German cemeteries in France

[healdav]

58 minutes ago, AliceF said:

Hi,

 

searched a bit more but did not find any info about Ltn. Tschmarke. I think it is a bit strange that there is no entry in the Volksbund data base. Only two soldiers with that name, both died in WW2. One with the names Richard Rudolf Robert from Posen, maybe a relative, but not a single entry regarding WW1 with that name. Maybe Paul Tschmarke was the father: http://ofb.genealogy.net/famreport.php?ofb=magdeburg&ID=I7173&nachname=TSCHMARKE&modus=&lang=de . Maybe ancestor could give more. So he might have been reburied in Germany as Jan suggested.

 

Christine

Have you tried TISCHMARKE. That is a much more likely name.

[GreyC]

Hello everybody,

Tischmarke instead of Tschmarke seems indeed more likely. Alas, it´s Tschmarke non the less and these two probably his grandparents or uncle / aunt:

http://www.online-ofb.de/famreport.php?ofb=magdeburg&ID=I7172&nachname=TSCHMARKE&modus=&lang=lt

The Ehrenrangliste has him as wounded near Puisieux au Mont and dead in Achiet le Grand on 15th Sept. 1915.

Another Lt. Tschmarke served with Footartillery Reg. No 5 and survived the war.

GreyC

Edited 17 June , 2017 by GreyC

[AliceF]

Hi,

 

I think Tschmarke is correct, but the name might be spelled differently in the Volksbund database (see for example Zetzsche/Zetsche below)

 

Found this very interesting photo of the cemetery in Achiet-le-Petit (or better looked at it again).

Many names are possible to read.

Almost all from IR 66 (though did not find Oppermann and Albert Herrmann/Hermann - if this would be the right name - amongst IR 66 in the Verlustenlisten).

 

row on photo	name	first name	Volksbund	date of death	grave no	reference
1	Fürstenberg	Richard		26.04.1916	24	http://www.volksbund.de/graebersuche/detailansicht.html?tx_igverlustsuche_pi2[gid]=02ace8ed10853db217a0b9b59aaa4b5b&cHash=43eb2426524e657a63edc18a86d075d9
1	Hörmann	Emil		23.04.1916	23	http://www.volksbund.de/graebersuche/detailansicht.html?tx_igverlustsuche_pi2[gid]=f314b960392555fbdbcc4f5b8b08940e&cHash=7e94276309b903260dffef2f2d6f0ae3
1	Pfeiffer	Wilhelm		20.04.1916	22	http://www.volksbund.de/graebersuche/detailansicht.html?tx_igverlustsuche_pi2[gid]=2b4eed069f7e281a2962c465a4340805&cHash=6f428057fea19c2ba4ba21faf6db5ad7
2	Zander	Hermann		08.03.1916	39	http://www.volksbund.de/graebersuche/detailansicht.html?tx_igverlustsuche_pi2[gid]=f889060b7a1c9cc7d17494944e737887&cHash=75c4e461261e4bda192f86e33a495a65
2	Maaß	Otto		04.02.1916	40	http://www.volksbund.de/graebersuche/detailansicht.html?tx_igverlustsuche_pi2[gid]=23b9942d0e52e6ba4e0c489bdc1bc02f&cHash=ec20d49684a0dd478da6a424b03edc1b
2	Levin	Albert		04.02.1916	41	http://www.volksbund.de/graebersuche/detailansicht.html?tx_igverlustsuche_pi2[gid]=a521e9f069df153a8d7efdcfb6a318f6&cHash=325f1037a7d0b16ddd8ae46fef79e502
2	Zetzsche	Martin	Zetsche	04.02.1916	42	http://www.volksbund.de/graebersuche/detailansicht.html?tx_igverlustsuche_pi2[gid]=91151180e41d471a00e955610e4d48ad&cHash=f3537876c9a5bde28fcffb6763d39001
2	Weimann	August		04.02.1916	43	http://www.volksbund.de/graebersuche/detailansicht.html?tx_igverlustsuche_pi2[gid]=2cef237c659ca1217af3b1067d8386a1&cHash=0efaba3c916b5c492b3d943d7bcdc9af
2	Tötmann	Friedrich		04.02.1916	44	http://www.volksbund.de/graebersuche/detailansicht.html?tx_igverlustsuche_pi2[gid]=9d3e71228285a1735a2e0845bee9d7fe&cHash=ffa371c3369e6f99f3f74d4ff68f6406
2	Stöhr	Paul		03.02.1916	45	http://www.volksbund.de/graebersuche/detailansicht.html?tx_igverlustsuche_pi2[gid]=04ed4e3e4a54f34bfbb1a2fb34f6b511&cHash=d0010c8d8cd6011ce8f936feac0c1a19
3	Berbig	Hugo		08.03.1916	65	http://www.volksbund.de/graebersuche/detailansicht.html?tx_igverlustsuche_pi2[gid]=a9a3c0560c7f5145c78fc2a7a9f9063c&cHash=9024c9eba027105cb0caf9ff0da0d932
3	Giesecke	Willi	Wilhelm	06.03.1916	64	http://www.volksbund.de/graebersuche/detailansicht.html?tx_igverlustsuche_pi2[gid]=4176c2a6a3245e7c33966572418716d1&cHash=2268e383f9ea6338e18073ff524bbb88
3	Marquardt	Otto		06.02.1916	63	http://www.volksbund.de/graebersuche/detailansicht.html?tx_igverlustsuche_pi2[gid]=1d60644d0d3785e327d2ab1fdbaaf7d8&cHash=de073e30c5bd031ad3493c6c84f9ccec
3	Hüselitz	Hans		22.01.1916	62	http://www.volksbund.de/graebersuche/detailansicht.html?tx_igverlustsuche_pi2[gid]=42a529e9a5129c5a69435184813dd07f&cHash=bc2171daf87cdbde3fdc294e9af36158
3	Hartwig	Rudolf		31.12.1915	61	http://www.volksbund.de/graebersuche/detailansicht.html?tx_igverlustsuche_pi2[gid]=91e8dfb0e0803a13b09182d1886f8f95&cHash=de2831859e8274f3581683cfaff3b077
3	Ebert	Hermann		25.12.1915	60	http://www.volksbund.de/graebersuche/detailansicht.html?tx_igverlustsuche_pi2[gid]=c162c8804f744a5084b0ac20824f0b72&cHash=415a84e4aefc880c05ed5f8b9de08b7b
3	Oppermann	Gustav		24.12.1915	59	http://www.volksbund.de/graebersuche/detailansicht.html?tx_igverlustsuche_pi2[gid]=ef8fd13e6361c632937c67def7ce90b6&cHash=622cbd0c5846aed4197cf851d6a36848
4
4	Volkstedt	Walter		16.02.1916	111	http://www.volksbund.de/graebersuche/detailansicht.html?tx_igverlustsuche_pi2[gid]=0f92ae66192d77bc50593aca8aadcd10&cHash=fe990dee726203b91100a4aaceda7123
4	Schmidt	Otto		10.02.1916	112	http://www.volksbund.de/graebersuche/detailansicht.html?tx_igverlustsuche_pi2[gid]=6462f02814b7280b8772ba843b2bd0f6&cHash=1aa4b7dbefc979d92d5611b56eae8c1e
4 can not be seen	Pauscher	Richard		18.12.1915	114	http://www.volksbund.de/graebersuche/detailansicht.html?tx_igverlustsuche_pi2[gid]=8a95f4617cb583b6d2bd4cc50aa57cff&cHash=e28cbd3f4033f314b0beeda5706e5c5f
4		Mathias	Becker	14.12.1915	115	http://www.volksbund.de/graebersuche/detailansicht.html?tx_igverlustsuche_pi2[gid]=12922cbb957aee3e40654d8171aed7c8&cHash=297dc3dc1dacd9660a9de4f0b3ed6807
4		Ernst	Neumann	10.12.1915	116	http://www.volksbund.de/graebersuche/detailansicht.html?tx_igverlustsuche_pi2[gid]=310bcbe98670c322fa2c04a975d4d939&cHash=7331e2dba4b3dfb9a2dbb48c7537f969
5	Herrmann?	Albert		?	?	?
5 can ot be seen	Rulf	Karl		10.02.1916	135	http://www.volksbund.de/graebersuche/detailansicht.html?tx_igverlustsuche_pi2[gid]=4f8effccbffd5355b1c355ee4db2a4c5&cHash=bafc24608f15c78c9d56e42e049a1bfa
5	Bleeg	Kurt		09.02.1916	134	http://www.volksbund.de/graebersuche/detailansicht.html?tx_igverlustsuche_pi2[gid]=877f73f56bdc432610c74d81baf5c8fc&cHash=9fe0d9396bf7cb1f3bf6bf22d91a02ac
5?	Würfel		Erich	27.11.1916?	129	http://www.volksbund.de/graebersuche/detailansicht.html?tx_igverlustsuche_pi2[gid]=35bafe0ba00979f39c8e3dc050df022a&cHash=7e659b699d8389781064f6e27a24ec3c

 

Christine

 

Source of the photo:

 

https://www.delcampe.net/fr/collections/cartes-postales/france-autres-communes-62/e133-62-une-carte-photo-allemande-d-achiet-le-petit-friedhof-cimetiere-allemand-263049450.html (here are also parts of the photo enlarged, so that the names of soldiers are better to read)

 

P.S. and the links to the Verlustenlisten that helped to find the names:

http://des.genealogy.net/search/show/3627557

http://des.genealogy.net/search/show/3745387

http://des.genealogy.net/search/show/1692144

http://des.genealogy.net/search/show/3533237

Edited 18 June , 2017 by AliceF

[Martin Feledziak]

Wow, Christine Great work

Just this morning I am reading page 154 of the translated history of IR66.

 

I can tell you that during a heavy British bombardment on 4th February 1916, a tunneled dugout with 4 Meters of overhead cover took a direct hit and one of the support beams collapsed, burying an entire squad from 10/66. After 5 hours of desperate digging the company succeeded in rescuing three men who had been trapped in a hollow cavity. After more hours of work lasting until the next morning the bodies of the rest of the squad were recovered.

Sergeant MAASS the squad leader, his brother in law, Musketeer LEVIN and three other men. It was later established that the dugout had been hit by a 23.5 cm shell that produced a crater 1.9meters deep and 6 meters across.

 

So now we see Otto MAASS and Albert LEVIN on your chart above, and your pictures below, and now we know from the book what happened to them.

 

 

 

We can also conclude from your chart that the three others were

Martin ZETZSCHE

August WEIMANN and

Friedrich TöTMANN

 

That would make up the five "Gefallen" from 10 Kompagie as reported in the verlustlisten.

 

 

 

http://www.denkmalprojekt.org/2015/infanterie-reg_nr66_3tes-magdeburgisches_offiziere_wk1.html

 

Edited 19 June , 2017 by Martin Feledziak

[GreyC]

Hi,

thanks for sharing this with us. Great work.

GreyC

[ejwalshe]

 

 

 

Deutscher Soldatenfriedhof Neuville-Saint-Vaast

Edited 19 June , 2017 by ejwalshe

[ejwalshe]

 

[ejwalshe]

 

 

 

 

[ejwalshe]

 

[ejwalshe]

 

[ejwalshe]

 

 

[ejwalshe]

 

[AliceF]

Thanks!

 

10 hours ago, Martin Feledziak said:

I can tell you that during a heavy British bombardment on 4th February 1916, a tunneled dugout with 4 Meters of overhead cover took a direct hit and one of the support beams collapsed, burying an entire squad from 10/66.

Martin, thank you for for that - thought that you might have some more details about some of the soldiers! Will be interesting to see if any of the others are named later in the text you are reading.

 

3 hours ago, ejwalshe said:

Deutscher Soldatenfriedhof Neuville-Saint-Vaast

 

 

Ted, very impressive & very sad. Tremendous, but at the same time peaceful - 100 years later.

I watched all movies - very interesting for me - who has never been there, but the places seem also familiar after all the information that has come up during this thread.

Thanks for sharing!

 

Christine

[Martin Feledziak]

On 2017-6-15 at 16:40, AOK4 said:

 

Not necessarily, officers were often buried in an officer's plot. And his body have been taken home later as well.

Jan

 

Reading on I have found in the book a reference to Lt BöTTICHER commander of Kompagnie 9 IR66. He was killed by a grenade splinter in fighting between St Pierre Divion and Thiepval on 05th September 1916

 

He is at rest at plot 699 at Achiet-Le-Petit. ( so Possibly an officers plot)

 

http://www.volksbund.de/index.php?id=1775&tx_igverlustsuche_pi2[gid]=ddd8d1a57595a3344a5ebee628d98ccd

 

http://des.genealogy.net/search/show/4617116

[AliceF]

On 20/06/2017 at 23:26, Martin Feledziak said:

Reading on I have found in the book a reference to Lt BöTTICHER commander of Kompagnie 9 IR66. He was killed by a grenade splinter in fighting between St Pierre Divion and Thiepval on 05th September 1916

 

He is at rest at plot 699 at Achiet-Le-Petit. ( so Possibly an officers plot)

 

Thank you for the additional info, Martin!

 

Found this description on Achiet-le-Petit in the Volksbund member journal. It describes the alteration of the cemetery as established by the Germans during the war (as can be seen on the photo in post # 603) to how it looked 12 years later:

 

Achiet-le-Petit (Pas de Calais), 7km west northwest of Bapaume.

 

The German military cemetery is situated on the eastern side of the village next to the French cemetery. 1304 German soldiers have found their final resting place here. Many of the grave markers erected by German comrades have now become rotten. They were replaced by the French authorities by uniform, black crosses on which the white inscriptions are clearly to be read. Only a few graves, which have headstones, have kept the old grave markers, but behind these stones wooden crosses have been erected, too. As in all [German] military cemeteries in France, the French authorities have also leveled the individual grave mounts and instead established one long mount per row, where two grave rows are united to one. One cross stands between the graves of two soldiers [lying opposite to each other]. The cross has inscriptions on both sides. [....]

 

Volksbund, 1930, 10

 

[„Achiet-le-Petit (Pas de Calais), 7km westnordwestlich Bapaume.

 

Am östlichen Rande des Dorfes, unmittelbar neben dem französischen Gemeindefriedhof, liegt der deutsche Sammelfriedhof. Es haben hier 1304 deutsche Soldaten ihre letzte Ruhestätte gefunden. Die vielen von deutschen Kameraden errichteten Grabzeichen waren inzwischen morsch geworden und wurden von der französischen Militärbehörde durch schwarze Einheitsholzkreuze, auf denen die weißen Inschriften deutlich zu lesen sind, ersetzt. Nur einige Gräber, die mit Gedenksteinen versehen waren, haben die alten Grabzeichen behalten, doch sind hinter diesen Steinen großenteils ebenfalls Holzkreuze aufgestellt worden. Wie auf allen Sammelfriedhöfen in Frankreich hat die französische Militärbehörde auch hier die einzelnen Hügel eingeebnet und stattdessen Reihenhügel angelegt. Stets zwei Gräberreihen sind zu einem Grabbeet vereinigt. Zwischen den Kopf an Kopf bestatten Toten steht jeweils ein Kreuz, das auf beiden Seiten beschriftet ist. [….]“

 

Volksbund, 1930, 10]

 

The photo attached shows, how the cemetery looks today. Source of the photo: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Achiet_le_Petit_Cim_Allem_01.jpg#filelinks

According to the Volksbund's homepage, today 1314 German soldiers are buried here, 300 of them reburied. It seems as if all or almost all soldiers are identified. It was stated already in 1926 (Volksbund) that there were 1304 identified German soldiers buried individually in Achiet-le-Petit. So the cemetery in Achiet-le-Petit has no collective graves.

Reburials were done from 12 municipalities, named are: field graves around Achiet-le-Petit, Gomiecourt and Boiry-Sainte-Rictrude.

Christine

 

[PascalMallet]

Hello Christine and other friends,

 

I went to National archives few weeks ago and I took a lot of pictures I begin to sort now. Most of them are French text and I will make kind of an index with towns and cemeteries names, so you can focus on few of them if needed. I also had to ask for an authorization to put them on Internet. So please, use the AN (Archives nationales) reference if you use them too.

 

I will upload all pictures on Dropbox when sorting will be finished, but right now I send you the following.

 

Grave in Frasnoy cemetery:

 

Haubourdin cemetery:

 

Wervicq-Sud cemetery:

 

Nieppe cemetery:

 

 

 

[AliceF]

Pascal, thanks so much for sharing your work here!

This material is so hard/impossible to access.

Really great to get the opportunity to look at it!

 

Christine

[AOK4]

Pascal,

 

I also enjoy your contributions from the French archives. Please let me know when you have uploaded things on your dropbox.

 

Jan

[egbert]

Unknown German cemetery

 

[AOK4]

Egbert, that is Beselare an der Kirche (RIR 246).

 

Jan

[PascalMallet]

Pictures I posted yesterday are dated 1927 (gravestone) and 1928 (others).

 

Here is something (in French and English) about a German officer buried under the church in Pernant (Aisne-02). Is he still there?

SpulturedulieutenantHABERMEHLPernant.pdf

 

 

Few pictures of Billy-Montigny cemetery dated 1930 (first) and 1927 (2nd and 3rd):

 

 

 

 

Sépulture du lieutenant HABERMEHL à Pernant.pdf

[PascalMallet]

Here are few pictures I scanned from "Le Miroir". Texts are very "patriotic", I guess it was the same in Germany.

 

15/11/1914: German soldiers tombs so-said made by French.

 

15/11/1914: Text says that many wagons full of lime came from Germany to bury dead soldiers, and also petrol to burn corpses (picture is said to show ashes). Have you heard about that?

 

15/11/1914: French soldiers burying Germans in their trench.

 

07/11/1914: German cross found in a trench (text below the picture says "four braves fallen on Dec. 23rd, 1914, during 9th fight of the day"...).

 

 

[egbert]

3 hours ago, AOK4 said:

Egbert, that is Beselare an der Kirche (RIR 246).

 

Jan

Danke Jan

[PascalMallet]

On Dropbox, I have uploaded what I got about Dannevoux cemetery.

[PascalMallet]

I have just uploaded lists of German cemeteries and ossuaries with indication where the bodies where gathered.

 

See "_Divers (AN 19860710)\Listes cim. et ossuaires". I put a Word file for explanation, as well as a map with French armies areas in 1914. If you need more explanation, please just ask me.

 

More to come... ;-)

Lists are dated 1922-1924.