Lt Welinkar RAF Pilot, Indian, originally buried as German officer

[MaureenE]

Account from CWGC about Lieutenant Shri Krishna Chanda Welinkar,  Indian, pilot from 23 Squadron RAF, badly wounded in a dogfight and died 30 June 1918. Subsequently buried as a German officer by the Germans.

https://www.cwgc.org/history-and-archives/cwgc-archive/efiles/welinkar

 

Cheers

Maureen

[charlie962]

Thanks for posting.

Charlie

[AOK4]

Hello,

 

He was originally not buried as a German officer. He was buried by the Germans on a German cemetery using a German style cross (of course, everyone received the same type of cross, whether you were a German or not, only Jews received a different grave marker and possibly also orthodox Russians (that I am not sure)). This is obvious because of the notification to the Red Cross by the Germans.

However, in the early post war years, when the French were concentrating the German cemeteries (according to the Versailles Treaty), they assumed he was a German, as they probably lacked some German grave lists. So he was buried as a German officer by the French. The error was found out later after the confusion was cleared over where he was buried originally by the Germans as there are several communes with the name "Rouvroy".

Anyway, it's a very interesting story.

 

Jan