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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:


Joseph Kerr1

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Have had two more trips to Metz so have had a chance to go to some more of the sites in -before endeavours fade- and have a question. Are there any British sites of interest in the area?

J.

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You will find the very occasional CWGC headstone in the French cemeteries in the area, usually PoWs or who died there during the occupation after the war. There is one in Cernay. When I last visited the Ossuary at Douaumont there was a display devoted to non-French poilus who had served in the French army at Verdun. There were three British men featured, including one from Gateshead. I have no idea how they ended up there. The display may still be there.

There are almost certain to have been other British born soldiers who served in the US army and who are commemorated in the US cemetery at Romagne (?) There, too, you will find the memorial to the US soldiers lost in Russia in the counter-revolutionary war against Russia from 1919 onwards. This was a joint US/UK operation.

This is all rather small scale and tenuous, but unless anyone know different, then it is the most you will find.

Good luck.

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This is all rather small scale and tenuous, but unless anyone know different, then it is the most you will find.

Thanks for that. I had wondered if maybe there had been any british troops embedded with the french in 1916 or attached to advise the americans when they arrived at the end of the war.

J

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Joseph

I think I'm right in saying that the nearest British interest is on and around the Chemin de Dames area; there are some very interesting sites there. If I can find my copy of BEF I'll have a look. I took it with me to Ypres and I'm just hoping I haven't put it in the washing machine.

Pete

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I've never come across British troops attached to the French at Verdun and I'm interested to hear of Hedley's experience. The Americans weren't at Verdun, strictly speaking, although their right wing division did cross the battlefield in the Samogneux-Haumont area. There's a chap in the La Caillette alcove of the Ossuary named Exshaw, who was of distant Anglo-Irish ancestry but fought in a French infantry regiment. There's also a plaque to an American ambulance driver named Samuel Chew. His name is in the Avocourt alcove.

There was a British medical team at Faux-Miroir chateau, between Bar-le-Duc and Revigny. They operated the Urgency Cases Hospital. The chateau has been demolished and there's a farm on the site now.

Christina

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Joseph

I think I'm right in saying that the nearest British interest is on and around the Chemin de Dames area; there are some very interesting sites there. If I can find my copy of BEF I'll have a look. I took it with me to Ypres and I'm just hoping I haven't put it in the washing machine.

Pete

Thanks. Im afraid I dont get to much chance to skive off south of Amiens or left of Reims though.

J

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I've never come across British troops attached to the French at Verdun and I'm interested to hear of Hedley's experience. The Americans weren't at Verdun, strictly speaking, although their right wing division did cross the battlefield in the Samogneux-Haumont area. There's a chap in the La Caillette alcove of the Ossuary named Exshaw, who was of distant Anglo-Irish ancestry but fought in a French infantry regiment. There's also a plaque to an American ambulance driver named Samuel Chew. His name is in the Avocourt alcove.

There was a British medical team at Faux-Miroir chateau, between Bar-le-Duc and Revigny. They operated the Urgency Cases Hospital. The chateau has been demolished and there's a farm on the site now.

Christina

Thanks.

J

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