Guest AnneM Posted 19 October , 2004 Share Posted 19 October , 2004 [This discussion started here Rotterdam (Crooswijk) General Cemetery. Rotterdam lies 23 kilometres southeast of the Hague and 52 kilometres southwest of Utrecht. Crooswijk is a district east of the.centre of the city. The address of the cemetery is Algemene Begraafplaats, Kirkoflaan 5, Rotterdam. Historical Notes:- Rotterdam General Cemetery (South Holland) at Crooswijk belongs to the Town Council. There is one British, 23 French and 14 German war graves. Notes: There is 1 Commonwealth burial of the 1914-1918 war and a further 124 Commonwealth burials of the 1939-1945 war, 5 of which are unidentified. There are 11 Polish burials. The one I am interested in, is in Crooswijk. It is not for me personally but I promised someone I would get for him. RND WW1 with Headstone errors of Lt.Cdr. Cuddy, who shot himself in Rotterdam in 1916. Know nothing else about the chap. The other is in Steenbergen and that is Wing.Cdr. Guy P. Gibson VC DSO DFC's headstone and his memorial in the town. We all know what he did in the ww2. This will explain how the RND got into Holland and what happened to them http://www.begent.freeserve.co.uk/james.htm This is some of their graves http://www.war1418.com/timbertown/zuiderbe...aats/index.html greetings from Hoogwoud Liam Hi Liam, Very interesting: this story about the RND-men being interned in Groningen! I didn't know there were still so much WW1-graves at "Crooswijk". I mean: in relation with the neutrality of The Netherlands this is quite a number... I think it'll take some time to find the grave of Lt.Cdr. Cudd ("Crooswijk" isn't the smallest cemetery I know) but I'll definitely give it a try! At the moment a friend of mine lent me her digital camera, so it won't be too much trouble to go overthere and shoot some pictures.. I'll see what I can do next weekend. You'll hear from me again! Steenbergen is a little bit further away, so I leave that for the moment... I speak to you soon. Ciao, Annemarie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marco Posted 19 October , 2004 Share Posted 19 October , 2004 Crooswijk contains a large memorial in the form of a mourning mother & child to German ww1 soldiers (20 I believe). I have missed the single WW1 British grave which might suggest he is not buried in the CWGC plot. If you visit this cemetery also photograph the grave of Miller, J.E. Obs. RAF killed 28-3-1940. He could be one of the earliest British burials in Holland at a time when Holland was not yet in war with Germany. Miller's bomber strayed over Holland after a raid on Germany and was shot down by Dutch fighters protecting neutrality. The crew survived the crash landing but iirc Miller was the only one to bail out which he did too low. Regards, Marco Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest AnneM Posted 19 October , 2004 Share Posted 19 October , 2004 Crooswijk contains a large memorial in the form of a mourning mother & child to German ww1 soldiers Yes, this memorial I know. I don't know anything about these soldiers's history though.. Do you? And yes, I'll also photograph the grave of Miller, J.E. Obs. RAF, another victim of Dutch neutrality-policy. I'll get back to you.. Annemarie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marco Posted 19 October , 2004 Share Posted 19 October , 2004 Hello Annemarie, Unfortunately I have no info on the Germans but one would suspect they are either Internees or something happened during one of the POW exchanges with Britain which took place in Rotterdam. At one of the earlier occasions (wounded!) Germans and British got into a fist-fight when they had to wait in the same building during the exchange! Regards, Marco Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest AnneM Posted 19 October , 2004 Share Posted 19 October , 2004 At one of the earlier occasions (wounded!) Germans and British got into a fist-fight when they had to wait in the same building during the exchange! That could be a clue.. As far as I can remember these Germans (about 20 men indeed) died on the same day or am I completely mistaken? Perhaps this makes their story easier to trace... I'll take a close look at the grave this weekend and shall perhaps try to search for the story later in some old newspapers when I visit the Rotterdam Archives. A. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larneman Posted 20 October , 2004 Share Posted 20 October , 2004 Could the German dead have come from this action. (borrowed from http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/war/wwone/mirror03_03.shtml ) Daily Mirror Headlines: The Battle of Jutland, Published 3 June 1916 Rotterdam, Friday 1.20pm: The tugboat Schelde is entering the new waterway with dead and wounded from the naval battle. (Reuters) Amsterdam, Thursday: The tugboat Thames is expected at the Hook of Holland this afternoon with eight German sailors picked up in the North Sea yesterday. Two of them were wounded and one has died from his wounds on the way to port. The trawler 122 is expected at Ymuiden with 15 German sailors and one wounded English survivor. The rescued Germans include a commander and two lieutenants. (Central News) Liam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larneman Posted 20 October , 2004 Share Posted 20 October , 2004 This site contains information on the wargraves in the Cemeteries of "Crooswijk", Rotterdam, | Bergen op Zoom | Arnhem-Oosterbeek | Groesbeek | Uden but nothing on WW1 http://home.tiscali.be/ed.ragas/rohonour/RoHStart.html Liam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Lowrey Posted 20 October , 2004 Share Posted 20 October , 2004 Another possibility might be the remains of German sailors that washed ashore along the Dutch coast. The Royal Navy laid literally thousands of mines off the Belgian coast. When an U-boat hit one of these mines, bodies of crewmembers at times washed ashore well east of the loss site, including in several cases on the Dutch coast. Best wishes, Michael Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larneman Posted 20 October , 2004 Share Posted 20 October , 2004 This is the person I am looking for Name: CUDDY, ERNEST JAMES Initials: E J Nationality: United Kingdom Rank: Lieut-Commander Regiment: Royal Navy Unit Text: 4th Bn. R.N. Div. Age: 30 Date of Death: 05/12/1917 Additional information: Son of the late Capt. James Cuddy (R.N.); husband of Muriel Cuddy, of Portland Terrace, Southsea, Hants. Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead Grave/Memorial Reference: Plot M. 176. Cemetery: ROTTERDAM (CROOSWIJK) GENERAL CEMETERY All the Second World War Commonwealth & UK dead seem to be buried in Plot LL. Lt. Cmd EJ Cuddy is in Plot M.176 That might make it easier to find. Liam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest AnneM Posted 24 October , 2004 Share Posted 24 October , 2004 Hi Liam, Two hours ago (four o'clock) I parked my bicycle in front of the closed fence of cemetery "Crooswijk" to shoot some pictures. The lady of the flower-stall seemed to take pleasure in it to tell me the cemetery closes every day at four... Grmbl... I'm quite disappointed, since I was very curious to find out more about the graves we discussed in this topic... I won't be able to give it another try until next weekend. As a precaution I'll go in the morning then. Annemarie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larneman Posted 26 October , 2004 Share Posted 26 October , 2004 Hi Annemarie, Pity that you had a wasted trip but it was good weather on Sunday. If you happen to pass by the german graves will you look at the dates. I am interested if they fell at the Battle of Jutland. I have since discovered more people on the Larne War Memorial were family and that they all died at the Battle of Jutland. My father was born in 1926 but he can tell the tales as if it were yesterday but only if I ask the right questions. He is last of his family and when he goes so do all the information. Liam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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