Westroosebeke Churchyard - Lt Crew & unknown airman (possibly Messervy)

[AOK4]

Hello,

 

While browsing through my scans of German cemetery files, I encountered two British officer's graves in Westroozebeke Churchyard (created in 1914 and all graves were exhumed ca 1925/1926).

 

grave 32 - Oberleutnant (engl.) Crew D. M.

grave 33 - engl. Flieger - am 20.7.17 bei Calve abgestürzt und verbrannt

 

There is a special memorial for Lieutenant Crew at Divisional Collecting Post Cemetery and Extension as the graves were moved there ca 1925 (at least three unknown Canadian soldiers were reburied as well): https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/480802/DENNIS MEIRVILLE CREW/

 

If someone would be able to find the relevant burial return sheets, that might be very helpful (to compare the German grave numbers). There were 8 documented British graves, all unnamed apart from Crew.

 

I think that grave 33 could be that of Captain Messervy, who was shot down near Passendale (Kalve or Calve is a place name northeast of Passendale centre) on 20 July 1917.

 

Perhaps @LDT006 can look into this case as he has more experience in these matters?

 

Jan

 

[LDT006]

Jan,

 

2 hours ago, AOK4 said:

There were 8 documented British graves, all unnamed apart from Crew.

 

I only have a copy of the page that you have partly attached, did I miss other pages at the army museum?

 

3 unknown soldiers were exhumed from grave 29 in October 1925 and reburied at Divisional Collecting Post Cemetery : doc1814125

2 have a special memory for lost graves Private H. Lynch (which German grave?) and Lt. DM Crew (German grave 32): doc2364348

1 Unknown in grave 33

2 Unknowns in grave 34 (not shown on your extract)

It's possible that I missed some burial return sheets but the information that I now have indicates that only the 3 remains in grave 29 were recovered and the others were lost. Only Lynch and Crew have a special memorial because they were confirmed as buried there by the Germans.

Relevant documents are attached.

 

There is another aviator from the same squadron (56) lost in the same area as Messervy:

https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/1574289/ROBERT GORDON JARDINE/ 

2Lt Jardine RG 56Sq, 20/07/17,  Died [A8921 SE5] Last seen climbing to attack EA E of Ypres on offensive patrol. 

https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/781051/ERNEST DYCE MESSERVY/

Capt Messervy ED 56Sq, 20/07/17, Died [A8945 SE5] Last seen climbing to attack EA E of Ypres on offensive patrol.

 

Hope this helps,

Luc.

 

[AOK4]

Hello,

 

I'll attach a scan later. There were indeed 3 unidentified British soldiers in grave 29 (together with 1 "Türko", a French colonial soldier). There was also a "Sergeant Parker" in grave 31.

 

Jan

[LDT006]

Westroosebeke ( now Westrozebeke) was destroyed by shell fire during the winter of 1917, attached is a poor photo of the churchyard cemetery taken from the top of the rubble of the church..

The cemetery was at the bottom of the photo, at the left is a partially destroyed cross, center and right are destroyed tombstones.

I have seen a lot of pictures of destroyed cemeteries like this and always wondered how they were able to recover and identify remains when everything was blown to pieces.

 

[AOK4]

The Germans had usually made quite detailed plans of all cemeteries, once you had a few graves (and say the walls of the church), you could start measuring.