HLI attacked on 1July 1916?

[Ralph J. Whitehead]

I Batalion, 99th Reserve Regiment. 26th Reserve Division, XIV Reserve Corps. The troops held the position known as the Granatloch (the Leipzig Redoubt).

Ralph

[glasgow]

thanks Ralph