The Battle of Bellewaarde June 16th, 1915

[Hans Molier]

Dear members,

I've got some questions about the 1st Battle of Bellewaarde that took place on June 16th, 1915. Unfortunately I can't find the correct anwsers on the internet or in my books 'The Battle of Bellewaarde June 1915' from Carole McEntee-Taylor, Sanctuary Wood & Hooghe' from Nigel Cave or 'Hooge 1915' from Eddy Lambrecht. If my questions are previously discussed on this forum, my sincere apologies.

I sincerely hope you can help me with my following questions :

1. How many British soldiers took part in the fighting in the The Battle of Bellewaarde June 16th, 1915 ?
2. How many British soldiers were dead, wounded or missing at the end of this day ?
3. How many of these British missing soldiers were recovered after WW1 ?
4. How many of these British soldiers are now still missing who took part in the The Battle of Bellewaarde June 16th, 1915 ?
5. Does that mean that the missing British soldiers (how many ?) are still lying somewhere in the former battlefield between Cambridge Road and Bellewaarde Lake ?

Bellewaerde Theme Park was established in 1954, on the grounds of the former Battlefields. But wasn't there any resistance or protest when this Bellewaerde Theme Park was built ? I mean, there have severe fighting during WW1 and I think there were/are still many missing soldiers in these grounds ? 

Again, my sincere apologies if these questions are placed earlier. But I hope you can help me and I want to thank you very much for your help.

Kind regards,

Hans Molier
Roosendaal (the Netherlands)

 

 

[Bob Davies]

51 minutes ago, Hans Molier said:

Again, my sincere apologies if these questions are placed earlier. But I hope you can help me and I want to thank you very much for your help.

Hello Hans,

the only way to find out if your questions have been answered before is to search the forum, probably starting in the 'Western Front' page.

I would use only one word that is  Bellewaarde or else it gets very confusing.

From the Official histories you can get some of your questions, for others you will need to look at the War Diaries of the Battalions that were there.

Most of these are free to download from the National Archives, if you register with them, also free.

This link should et you started, screenshot of page 102 here courtesy of Internet Archive.

 

https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.210676/page/n187/mode/2up?q=Bellewaarde

Just a matter of doing a lot of reading.

I would certainly imagine that there are a lot of missing men still lying under the earth there, the shell fire must have been horrendous, from just reading the Official History account in the book link above.

I hope this helps.

Best wishes, Bob.

 

[Bob Davies]

One more for you @Hans Molier an interesting web article about the 'Liverpool Scottish' at  Bellewaarde June 1915.

6 Officers and 108 Other Ranks missing.

http://www.liverpoolscottish.org.uk/index.php?page=hooge

3rd Worcestershire Regiment Bellewaarde June 1915. 24 men missing, the link also gives casualty numbers.

http://www.worcestershireregiment.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=448

A quote from the above link says;

"the missing men were undoubtedly killed" says the Battalion Diary "and were buried during the heavy bombardment by the enemy."

If you read all the way through this post you will find a huge number of men missing and commemorated on the Menin Gate.

 

[Hans Molier]

Hello Bob, I know I'll have to start with more research. Your replies are therefore very usefull, thank you very much. 

Best wishes, Hans

[WilliamRev]

Hi Hans,

In addition to the books that you mention there is For What We Have Done - The First Attack on Bellewaarde, 16 June 1915 by Michael M.B. Maclaren. I've lost (lent?) my copy and have just ordered a new one and cannot remember any details of whether it contains casualty figures etc.

William

[Hans Molier]

On 20/04/2024 at 18:38, WilliamRev said:

Hi Hans,

In addition to the books that you mention there is For What We Have Done - The First Attack on Bellewaarde, 16 June 1915 by Michael M.B. Maclaren. I've lost (lent?) my copy and have just ordered a new one and cannot remember any details of whether it contains casualty figures etc.

William

Thank you William