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Remembered Today:

Beveren-IJzer Churchyard (Alveringem)


Cnock

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Hi,

this cemetery contains 20 burials of WWI and 8 graves from WWII

Cnock

Beveren-IJzer churchyard

Beveren-IJzer churchyard

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Beveren-IJzer churchyard

Regards,

Cnock

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Beautiful cemetery. Odd that the young 2 Lt who died in October is a 'known to be buried' I would have thought that by then the cemetery would have remained undisturbed.

S

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There are three "known to be buried" there-- all died as POWs in WWI. In light of the WW2 graves there too, I suspect the original graves were lost during early WW2. No knowledge, just a guess.

Question for Cnock. It appears that you are somehow trying to enhance the lettering on the stones (e.g. Deslandes and Craik). Can you tell me what program you are using and how you are trying to do that? Thanks. Doc

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Hi,

I don't intend to enhance the lettering on the stones. It just happens when I convert the fotos to low resolution

Cnock

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I remember that when I was there, a couple of years ago, that I could not help being struck by reading (CWGC on line) :

"Beveren-Ijzer Churchyard contains the graves of 20 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War, all of whom died as prisoners of war."

So they died as POWs, which means that they were in German hands when they died. How come they were buried in Beveren-aan-de-IJzer, which is 12 km (7 miles) west of the lines !

do we have to assume that after the war, they were moved from where they had been buried originally (east of the lines) ? Not illogical, but why, of all places, to such a small village as Beveren-aan-de-IJzer. Which at the time did not even have CWGC graves.

Somehow I feel that the answer will be so simple, because I must be overlooking something ... So apologies for being a little stupid. :innocent:

Aurel

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Aurel...if you are beng a little stupid, then you are not alone!

I had wondered the self same thing!

Bruce

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...had the same feeling, and therefore didn't want to mention they died as POW

We are missing something, but as Aurel said, answer could be simple...

Cnock

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Hi,

I don't intend to enhance the lettering on the stones. It just happens when I convert the fotos to low resolution

Cnock

Thanks for the explanation. Doc

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. didn't want to mention they died as POW

We are missing something, but as Aurel said, answer could be simple...

Cnock

I wonder if "died as POW" is correct. What is the source of these words on CWGC on line ?

Could it be DOW instead ? After all there was a (Belgian) military hospital in Beveren-aan-de-IJzer. It was at the crossroads IJzerstraat - Lindestraat, 2 km (1 1/4 mile) from the centre of Beveren. (And in fact nearer to Stavele centre.)

There is no mention of the cemetery of the hospital being near the hospital itself, it seems to me that the men who died there were buried in the Beveren communal cemetery (where the CWGC cemetery still is now).

On maps the cemetery near the church is mentioned as a "Beveren communal cemetery franco-belge", with 72 Belgian graves and an unknown number of French graves. No mention of CWGC graves though, but that does not mean there weren't any, as it is only a small number.

The French-Belgian graves were where that lawn is now, and there are still 6 Belgian graves. (The other 66 graves were moved to the Belgian cemetery of Adinkerke.)

Personally I think that these CWGC graves are not of POWs, but I have not taken the time to dig in the history of these CWGC men.

Aurel

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I had a nice chat with people of CWGC, at Zonnebeke today about this.

They were also surprised about the sentence which states "all of whom died as prisoners of war", in the historical information. Also by the location of the cemetery. After a look at there own registers, they decided to take it with them to the CWGC-HQ and will investigate it.

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Thanks, Joris, for taking the trouble.

I have taken a handful of these men buried there, to find what SDGW said, and for all (I took 6 of them, at random) : DOW.

Of course that does not lead to a conclusion, for when POWs die, this can - in practically all cases - only be DOW. (Though if due to shelling this may be KIA ... And a disease of course is possible too.)

The more I think about this, and knowing that not far from the cemetery there was a military hospital indeed, I have hardly any doubt : someone must have misread DOW as POW.

Aurel

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No problem at all, Aurel.

It was a good occasion to talk about it, to them directly.

They were surprised too. But they have to investigate it too, of course.

We'll see, if the historical information will be changed.

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I had a nice chat with people of CWGC, at Zonnebeke today about this. (...)

After a look at their own registers (...)

Joris,

"their own registers" ... Any idea if these were the original registers ?

Maybe the error (POW) is only in the on line information ?

Aurel

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  • 3 weeks later...

Joris,

thanks for the info!

Cnock

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Joris,

That was fast !

And who had it changed ? (Zonnebeke ? They took it to CWGC Maidenhead ?!)

I would have expected that such a change would at least take 7 years, 3 months and 11 days ! :-)

Aurel

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