1010 replies to this topic

[Andrew Upton]

Pretty certain Martin's already got it, and it's the view over the channel from the Battle of Britain Memorial at Capel-le-Ferne.

[Siege Gunner]

Sorry folks, I forgot to keep an eye on the thread.  Yes, Martin has it  —  Capel-le-Ferne.  I knew that bank on the left was a dead give-away!  The pic is of the seaward view from the BoB Memorial, and the WW1 RNAS airship station was on the other side of the village.

Over to Martin and/or Steve (if he's ready now).

David Faulder, on 02 July 2011 - 02:33 PM, said:

Would they be the remains of a coastal battery?

They would indeed ...

[MartinBennitt]

whoops, sorry I was away for a bit ....

anyway, here goes

I am looking at memorial with 38 names on it, but it also commemorates 102 other men whose names are on another memorial not far away, and many others "of whose names no complete record exists".

where am I?

cheers Martin B

[MartinBennitt]

MartinBennitt, on 03 July 2011 - 10:39 AM, said:

I am looking at a memorial with 38 names on it, but it also commemorates 102 other men whose names are on another memorial not far away, and many others "of whose names no complete record exists".



cheers Martin B

getting on for 36 hours and nobody has even had a stab at this? I'll let you sleep on it and if there's still nothing, guess I'll have to start posting clues. This needs to be solved within 48 hours, 'cos I'm

going on holiday after that.

So, where am I?

cheers again Martin B

[paul@bolton]

"of whose names no complete record exists".

That's got to be a clue. Surely, the military kept a complete record of those who had died in the armed forces so could we be talking about civilians who were in some way employed by the military?

Not Europe, I suspect. Middle East? Africa?

Paul

[ShirlD]

I got nuthin, need another clue!

[phil w]

Merchant navy perhaps?

[CROONAERT]

Livingstone war memorial, Zambia.... ... the 102 are Askari on the North Rhodesia Police Memorial and the others are natives from the surrounding territories.



Dave

[MartinBennitt]

CROONAERT, on 05 July 2011 - 08:22 AM, said:

Livingstone war memorial, Zambia.(the 102 are Askari on the North Rhodesia Police Memorial and the others are natives from the surriunding territories)

Dave

Dave, you are infuriatingly good at this. The memorial is in fact at Victoria Falls, just down the road from Livingstone. Picture taken by yours truly some three years ago.

cheers Martin B

 vicfalls.jpg   92.75K   0 downloads

[ShirlD]

Dave!  I looked at that and thought, no cannot be
Nice one

[MartinBennitt]

aussiechris, on 05 July 2011 - 10:59 AM, said:

Dave!  I looked at that and thought, no cannot be
Nice one

you should have had a go. Actually I was slightly misleading, as there are a further 40 names on a panel on another face of the memorial which I'd forgotten about  

you can see it here


anyway, well done Dave and over to you

[CROONAERT]

Loosely linked to Martin's post (very loosely, but there is a link...believe me! ) ...

I'm once again stood in a military cemetery in France gazing down on a very surprising headstone. Its surprising because one would have thought that the person in the grave should really be thousands of miles away (it did confuse me once as to why he was here, but I know now).

The cemetery is a (comparatively) relatively small one containing less than a thousand graves from just 1917 and 1918. The person in the grave referred to was killed just under a week before the end of the war.

There was a field hospital (I could give you its number, but fear that that would give the game away too easily) nearby for much of the war (the place was about 7 miles behind the frontline for most of the war) but, by the time my mystery person died it was pretty much a front-line position (and the 11th November 1918 'finish line' was only 2 miles to the east)

The place was north of the nearest stretch of frontline from September 1914 to September/October 1918, but west of it on 11th November 1918.

Other than the mystery person, nine other 'inhabitants' of the cemetery are not of the nationality to whom the cemetery belongs (though they would have been - for a period - twenty years later) but they all share the same style headstone.

Where am I and whose grave is it? (either spelling of the person's name is acceptable)

[Rockdoc]

I have no idea where this might be but would I be correct in interpreting the last clue to mean German and Austrian (or Austro-Hungarian) troops and that the site is a VDK cemetery?

Keith

[CROONAERT]

Rockdoc, on 05 July 2011 - 12:26 PM, said:

...would I be correct in interpreting the last clue to mean German and Austrian (or Austro-Hungarian) troops and that the site is a VDK cemetery?...

Yes... so far so good.

9 Austro-Hungarians, 812 Germans (just 17 of whom are unknowns) ... ... and 'the mystery man'.

Dave

[CROONAERT]

No-one???

[CROONAERT]

Further clues needed I think?

The village after which the cemetery is named started to come under really heavy bombardment on September 29th 1918 (though with not too great damage). The civilian population was evacuated on October 6th 1918 and it was taken by the French on November 8th 1918. The Germans bombarded the village between 9am and 11am on the 11th November 1918 killing 3 French soldiers and severely wounding (killing?)  a US Army chaplain.

One of the most famous battles in the history of the war took place just to the south and another was launched from the south-west (the village was to become a part of this latter battle)

There are two Divisional memorials within the cemetery.

Dave

[CROONAERT]

Go on then, a couple more for today (though, after breaking the '3 clue rule' by 7,  I feel like I might be giving away too much here!)...

The nearby Feldlazarette was numbered '263' (and located in a different village to that which the cemetery is named after)

The cemetery is actually quite a distance from the village its named after (1 and a half miles approx) but one of the dressing stations that 'supplied it' ( 'la Bergerie Farm') is still there just to the south of the cemetery and is still named as such.


Dave

[Rockdoc]

Google is my friend! Is it Briey?

Keith

[CROONAERT]

Google isn't your friend, Keith !   (no)



Dave

[ShirlD]

having spent 2 evenings on this I have a couple of suggestions and then I give up!
One is Achiet-le-petit,
the other is Fricourt (but I know it is probably too large).  
One thing I have learnt is that it is extremely difficult to find out where all the German cemeteries are and who might be in them
Cheers
Shirley

[sabine72]

Dave,
I bet you are in the argonne area

[SteveMarsdin]

Lissey ?

[flintwich]

Nantillois German Cemetery, only because it's the only German cemetery I can find with between 800 and 1000 graves.

The famous grave is a mystery, both to me and the internet.

You can't beat local knowledge, of which I have none.

Al

[SteveMarsdin]

Dave, and Askari ,Cameono Nonoba, the unexpected grave (and connection to Martin's question)

[sabine72]

Dave, asked a question about him in 2010 on the forum lissey soldatenfriedhof was the title