The 'Silent Hamlets' - from the CWGC archives

[Le_Treport]

Over in the Gallery I've uploaded some photos of documents I've been working though during my stints volunteering in the CWGC archives. If I could work out how to put in a link, I would!

 

They are of a survey undertaken in 1925 of the burials in France and Belgium which are not in the massive 'silent cities' of the new cemeteries the Commission was constructing, but instead are of the isolated burials in Churchyards, Communal Cemeteries or even just in the open fields. I've called these the 'silent hamlets'.

 

The documents are fascinating - some are minimal, factual descriptions. Sometimes the author gets quite poetic about the setting and the appearance of the graves. Others are very damning about upkeep of them. Others show interesting attitudes (esp by the Germans) to the British war dead in the early days.

 

Each cemetery has a perfect plan showing the location in relation to the church/other buildings. I can't imagine the time and effort it took to produce them.

 

There's one which recounts how a witness saw Gunner Harry Cruttenden killed in 1914, and over the following days the advancing German troops stamped on his body. He was then buried, but in 1916 a German general insisted he was buried properly and had a monument put up over his grave. I'd love to know why - guilt?

 

There's another which recounts how the Germans put up a very elaborate set of headstones behind 3 British graves - though the inscription is in French and the author doubts it was the Germans who put it up.

 

Finally there's an account of a cemetery where the graves were in such a state that there were bones sticking up through the ground - and the author makes clear his anger with the locals saying that 'they weren't worth these men dying for them'.

 

I'll post others of interest as I find them.

[Dai Bach y Sowldiwr]

How about this?

 

[IPT]

Fascinating.

[AOK4]

Hello,

 

From my research about German cemeteries it is very clear that the Germans were usually very respectful towards their fallen enemies. They were buried among their own dead so that equal care would be assured. I have my doubts about the story of the Germans soldiers marching over the dead body.

The thing is that during the war, temporary graves and cemeteries were concentrated into cemeteries that were to exist for a longer period of time. The Germans spared no effort to build these cemeteries, look f.i. at St. Symphorien and quite a few other (French) cemeteries in Belgian Hainaut and Luxemburg, all created by the Germans during the war with a lot of effort and some of which were only having "enemy" burials.

 

Jan

[Le_Treport]

Thanks, Dai, for putting the link in - how's it done?

[Le_Treport]

Yes, Jan, I know that certainly in the early days there was a respect among soldiers. I'm still intrigued by the later erection of the memorial to Gunner Cruttenden, instigated by Col Gloss.

[Dai Bach y Sowldiwr]

4 minutes ago, Le_Treport said:

Thanks, Dai, for putting the link in - how's it done?

Just go to the gallery page (or any page you want to get a link to),  copy the URL address from the address bar, and paste it in this message reply  box.

 

At this point you will see a message at the bottom saying "Your link has been automatically embedded. Display as a link instead."

What this means is, if the link is embedded, it will display graphically in the message - The link shows thumbnails of the images in your post.

That's how you often see YouTube links displayed on here.

When  you display it as a link instead,  it shows the whole URL starting https://    etc like this:

https://www.greatwarforum.org/gallery/album/1240-1925-survey-of-churchyard-communal-cemetery-burials/

 

[dickaren]

19 hours ago, Le_Treport said:

Over in the Gallery I've uploaded some photos of documents I've been working though during my stints volunteering in the CWGC archives. If I could work out how to put in a link, I would!

 

They are of a survey undertaken in 1925 of the burials in France and Belgium which are not in the massive 'silent cities' of the new cemeteries the Commission was constructing, but instead are of the isolated burials in Churchyards, Communal Cemeteries or even just in the open fields. I've called these the 'silent hamlets'.

 

The documents are fascinating - some are minimal, factual descriptions. Sometimes the author gets quite poetic about the setting and the appearance of the graves. Others are very damning about upkeep of them. Others show interesting attitudes (esp by the Germans) to the British war dead in the early days.

 

Each cemetery has a perfect plan showing the location in relation to the church/other buildings. I can't imagine the time and effort it took to produce them.

 

There's one which recounts how a witness saw Gunner Harry Cruttenden killed in 1914, and over the following days the advancing German troops stamped on his body. He was then buried, but in 1916 a German general insisted he was buried properly and had a monument put up over his grave. I'd love to know why - guilt?

 

There's another which recounts how the Germans put up a very elaborate set of headstones behind 3 British graves - though the inscription is in French and the author doubts it was the Germans who put it up.

 

Finally there's an account of a cemetery where the graves were in such a state that there were bones sticking up through the ground - and the author makes clear his anger with the locals saying that 'they weren't worth these men dying for them'.

 

I'll post others of interest as I find them.

 I for one would love to see others.

Richard