Vailly British Cemetery

[laughton]

The case of the unknown airmen in the Dormans French National Cemetery (this link) has dictated the need to recover the burial documents for the Vailly British Cemetery. Here in this cemetery are the remains of Lieutenant Mollet and Lieutenant Rawlings of the 107th Squadron Royal Air Force. They left the aerodrome with Captain Dubber (Canadian) and Lieutenant Dickie on 18 July 1918, never to return. The cemetery is also the burial site of an Unknown Canadian Aviator, so we must be sure that it is not Captain Dubber. If it is, then our Dormans case is defunct! From the draft report on Captain Dubber:

 

Quote

Lieutenant Mollet and Lieutenant Rawlings, also of the 107^th Squadron, have a very similar casualty report (Attachment #7b). They too left the same aerodrome at 6:33 am, also on a bombing raid, and were later reported missing and no further details were available. Unlike Captain Dubber and Lieutenant Dickie, the remains of Lieutenants Mollet and Rawlings were recovered and buried in the Vailly British Cemetery. They were recovered at TMC 272.9 x 206.1, which places them on the east side of Vezilly, approximately 5 miles northwest of Cuisles. That location is 4.3 miles northwest of where the remains of the B.15 and B.16 remains, on the flight path between Fère-en-Tardenois and Cuisles. That location marks where the bodies of Mollet and Rawlings were buried and not necessarily where the remains were recovered from the battlefield. There is no record of either Mollet (ICRC Record) or Rawlings (ICRC Record) being captured or buried by the Germans.

 

Once I have collected all the burial documents, these links will become active (done):

• Vailly British Cemetery Shared MediaFire Site
  • GRRF 2056366-2056427
  • COG-BR 2056500-2056625

 

Here is what the CWGC tells us about the cemetery, to which I will add the TMC of the concentration cemeteries or large burial areas. I have not included the details that were provided by the CWGC that related to the history of the battles in 1914 and 1918, as that does not relate specifically to the unknowns in the cemetery. For these TMC you must be familiar with the French Trench Map interpretation, the details of which you can find here: Using French Trench Maps in the Unknown Project

Quote

The village of Vailly-sur-Aisne was the point at which the 3rd Division crossed the river Aisne on 13 and 14 September 1914 during the Allied advance from the Marne. It fell to the German forces in 1915, was retaken by the French during the Chemin des Dames Offensive in April 1917, lost again to the Germans in June 1918 and finally captured by the French on 15 September 1918.

 

Vailly British Cemetery was established after the Armistice when the remains of Commonwealth soldiers were brought here from other burial grounds and battlefields throughout the region. The following were among the burial grounds from which Commonwealth graves were taken to Vailly British Cemetery:

 

• AIZY FRENCH MILITARY CEMETERY, North-East of the village, where 17 British soldiers were buried.
   
• BAZOCHES COMMUNAL CEMETERY EXTENSION (Aisne) Soissons 22 3.H. 50 x 70, where 172 French soldiers and six British (of 1914) were buried.
   
• BRAINE FRENCH MILITARY CEMETERY (not the present French National Cemetery), in which the bodies of ten British soldiers and an unknown Canadian airman were reburied by the French.
   
• BRENELLE CHURCHYARD FRENCH EXTENSION Soissons 33 293.7 x 195.6, which contained about 500 graves. Here were buried nine men of the R.G.A., killed in September 1914, by the bursting of a gun, and one Lancer who fell in the same month.
   
• BUCY-LE-LONG CHURCHYARD Soissons 185.02 x 297.8, in which one British and a number of French soldiers were buried in 1918.
   
• CHATEAU THIERRY COMMUNAL CEMETERY COG-BR 2056546, where one British soldier from 1914 was concentrated in 1936. Two other British soldiers were moved from this cemetery, to Montreuil-Aux-Lions British Cemetery in June 1934.
   
• CHAVONNE COMMUNAL CEMETERY COG-BR 2056542, where seven British soldiers (five 2nd Coldstream Guards, one Dragoon Guard and one Queen's Bay) were buried in 1914.
   
• COURCHAMPS CHURCHYARD Chateau-Thierry 174.9 x 267.8, in which eight British soldiers were buried in the North-West corner of the churchyard. Two of the soldiers are unidentified.
   
• COURCELLES COMMUNAL CEMETERY, where two British soldiers were buried, one of which is unidentified.
  • see COG-BR 2056543
  • SPEC-EXH 2056545 has Soissons 22 2.G.
     
• COURCELLES COMMUNAL CEMETERY EXTENSION (Aisne) , where 177 French soldiers, 104 German, 17 Italian and (in July 1918) three British were buried.
  • this might be the Courcelles Military Cemetery on COG-BR 2056517 marked as Soissons 33 290.3 x 198.0
     
• GLENNES CHURCHYARD EXTENSION Soissons 291.9 x 208.2, where three British soldiers were buried by the Germans in May 1918, and eight (of 1914) reburied by the French; it contained also 803 French and 400 German graves.
   
• LA COUR-DE-SOUPIR FARM, SOUPIR, where 66 British soldiers (mainly 3rd Coldstream, 2nd Connaught Rangers and 2nd O.B.L.I.) were buried in two plots in September and October 1914.
   
• LAFFAUX GERMAN CEMETERY (on the main road half a mile South-West of the Mill), where one British soldier was buried in July 1918.
   
• LA NOUE GERMAN CEMETERY, CHAVONNE, where two Scottish soldiers were buried in July 1918.
   
• MONT-NOTRE DAME MILITARY CEMETERY N.W. Europe Sheet 10 2.H. 10 x 30 (near the road to Quincy), where 46 British soldiers and two members of the Friends' Ambulance Unit were buried in 1918.
  • something new, the graves are marked with "Hospital Plaques"
     
• PAARS CHURCHYARD Soissons 289.5 x 199.7, where one British soldier was buried.
   
• SOUCY COMMUNAL CEMETERY COG-BR 2056548, South of the village, where one British soldier was buried in the South-West corner.
   
• VASSENY FRENCH MILITARY CEMETERY Soissons 33 291.8 x 192.3, (near the road to Couvrelles), where one British soldier was buried in 1918.
   
• VIEIL-ARCY BRITISH CEMETERY, near the Ferme Chauveau, where 27 British soldiers were buried in September and October 1914.

 

Most of those buried here were killed during the Battle of the Aisne in September 1914, but the cemetery is also the final resting place of over sixty Commonwealth soldiers who were killed or mortally wounded in the summer of 1918. The cemetery now contains over 670 Commonwealth burials and commemorations of the First World War. 

 

These were not on the CWGC list:

• COG-BR 2056523 Crouy Vauxrot French Military Cemetery 181.95 x 298.5
• COG-BR 2056530 Vailly German Cemetery
• COG-BR 2056538 Soupir German National Cemetery Soissons 22 2.H. 15 x 80
• COG-BR 2056547 Dhuisel Churchyard
• COG-BR 2056568 these have German crosses Vailly 199.45 x 299.45 -multiple pages!

 

Two men with the same last name "Sexton" on COG-BR 2056566, 48th Battery Royal Field Artillery.

 

There are a number of potential cases, such as the Serjeant Major of the Connaught Rangers on COG-BR 2056596 - I was not really checking for those yet.

 

For Trevor @fetubi, this is the COG-BR 2056616 for Feurer and Steckley.

 

And finally, the Canadian Airman at Soissons 33 294.6 x 189.6 on COG-BR 2056618. Some code here - 1371 R.E. I will return to this later!

(see below - he was identified)

Edited 9 May , 2020 by laughton
added links; fixed links; marked airman identified

[laughton]

Cancel the Unknown Canadian Airman - he was identified (see GRRF 2056618). I was tricked by the CWGC statement that he was an "Unknown Canadian Airman"!

 

Turns out it was Lieutenant Robert Ellaby Meredith who had served in the 16th Canadian Infantry Battalion (Canadian Scottish) prior to his service with the 43rd Squadron RAF. He was in Sopwith Camel D1870 as per page 192 of "The Sky their Battlefield II".

 

The CWGC has told me on a number of occasions that the cemetery registers were based on what was written in the 1920s and they have not changed them. This might be one of those cases, but I got suckered! Meredith was originally injured at Festubert in 1915, as a Canadian infantryman, and apparently returned to serve in the Royal Air Force.

 

Photo courtesy Wilf Schofield, England

 

 

Edited 7 May , 2020 by laughton
had been identified

[laughton]

On 06/05/2020 at 05:38, laughton said:

There are a number of potential cases, such as the Serjeant Major of the Connaught Rangers on COG-BR 2056596 - I was not really checking for those yet.

 

This is an interesting one, as they have a CSM Connaught Rangers on a Special Memorial in this cemetery (GRRF 2056404). That is Company Serjeant Major Patrick Murray #6383, although he is only listed as a Serjeant on the GRRF. That also show on his "Registers of Soldiers' Effects" as well as on "Soldiers Died in the Great War". That continues with "Ireland, Casualties of World War 1" and "De Ruvigny's Roll of Honour".

 

Will have to check the records for September 1914 (war diary page 16 of 564) to see if there is any mention. On the 13th they marched off and crossed the Aisne River at Pont Arcy, when they were heavily shelled by the enemy (war diary page 20 of 564). That is followed by a detailed report, which tells us they went to the village of SOUPIR that evening, leaving there for VERNEUIL on the 15th. 

 

SOUPIR is on Soissons 22 at H 38.5 22.8 just north of the Aisne River and Verneuil-Courtonne is just to the northeast across what appears to be a canal (l'Aisne). There is also mention of Moussy (Moussy-sur-Aisne) so that is the correct location. It appears they stayed in that area and were heavily shelled on the 18th when 4 men were killed. There are no deaths reported on the 19th when Company Serjeant Major Patrick Bernie #6574 is reported dead (served as Patrick Byrne). He too is only listed as a Serjeant on his "Registers of Soldiers' Effects" as well as on "Soldiers Died in the Great War". He has no known grave so is also a candidate for the man buried in the cemetery, so apparently they could not determine which one was buried in the Vailly British Cemetery.

 

Serjeant Foster #3241 is also on the same memorial at Vailly as Murray.

 

Perhaps someone with detailed knowledge of the 2nd Battalion Connaught Rangers can determine if Murray or Bernie (Burne) were Company Serjeant Majors at the time of their death, Certainly one of them was wearing the crown on the insignia, but which one or both?

[fetubi]

Richard, Your link does not lead to any airmen.  Can you repost please?

PS I know about these two.  Don't trouble yourself.

 

[laughton]

AOK, it was just a link back to the lads in B15 and B16 that we are working on, nothing of importance in this place for airmen. I added the other link for you if you did not have the document for the two flyers, but I had a lazy finger when I entered the URL. It is fixed now.

 

This and a few cemeteries were being checked to make sure there was not another place where Dubber may have been, and since he was Canadian, this was a red flag. Tricked by the CWGC text, he was NOT AN UNKNOWN. So I am all done here.