DFPS in the Palestine Campaign - French burial and commemoration / non-commemoration

[Eran Tearosh]

All,

A few weeks ago, I was asked by the local CWGC people if I know about a WWI Arminian War Grave on Mt. Zion in Jerusalem. I smiled and answered that as a matter of fact, there is one Arminian monument there, where 23 casualties of the Legion d’Orient are honored. I approached the Armenian Patriarch in 2018, and we held a moving Memorial Service on Mt. Zion, commemorating the centennial of The Battle of Arara (19-20 September, 1918), where these Armenians were KIA, as a part of the French detachment of the EEF, the DFPS.

As a result of the CWGC’s question, I ‘dived’ again into the DFPS in general, and The Battle of Arara in particular. Fascinating stuff, that as far as I know was/is almost untouched. I’ll probably raise a few topics regarding the DFPS in the future, but at this moment I wish to concentrate on French burial and commemoration / non-commemoration.

Strange, but it seems there are only two places where Great War French (Europeans and Colonials) casualties are buried – The monument I mentioned on Mt. Zion (reburial of the KIA’s from Arara) and a small section in CWGC’s War cemetery in Ramleh. This section is quite strange, for several reasons: It’s there and maintained, but it’s not on the CWGC’s records! It is divided to two sub-sections – French (Probably Christians, plus one Jewish Officer) and Mohammedans (See Ramleh cemetery plans).

 

The Mohammedan section consists of eight graves – Five Algerian Tirailleurs, one Spahis, one sapper from the 2e regiment de Genie (Engineers) and one unknown. Most of them died before the 1918 September offensive, probably in a French military medical facility (Which was probably stationed in nearby Lod).

The French section raises quite a few questions. There are twenty-four graves there, seventeen of them unidentified! Two from the 115e Territorial d’Infanterie (Died earlier than September) and the other identified died during October and early November – Four of the Legion d’Orient (One of them, a Jewish officer), One from the 104e d’Infanterie. The number of unidentified is surprising – either they really had a serious bureaucratic problem there, or that many wounded were brought in from the front line and died in hospital before their details were found (See next paragraph).  

But, there’s a bigger question – where were the DFPS KIA’s buried? Like all the others, the Armenians buried their dead at the battlefield. Only seven years later, by a private initiative, they brought the remnants from there to Jerusalem. But what about the Algerian Tirailleurs? The French Cavalry? All the rest of the DFPS (Territorial d’Infanterie, Artillery etc.) Is it possible that simply no one took care of them and the graves disappeared? Are there no records of the DFPS casualties?!

For a brief moment I thought we might be looking at another case of racist non-commemoration of that time (regarding the North-Africans). But the DFPS included large numbers of Europeans, so I guess that’s not the case.

 

Any help or thoughts will be most appreciated.

Eran

Edited 4 January , 2022 by Eran Tearosh

[Guest]

Mate,

I am sorry but I have no idea where these men are buried but mostly in two cemeteries around Damascus and Beyrouth?

Some of my French soldiers 

BOUDBEZA TAYER    N/R    N/R    Cavalier    French Army    Regiment Mixte de Marche de Cavalerie (4th of Chasseurs d'Afrique) died from Malaria in Hosp Evacuation No 2  Beyrouth
BUSSAT    Louis    N/R    Pte    French Army    Regiment Mixte de Marche de Cavalerie 51e compagnie of 15e escadron du train des équipages militaires att ambulance de montagne 2/P attached to the RMMC died from Malaria in Hosp Franais Beyrouth
CHAPUT    Antoine Frederic    N/R    Cpl /Infermier    French Army    Regiment Mixte de Marche de Cavalerie section d'infirmiers militaires ambulance de montagne 2/P (field ambulance attached to the RMMC) died from Malaria in St Louis Hosp Damascus
EURVIN    Joseph Leon Jules Marie    N/R    Cavalier    French Army    Regiment Mixte de Marche de Cavalerie 1st Sqn (15th Sqn of the 4th of Chasseurs d'Afrique) died from Malaria in St Louis Hosp Damascus 
FARUDIA    Charles Andre    N/R    Cavalier    French Army    Regiment Mixte de Marche de Cavalerie (4th of Chasseurs d'Afrique) died from Malaria in Hosp Evacuation No 2  Beyrouth
FIESCHI     Cesar    N/R    Cavalier    French Army    Regiment Mixte de Marche de Cavalerie (4th of Chasseurs d'Afrique) died from Malaria in St Louis Hosp Damascus
FOURNIER    Jules Marius Joseph     N/R    Cavalier    French Army    Regiment Mixte de Marche de Cavalerie (1st Sqn of the 1st of Algerian Spahis) died from Malaria in St Louis Hosp Damascus 
HABIBECHE HABIE    N/R    N/R    Cavalier    French Army    Regiment Mixte de Marche de Cavalerie 3rd Sqn (3rd Sqn of the 1st of Algerian Spahis) died from Malaria in St Louis Hosp Damascus
COURATIN    Julien Pierre    168    Marechal des Logis    French Army    Regiment Mixte de Marche de Cavalerie 3rd Sqn (3rd Sqn of the 1st of Algerian Spahis) recom MM - for his actions Tul Kekam 19-9-18 died from Malaria in St Louis Hosp Damascus
MECHICHE    Jakob Rene    N/R    Brigadier    French Army    Regiment Mixte de Marche de Cavalerie (4th of Chasseurs d'Afrique) died from Malaria in St Louis Hosp Damascus
MOURGUE    Paul Henri    N/R    Cavalier    French Army    Regiment Mixte de Marche de Cavalerie (4th of Chasseurs d'Afrique) died from Malaria in St Louis Hosp Damascus
NISSOU    Mathurin    N/R    Pte    French Army    Regiment Mixte de Marche de Cavalerie 51e compagnie of 15e escadron du train des équipages militaires att ambulance de montagne 2/P attached to the RMMC died from Malaria in Hosp Franais Beyrouth
PARISOT    Albert Justin    N/R    Pte    French Army    Regiment Mixte de Marche de Cavalerie 51e compagnie of 15e escadron du train des équipages militaires att ambulance de montagne 2/P attached to the RMMC died from Malaria in St Louis Hosp Damascus
RAFFIN    Alexandre Jean Lucien    N/R    Cavalier    French Army    Regiment Mixte de Marche de Cavalerie 3rd Sqn (3rd Sqn of the 1st of Algerian Spahis) died from Malaria in St Louis Hosp Damascus
RIGOLOT    Louis Joseph    N/R    Cavalier    French Army    Regiment Mixte de Marche de Cavalerie 4th Sqn (8th Sqn of the 4th Tunisian Spahis) died from Malaria in St Louis Hosp Damascus
SAAD BEN MOHAMMED BEN LAKDAR    N/R    N/R    Cavalier    French Army    Regiment Mixte de Marche de Cavalerie 3rd Sqn (3rd Sqn of the 1st of Algerian Spahis) died from Malaria in St Louis Hosp Damascus
SOURIOUX    Georges Auguste    N/R    Brigadier    French Army    Regiment Mixte de Marche de Cavalerie (4th of Chasseurs d'Afrique) died from Malaria in Hosp St Jean Beyrouth
VILOTEAU    Albert Maxime    N/R    Marechal des Logis    French Army    Regiment Mixte de Marche de Cavalerie (4th of Chasseurs d'Afrique) died from Malaria in St Louis Hosp Damascus
 

S.B

[Eran Tearosh]

Thanks Steve. 

While the French infantry fought at the vicinity of Arara-Rafat, the French cavalry (As a part of the 5th Light Horse Brigade, Australian Mounted Division) battled at Tul-Karm and later at Nablus. From a French source, they had 7 wounded at these two battles. Of course, later they participated in the October 1918 Syrian Campaign, which explains that the list you kindly provided includes mostly cavalrymen, plus medical and supplies staff, and, of course, are buried in Damascus and Beirut. 

However, I wish to return to the French infantry, on September 19-20.  In the 1919 book - A brief record of THE ADVANCE OF THE EGYPTIAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCE - Allenby states (p.206): 

"On the right near Rafet the French contingent encountered determined opposition, and probably the hardest fighting of the day took place here..." (Allenby adds Et Tireh as a second place of particular heavy fighting). 

The French Official History (The French armies in the Great War), Volume IX, states (p. 149) that the losses of the three French battalions (Two Algerians and one Armenian) were  32 killed and 115 wounded. From Armenian sources I find that 21 Armenians were KIA and buried near Rafat (As mentioned before - removed to Jerusalem seven years later). This means that at least 11 Tirailleurs (Colonials and maybe Europeans) were buried out there. The Tirailleurs were involved in even heavier fighting than the Armenians and their numbers were much higher, and that's why I'm cautious about the casualties numbers in the French book. 

So, what happened with these Tirailleurs who were killed on the the hills of south-west Samaria? Simply forgotten out there? Is it possible that they were collected later and brought to Ramleh, hence the strange fact of 17 unidentified (Out of 24!) graves in the French section? I don't think that's the case, because:

1. If the fallen Tirailleurs were brought from the battlefield, probably the same would have happened with the Armenians of the Leigon d'Orient, in the same area. That defiantly didn't happen.   

2. Everyone would have known that these fallen (All or almost all) were Mohammedans. So why would they be buried in the Christian section, when a Mohammedan section is only a few meters away, where other Tirailleurs are already buried?

 

Any Algerians or French 'in the room'?

Eran

 

Edited 5 January , 2022 by Eran Tearosh