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Need help with one word on Civil Death Record of Fallen Soldier


cwbuff

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I am trying to learn as much as possible about the death of my wife's grandfather. He was a German soldier KIA at Pilckem on 8 July 1917. I can't figure out what the word or abbreviation is for the word in the red box below. It precedes Geschoß, which could be bullet, projectile or shell. I hoping that I can figure out what this word is, it will either identify the type of projectile or where he was hit. Thanks.

 

728087838_GermanPhrase.png.901708768c05dde6ac97a54e13e946be.png

 

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Apart from that one word it is very easy to read, It might be an idea to modify the thread title to include „German“ It would then probably attract the German handwriting experts among others @Jaeger6 @GreyC @AOK4

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Is it the word “gefallan”?

 

Steve

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Is it the man who was buried in Westrozebeke?

 

The word is "Crot". Could a "Crot Geschoß" be a shrapnel shell?

 

Jan

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Yes this is the man who was initially buried in Westozebeke.

 

Is there an artillery round called a "Crot Geschoß" This man's son was in Feldartillerie Regiment Nr. 64. I am assuming this word is some type of artillery round. As part of our family history, I translated his entire regimental history. I don't recall seeing a term like this.

 

From this document we learned a lot about his death. Prior to seeing this document, we knew he was KIA at Pilckem on 8 July 1917 and that he was buried in a German Military Cemetery in Westroozebeke and In the 1950s his remains were moved to the Poppy Field section in Langemark Cemetery. From this document we learned 1) he fell (gefallen) at 11:30 PM on 8 July 1917; 2) he was killed by some type of projectile (the point of this post); 3) He buried in Grave No. 627 in Westroozebeke on 11 July 1917 (so it took 2 or 3 days to bury him); 3) the authorities in his home town were notified (and presumably the family) on 26 July 1917; and 4) he was killed in the "Field Position" at Pilckem, not just in the sector. I know from the regimental history that this position was obliterated by artillery fire prior to the main assault at the end of the month.

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Crot could be a derivation from "Schrott", hence my interpretation as shrapnell shell.

 

Jan

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Your guess may be the best that I can expect. Even though the handwritten word is clear - especially the first letter - it unfortunately does not match any of the standard script letters.

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Like everyone else I also read "Crot", but that makes no sense in German - neither as a word, nor as an abbreviation. Also when you replace the "C" with a "K" - which is quite common in 19th century German - it is still mysterious. The only other possibility that comes to my mind is that there is a spelling mistake, and that it is not "Crot" or "Crat" but "Grat" which could be an abbreviation for "Granate". A "Granatgeschoß" would then be a mortar shell. I have to admit that it looks definitely like a capital C in the beginning, but the "o" or "a" in the middle is different from both vowels in his other words, where both letters are open on top as they should be in Sütterlin (as in "Geschoß" and "gefallen"), so reading it as an "a" would also be possible.

 

Markus.

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I suspect the Registrar could not read or did not understand what was on the original notification of his death and has tried to copy it and hoped it made sense. The rest is very accurately written and as Markus has already pointed out the letters used are not formed the same as in other words. I also think that the missing word refers to a type of projectile, if the word was referring to a type of wound it would end in „schuß“ eg Bauchschuß, Kopfschuß etc and not Geschoß.

 

Charlie

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Thanks for the inputs.

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