Hello. Welcome to the July edition. We have two major articles this month. Both are “of the moment”, so I did not want to delay publication of either of them. This has resulted in a rather longer newsletter than usual but I hope you will agree that the articles are of great interest. In the first article, Steve and Nancy write about the new information being made available from the CWGC as of 7th July. In the second, Keith has written about Belgium and the opening of WWI. As ever, please send items of interest to me or Fiona.
Trevor
The Programme for 2014, so far
5th July Trevor Adams So, why was there a Great War: fact and
fiction, and hopefully debunking at least a few of the myths.
2nd August Rob Thompson Wombles on the Western Front
6th September Nigel Crompton HMS Gretna
Last month’s speaker – Bryn Hammond
Bryn came up to talk to us about the Battle of El Alamein. Yes, it is indeed the “wrong” war but in many ways it parallels the battles toward the end of WWI, perhaps not surprisingly as that had to be the starting point for the British Army in WWII.
“Monty” was not the only British general involved, as Alanbrooke, amongst others played a senior role. Indeed, on the “German” side there were more Italians than Germans, and again Rommel was not the only senior Axis general in evidence. Both Montgomery and Rommel were, of course, veterans of WWI
New on-line Records from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Steve and Nancy Binks
From the 7th July the C.W.G.C will be releasing a number of their burial records, on-line. They cover much of the burial process including:
- Exhumation
- Concentration
- Grave Registration
- Reburial
- Next of Kin Verification Forms
- Headstone Schedule
- Cemetery Register entries
The purpose of this document is to explain what documents will be available and how they would have been used by the then, Imperial War Graves Commission. In the coming weeks, I will explain how these documents can be used to further an individual’s research of Great War servicemen.
Overview
In the post war years, exhumation from the battlefields, littered with the temporary graves of (Commonwealth) war dead, was carried out by the Graves Registration Unit and Enquires (GRU&E). These were mostly teams of ex-servicemen re-employed by the war office. The remains were collected, identified (where possible) and buried in one of many hundreds of purpose built concentration cemeteries.
It was the responsibility of the Imperial War Graves Commission (now the CWGC) to record and register the burials and maintain accurate records of the burials within these cemeteries. Verification forms were sent to next of kin to check the details of the proposed headstone engraving and to offer a personal inscription and entry for the cemetery register.
Accurate records became more relevant in the post war years as many thousands of enquires were received from bereaved parents, wives, brothers and sisters. Mistakes were found: on the spellings on headstones, dates of death were found to be incorrect, some servicemen were found to have more than one burial, and bodies were still being found! These errors were meticulously recorded on working documents. It is these documents which will now be available as part of the new on-line records. Below is a brief resume of some of these records.
Exhumation
The Imperial War Graves Commission only became responsible for exhumations after the war office withdrew the GRU&E exhumation teams from France and Belgium in September 1921. The surviving records refer mostly to the later exhumations from the 1930’s. The form includes information on how identification was confirmed (or not) and where the serviceman was buried. The form was also used for confirming a serviceman’s identification in the case of a possible error.
The form below is for an unidentified Territorial officer. It is likely that the form was similar to that used by the original GRU&E teams. His place of burial is the standard trench co-ordinate.
Concentration of Graves (Exhumation & Burial) Report
On exhumation, soldiers’ remains were brought to purpose built cemeteries, marked out by plot, row and grave numbers.
The Concentration of Graves Exhumation and Re-burials report (see below) listed the dead who had been recovered or exhumed from their original burial location. The report provides basic details of the war dead, but in addition may also include information as to their original location prior to burial (which in many cases is simply a trench map grid reference), and occasionally some details of how the individual war dead were identified. Each cemetery will have many of these forms, dependant on the size of cemetery. The report below is one of hundreds from Delville Wood (Extension).
Grave Registration
Grave Registration Reports (GRRs) are standard forms which record details of all graves for which the CWGC is responsible, grouped by burial ground. They provide basic details of the individualsburied there, such as name, service number, rank, regiment, unit and date of death, and are listed in Plot, Row and Grave order.
As graves were brought into the cemetery a new GRR would replace draft copies (also available), until a “Final” GRR was produced. In the post war years, these became working documents.
The example below shows the Final GRR for Ath Communal Cemetery Extension, Belgium and the amendments which have been necessary including the identification of an Unknown British Soldier, incorrect surname, incorrect service number and rank.
Reburials
In the post war years many of the burial grounds established during the conflict were lost, abandoned or closed because of their small number of burials and access problems. These reports are collections of Grave Registration documents which record details of war dead who were originally buried in smaller or isolated cemeteries, but who at a later date were exhumed and reburied in war cemeteries. The report for Moen Churchyard below is struck through with the reburial location: Heestert Military Cemetery
Verification Forms
These forms were posted by the CWGC to the next-of-kin taken from information supplied by the various arms of the military service authorities following the end of the First World War. They contain the war dead’s basic details (name, rank, regiment, number and date of death), plus any further information provided by the next-of-kin, such as their chosen personal inscription, religious emblem, age and details of the next-of-kin. The CWGC used these documents to verify the information recorded in its records, and to ensure the correct information was engraved on any headstones or memorials produced. Unfortunately, around 99% of the Final Verification forms for First World War were destroyed during the Second World War.
THE DEFENCE OF BELGIUM
Keith Walker
There are many and varied reasons why World War I started. One of the reasons was the neutrality of Belgium. We sometimes forget how much of a role the Belgian army played in World War I.
After the revolution of 1830 Belgium became a neutral state, the independence of which was guaranteed by the great powers of the day France, Great Britain, Prussia, Austria and Russia. This was formalized with the Treaty of London (1839). The treaty was an important document, especially in the role it played in bringing about World War I. The German Chancellor Theobold von Bethman Hollweg could not believe that Britain and Germany would go to war over a mere “scrap of paper”.
Defending the entire Belgium territory was seen as hopeless for the small Belgian army less than 200,000 in 1914. So, in about 1850 the idea of building a national redoubt was suggested, for political, economic and military reasons Antwerp was chosen. In 1859, the buildings of a number of forts was started, a ring of eight forts were built, the defence of Antwerp would be completed by flooding area’s to the north, east and south of the town. But the development of artillery in the second half of the 19th century caused increases in range, precision and effect. It was decided in 1870 the forts were to be modified and more forts built further afield. By 1906, a law was passed and money made available resulting in the extension of the port and the enlargement of the fortress. Eleven new forts were built and twelve new redoubts, as a rule there was a fort every five kilometres with a redoubt between each fort.
The forts were constructed with fifteen feet concrete roof on twelve feet concrete walls, and the whole fort was then covered with twelve feet of soil. The main armament was two six inch guns fitted in a turret, two four inch howitzers in two turrets and four three inch guns in four turrets, for close support the fort had a number of two inch guns around the fort.
The work started in May 1908 by July 1913 the garrisons were in place but the guns did not arrive until December 1913. After they were installed, the first target practice took place in February 1914.
On August the 4th 1914 War was declared at that time a number of forts had equipment still missing searchlights, ventilator, telephones electric power etc.
After the battle of Liege from the 5th August till the 16th August this battle delayed the invasion of France by the Germans for up to four to five days. The Belgian field army then retired to the national redoubt of Antwerp, on the 4th September the Germans troops made a surprise attack on Antwerp but they were only supported by light artillery, the forts withstood the attack. After the battle of the Marne 5th September till the 12th September the Germans attacked Antwerp again on the 22nd of September. This time they brought up some siege artillery the attack lasted two to three days, and under this bombardment some of the forts were silenced.
On October 2nd King Albert withdrew the field army behind the forts and by October the 7th the field army withdrew from fortress Antwerp to the Yser.
On October 10th fearing a bombardment of Antwerp the forts surrendered. The defence of Liege and Antwerp for up to ten weeks delayed the Germans, they used up troops and equipment that could have been used elsewhere.
The battle of the Yser took place from the 16th October till the 30th October along a twenty two mile stretch of the Yser river and canal from Nieuwpoort in the north to Diksmuide in the south. It was held by a large force of Belgians, some sixty five thousand troops with support of some French divisions, and at sea the British assembled a naval force under the command of Admiral Horace Hood. This comprised of three monitors H.M.S. Severn, H.M.S. Humber and H.M.S. Mersey and other assorted craft to provide heavy artillery support from the seaward flank.
HMS Mersey
The first German attack was at Diksmuide on the16th of October. After heavy fighting, the Germans attacked on the18th of October along the whole front from Nieuwpoort south down towards Arras trying to break the allied armies. From the 26th to the 29th October, the Belgians flooded the whole of their front line. The Germans launched another large attack on the 30th of October but realized they could be cut off by the flooding, they withdrew. The fighting continued further south on what we now call the first battle of Ypres 19th October till the 22nd November.
The German army failed to defeat the Belgian army and the retention of this last corner of Belgium ended the race to the sea. The Yser front line was held by the Belgians with little movement until 1918.
Britain played a small role in the defence of Antwerp, in that after the visit on the 2nd till the 4th of October by the First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill he ordered in the naval division.
The naval division was formed in August 1914. The Admiralty realized that with mobilization they would have between 20,000 to 80,000 men of the reserve, for whom there would not be room on any warship. This surplus would be sufficient to form two naval brigades and a brigade of marines available for home defence or for any special purpose. From this they formed the “Naval” division.
The Royal Marine Bde (became the 3rd Bde, RMA, Chatham, Portsmouth, Plymouth Bns) landed at Ostend on the 27th August 1914. The other two Bdes were formed at Walmer and Betteshanger at that time. The Royal Marine Bde returned from Ostend on the 31st August 1914 and re-embarked for Dunkirk on the 19th September 1914. They reached Cassel on the 30th September 1914 and detrained at Antwerp on the 3rd October 1914.
Antwerp’s outer forts were taken by this time and the Bde were put in the trenches immediately. The two other Bdes (1st &2nd RN Bdes) embarked from Dover 4th October 1914 landed at Dunkirk, detrained at Antwerp 6th October1914 and joined the RM Bde in the trenches. The whole Division was withdrawn on 9th October 1914 to St Gilles Wass and began entraining for Ostend, except for about 1,500 men of the 1st RN Bde, who failed to cross the Scheldt river in time and crossed into Holland and were interned for the rest of the war.
R.N.D at Antwerp
R.N.D Armoured Train at Antwerp R.N.D in trenches Antwerp
Trenches of Death near Diksmuide Fort Liezele
Visitor information
You can visit one of the forts – Fort Liezele.
Web page www.fortliezele.be
Opening times April till October weekdays 13.00hrs -20.00hrs Saturday morning 10-00-1200 there is an entrance fee
Trenches of death at Diksmuide.
Opening times April till November daily 10.00hrs till 17.00hrs.
Free entrance.
Reference. Fort Liezele guide book, editors Robert Gils, Luc Schokkaert, 2001.
Open Day at Craig y Don Community Centre – Saturday 23rd August
The open day is to celebrate 10 years of the community centre. We hope to have a stall and would welcome volunteers to help with it, and any ideas and contributions for a bulletin board. We think the day will run from about10.15am to 3pm, or thereabouts. Please contact Mark, Fiona or me.
Trevor Adams trevormcmadams@gmail.com