Kemmel no. 1 French cemetery

[roel22]

I always believed all German casualties in the Ypres salient have over the years been removed to the 4 German cemeteries this region now has. To my surprise I read at www.silentcities.co.uk that Kemmel no. 1 French Cemetery not only has 296 commonwealth burials, but also 94 German graves. Since this cemetery is very close to the spot my great-grandfather was killed, does anybody (Aurel?) have a clue from what regiments they were, and when they were buried there?

Kind regards

Roel

[AOK4]

Hello Roel,

All German casualties that were buried on Allied cemeteries, were left there during the concentrations of the German cemeteries.

You should really contact me with the full details of your great-grandfather. I can have a look through a few lists of Geländegräber in that area (although those lists are far from complete). I can also have a look in the old register of the Kemmel No.1 Cemetery.

Jan

[Aurel Sercu]

Roel,

Next time when I am in the area ...

For your information. This is what Michael Scott (Ypres Salient) writes about the German graves (p. 51) :

"The number of Germans in the mass grave in German Row A is not known. However, the CWGC assess the number of Germans in the cemetery to be 253. These are represented by a small number of headstones in two rows."

Somewhat different from what Silent Cities writes.

And CWGC on line says : "Some German burials found by the Belgian Graves Services were brought into the cemetery. (...) There are also 94 German graves, of whom the majority are unidentified."

Confusing.

Jan,

A few weeks ago I found a German trench map in the Ypres Documentation Centre, "Naherkundungs und Nahzielkarte Gruppe Flandern - Abtig. 1e - 1/10.000 Auswertungen bis 8. Aug. 1918", and it showed a "Friedhof" (German I suppse) close to where now Kemmel N° 1 French Cemetery is. This Friedhof is definitely not on the same location as Kemmel N° 1. It is (the centre of it) 80 m south of Vierstraat, 240 m north of crossroads Vierstraat - Kriekstraat, and 160 m south of Vierstraat - Molenstraat. (And the present CWGC cemetery is in the corner of Vierstraat - Molenstraat).

Aurel

[Marco]

Apperently 'something' happened after Silent Cities was published because the number of Commonwealth graves (then 137) is also very different from the current number: 296.

Regards,

Marco

http://www.xs4all.nl/~aur/Cemeteries/KEMMELNO1FRENCHC.htm

[Aurel Sercu]

Marco,

Strange indeed.

Michael Scott says : "It was found after the Armistice by the French Graves Service, who then removed the French graves to the Ossuary on the Kemmelberg or their cemetery at the Potijze. In their place British graves were were brought from the surrounding batllefield to add to those already there."

Reading this I would automatically assume this process was shortly after the war, or in the early 1920s.

But seeing that The Silent Cities (the book) was first published in 1929, I wonder if this process (removal of the Frenchgraves, enlarging with British) was after 1929 ! I would find this hard to believe, though.

Aurel