Sunken Road

[JMB1943]

Time and again one comes across the descriptor “Sunken Road” in battlefield reports and my visualization of this is a roadway at a level some feet lower than the surrounding countryside.

By implication, this was an exception and most of the roadways WERE at a level with the fields. Given the  sheer effort required to manually cut a roadway through the fields, why would this be done when just dumping gravel/stones in the field would create a permanent road?

Is this an overly simplistic view of the situation, or did the term “Sunken Road” have a different meaning in military parlance?

Regards,

JMB

 

[Pat Atkins]

In the UK, sunken roads are holloways: basically tracks which erode into the substrate over time through long use. I don't think they're usually constructed as such, rather the product of use over a long time. So kind of a topographical feature.

Like this (image from britishlandscape.org):

Edited 21 June by Pat Atkins

[PRC]

1 hour ago, JMB1943 said:

By implication, this was an exception and most of the roadways WERE at a level with the fields

Playing devils advocate here, but isn't that an assumption

My greatest knowledge would be Norfolk - even in Roman times considered one of the breadbaskets of the Empire. Footpaths and lanes would meander between cultivated fields, and even from the dark ages were known to have hedgerows on either side, in part to assist with driving livestock, in part to keep live stock in where necessary, and keep critters wild and domesticated out, in part to retain soil particularly where the loam was light and sandy and wind was a problem or where there was soil slip as a result of an incline, in part to prove ownership and of course all under the keen eye and advocacy of the relevant individuals who could claim tax or tithe as well as feudal obligation if ownership and money-making potential was clear.

The track\lane would be as wide or as narrow as required, so as not to lose valuable farming land, and would take advantage of the local topography as much as possible. Streams would provide drinking water to driven animals and be impractical for farming on. "The "sunken road" outside my house was once one of the main droving routes for livestock coming in from the countryside, with a steam running down it as documented in the 13th Century manorial records of the Bishop of Norwich. Is the road so much lower than the surrounding  houses on the "banks" either side because the stream had Grand Canyon ambitions, because of the trampling of millions of hooves and claws, or a combination of the two!

And as vegetable matter died back in the hedgerows to be replaced by new growth, combined with the application of animal and human "muck" as fertiliser, then the surrounding fields would slowly but surely rise above the height of the track, while erosion caused by water and transport use could only serve to lower the track.  Flooding and other weather extremes could temporarily exacerbate either trend or even temporarily reverse it.

Meanwhile most farms were quite small in these parts - most were still under 10 acres up the Great War, hence the need for lots of tracks and lanes. to gain access. This was reflected in the size of the "farmhouses", often no more than one or two room cottages. These farmers rented the land - they didn't own it - and were at the whim of the landowner as to whether it was worthwhile investing in the farm by removing ages old lanes and tracks to create bigger fields.

Not all of Norfolk is like that - large parts in the west around the River Ouse for much of human history were marshes, and to the east in the area now known as The Broads it was a similar.  The sea had invaded much of the low lying areas and the large town of Great Yarmouth in what is now the east of the county was in Roman times on a sandbank. In both areas it took the leasing of the land to the Dutch by King Charles 1, desperate for cash, to see the seas walled off, areas drained, and a mass deportation of the local populace that in part would prove a trigger for the English Civil War. But with little dry land in those areas there was no centuries old tradition of farming, no lanes or permanent tracks, and the Dutch were here to farm on an industrial scale for the time. They used dykes to separate there fields - and you have only to look at the impact this sort of landscape had on the fighting in Belgium in WW1 and Belgium & Holland in WW2 to see how these equivalents of sunken roads could shape the nature of the fighting generally. What roads there were are usually broad, straight and atop levees as befits an industrial landscrape where the planners could start with a blank canvas.

In many areas of Europe for centuries I believe the death of the father saw the land of his farm divided equally between all his sons. Lots of small farms, principally livestock intensive, can produce the kind of landscape like the bocage of Normandy that in WW2 would be a boon to the defenders and a nightmare to the attacking forces. Yet a short hop across the channel will see almost identical lanes in Cornwall and Devon as a result of much the same traditions.

I've not touched on the impact of the likes of fox-hunting and game shooting to shape the landscrape - even as the great estates of the old landed nobilty were taken under new ownership by the "turnip toffs" in the 18th and 19th centuries, and whole villages evicted and large farms created, the growth of these land-management activities meant some features like sunken lanes would be retained to increase the skill level required in horse-riding and riding to hounds.

With the coming of more modern map-making many of these lanes, often little more than dirt-tracks with barely enough width for one car are optimistically labelled C Roads and D Roads here in the UK. Replete with blind 90 degree turns and sudden dips and fords, due to an error in the 1950's they are often mistakenly believed to have a 60mph speed limit when in fact at times 6mph is more appropriate!

I suspect when it comes to fighting in north-west Europe then these are the sorts of "roads" being referred to. So a lot will depend on local tradition and farming practice in the area being fought over as to why some might have sunken lanes\roads.

Cheers,
Peter

[Allan1892]

Many WW1 images of sunken roads can be seen on the internet (images courtesy of Public Domain)

[JMB1943]

Peter,

Many thanks for your comprehensive write-up!

Certainly an assumption, but justified I believe by the specific mentions of Sunken Road. If the vast majority of lanes/ roads that were encountered were “Sunken”, then surely there would have been no need to identify them as such.                                                            [Delay for lunch and once-around the cribbage board with my wife.] 

Reading this through, I realize that I’m using a second, possibly greater assumption to justify my first…….so will stop here.

Regards,

JMB
 

[JMB1943]

Allen,

Thank you for taking the time to post those photos; they really do show the difference in levels of the lane and the surrounding countryside.

Must admit that I’m still a little surprised at how much erosion could have been caused along a heavily-travelled roadway!

Regards,

JMB

[Matlock1418]

Jumping in after much more erudite earlier posts ... I would have thought the military value of a sunken lane/road [approach obscuration from sight and some protection from fire - both of which could work both ways] might have justified their named inclusion.

And of course so many other normal roads got shelled to oblivion and off the face of the earth, even if not off maps, they would be potentially useful for military navigation, jumping off points, limits of exploitation etc.

I have limited idea if they would have been a serious obstacle to tanks [though I suppose once in one it might potentially be difficult to get out again] but they could certainly impede horsedrawn traffic/gun/wagons if transverse to intended route and such matters required to be militarily planned for.

There seem to be a number of reasons why the military would keenly record sunken as exceptional over those which were not sunken.

M

[Don Regiano]

Well, one of the more well-known Sunken Roads was that occupied by 1 Lancashire Fusiliers at the start of the Battle of the Somme on 1 July 1916.  It was also known as Hunter Trench.

Then and now

 

 

 

[WhiteStarLine]

15 hours ago, JMB1943 said:

did the term “Sunken Road” have a different meaning in military parlance

We have seen some very erudite replies on this, which is great.  While it didn't have a different military meaning, it was of sufficient tactical importance to be surveyed and mapped.  Commanders needed to know where an assault formation could assemble and conversely, where a sunken road on the enemy side needed to be identified as an artillery target.  Both the location and depth were recorded.  These two are at Chemin des Cavés, Chérisy, Arras.

[JMB1943]

D.R.—That is a wonderful photo of the 1 Lancs Fusiliers at the Somme, very poignant knowing the casualty toll for that first day.

W.S.L.—Yes, I have read accounts of taking cover in a Sunken Road but was not aware of just how important a ground feature it was. First time that I have seen an aerial photo with the Sunken Road annotated.

Regards,

JMB

[Don Regiano]

8 hours ago, JMB1943 said:

That is a wonderful photo of the 1 Lancs Fusiliers at the Somme, very poignant knowing the casualty toll for that first day

It's a still from the film that Malins shot at the time.  There is an analysis of his film and at 37:58 there is a session with a forensic lipreader determining what was being said on this site:

 

[WhiteStarLine]

6 hours ago, Don Regiano said:

there is a session with a forensic lipreader

I found her own backstory and the work she did very touching.  To hear an acknowledged expert identify someone in a silent film giving orders "fix them, then let's go" as the soldiers fix their bayonets, knowing that some of them do not live for much longer, is sobering.

Thanks for posting @Don Regiano. 

[Don Regiano]

I still haven't forgiven Andy Robertshaw for his derogatory "he's a Lancashire man" when discussing the Sunken Road!  Mind you, he was born in Yorkshire!

[KernelPanic]

23 hours ago, Don Regiano said:

It's a still from the film that Malins shot at the time.  There is an analysis of his film and at 37:58 there is a session with a forensic lipreader determining what was being said on this site:

That's a very interesting analysis. Thanks for posting.

I presume it was made before Peter Jackson's 2019 film They Shall Not Grow Old, which I found to be a riveting and haunting experience. Jackson's team also used lip readers for various scenes. But their reconstruction of the Lancashire Fusiliers in the sunken lane is amazing. The man on the left in the top still was looking at the camera for the entire scene as if transfixed with fear. It pinned me to my seat.

I took these two screenshots from an interview with Jackson about the movie, which is here.

 

Edited 23 June by KernelPanic
Corrected the URL

[A Lancashire Fusilier by Proxy]

My grandfather, Norman Hall, "a Lancashire man" through and through, as @Don Regiano knows (though with the 5th LF rather than the 1st LF), mentions sunken roads 23 times in his memoir, mostly as routes to move safely along, or muster in, or fall back to, but once as being deliberately targeted when they were mustering in one, and twice as convenient for mounting an ambush. He was well aware that a sunken road could be both a place of safety and a place of danger. Thus he says of one:

A sunken road ran right across No Man’s Land – the THIEPVAL – AUTHUILLE – ST PIERRE DIVION Road. Patrols had to deal with this with care and thought, for it was an ideal place for the Germans or ourselves to lie in wait for hostile parties. Whoever got in position first had a great advantage.

[Don Regiano]

Indeed I do remember Tricia from your excellent book.  St Pierre Divion also has a place in our remembrance with the attack by the local battalion (1/6 Cheshires) in November 1916 and the demise of Capt Kirk (long before Star Trek).  I remember finding out his sword was up for auction - but I was 2 years too late!

Reg