Air Raid Etaples?

[cockney tone]

Ladies & Gents,

Pals'

Don't often stray into this section on the Forum but here goes with a plea for info please?

Just got back from a visit to Etaples and the above headstone and its inscription caught my eye;

Rev SPINKS YMCA 29th May 1918.

'Died from injuries received whilst rescuing a chinaman during an air raid Greater love hath no man!

Any of you pal's tell me more about the raid or this brave man please?

regards,

Scottie.

[angelab]

Hi Scottie,

I guess the raid might not necessarily have been *at* Etaples. The place was the location of about nine military hospitals, so people often died there who had been injured elsewhere...

Angela

[Tonym]

Name: SPINKS, THE REV. W. H.

Initials: W H

Nationality: United Kingdom

Rank: Chaplain

Regiment/Service: Young Men's Christian Association

Age: 45

Date of Death: 29/05/1918

Additional information: Husband of Ada Spinks, of 49, Leys Avenue, Letchworth, Herts. Baptist Minister.

Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead

Grave/Memorial Reference: XXVIII. M. 7.

Cemetery: ETAPLES MILITARY CEMETERY

Cheers, Tony

PS. Thanks for the photo

[Sue Light]

Scottie

This rather interesting comment comes from the document I'm working on at the moment - it raises rather more questions than it answers about what was going on on the Paris Plage road! This was a relatively quiet night in Etaples, the following night almost every hospital was bombed, with many casualties among both staff and patients.

[Night of 29/30th May 1918]

On this night there was another air-raid which lasted 2 hours. There were no casualties in the hospitals but one YMCA worker was killed and another wounded, in a car on the Paris Plage road.

Sue

[cockney tone]

Angela,

you may well be right on that?

Tony,

thank you for the info, I had not checked the CWGC, ironic he is actually from my County!

Sue,

really interesting, as you say perhaps raises more questions than answers!

I do not have much knowledge on the camps etc but would i be correct in assuming the Germans knew what they they were bombing or would it just have appeared to them as a large transit area for troops?

thanks for all the input Pal's!

regards,

Scottie.

[Sue Light]

The place was the location of about nine military hospitals, so people often died there who had been injured elsewhere...

Angela,

you may well be right on that?

... especially as it seems he was driving down the Paris Plage road at the time

Sue

[Dolphin]

Would i be correct in assuming the Germans knew what they they were bombing or would it just have appeared to them as a large transit area for troops?

Scottie

I'm pretty sure that the Germans, like the Allies, wouldn't have deliberately bombed hospitals - despite the claims made in the propaganda of the times. Night bombing in 1917 was still fairly primitive, and the bombs would have been aimed at what seemed legitimate targets: troop concentrations, rail heads, supply depots, etc. Unfortunately, hospitals and like facilities would have been located in the same areas.

Night bombing by both sides was a familiar aspect of life on the Western Front in the last two years of the War.

Regards

Gareth

[michaeldr]

Anglea has mentioned "*at* Etaples. The place was the location of about nine military hospitals"

This photograph may be of interest, though I caution that the location/date is not specific

Originally from the IWM, I found it on the UBC Library site, where it is described as

"RAF Official phorographs: RAF aerial photograph showing destruction caused by German bombing raid on a clearly marked and well known British hospital in France."

As Gareth has indicated above however, 'clearly marked' may not have meant very much at night time

[Tonym]

cockney tone

Quote"Tony,

thank you for the info, I had not checked the CWGC, ironic he is actually from my County!"

If you find him on a local War Memorial, would appreciate a photo of that also.

I'm a "Cockney Tone" as well. So my late Mum told me, born just within the sound of the bells, didn't hear them personally, I was asleep!

Tony

[cockney tone]

Sue,

but if he was driving down the road I am even more intrigued! where does the poor 'Chinaman' he apparently saved come into the story though?

Michael,

Great photo, thanks for posting it.

Gareth,

I tend to think you are correct, even nowadays it must be difficult to ID targets and bombs are also known to go well astray from their intended targets.

Tony,

I bow in your presence, a real 'Cockney' sadly i am only a 'pretend' one, unless the wind was blowing particularly strong and the sound of the bells wafted in the direction of Edmonton the day I was born!

thanks for your replies and valuable info.

regards,

Scottie.

[Sue Light]

but if he was driving down the road I am even more intrigued! where does the poor 'Chinaman' he apparently saved come into the story though?

Exactly! No idea about the Chinaman - that's what I meant about more questions than answers. However, I think it's too much of a coincidence that the Rev. Spinks was a YMCA worker, and it was a YMCA worker killed on the Paris Plage Road that night. Though if the other person was only wounded, the Chinaman is more 'lucky' than 'poor', as he probably survived.

Sue

[angelab]

Paris-Plage is only just across the Canche estuary from Etaples; it's now part of Le Touquet.

I suppose the "Chinaman" would have been one of the 100,000 Chinese labourers who were brought over to work in docks and depots. I imagine the nearest docks would have been at Boulogne (north) or St-Valery-sur-Somme (south). As far as I know, there aren't any decent harbours in between. Unless they used Etaples quayside itself - the tides and currents are so strong round the estuary that today's fishing fleet is based up at Boulogne, but maybe back then it was a bit more navigable.

However, the railway line runs north through Etaples; maybe some of the Chinese worked at the station, loading and unloading supplies for all the training camps, hospitals etc?

Angela

[John Gilinsky]

Per Drmichael's photo of Etaples hospital complex: If you have acces to the International Review (Revue) of the International Committee of the Red Cross the latter body published in this their official magazine in I think c. 1936 or 1937 a major article on just how visible from the air in good weather the red crosses on roofs of buildings (that is hospitals or protected sites). The article makes for illuminating reading as it is quite clear that even in good weather during the daylight it was very difficult to make out large red crosses on roofs from a few thousand feet high up or more.

John

Toronto

[cockney tone]

John,

Thank you for the post, I will try to track this article down. I have undertaken a fair bit of research on my Fathers cousin and his RAF service during WW2 and the lack of accuracy of the bombing then really surprised me and that was 20+ years later! according to some accounts we do not fair that much better nowadays as well.

Regards,

Scottie.

[timhog]

Scottie.

RAF Communiques 1918, for May 29, Weather fine but cloudy~16 tons of bombs dropped~Enemy aircraft activity very slight till evening. So a heavy night???

Tim.

[cockney tone]

Tim,

thank you for this info, as a 'lay man' that sounds a lot of bombs! do you know if that would have been just in the Etaples/Paris Plage area?

regards,

Scottie.

[John_Hartley]

Sue

Are you trying to imply something more mysterious here than simply being in the wrong place when a bomb dropped?

John