April 5th, Patrol engagement near Zeurange

Hi folks,
with the last remaining questions answered by the great cooperation of the forum members here (thank you all!) its time to move to the next question. We go back a bit in time because I jumped to the Tiergarten action in order to post at the UK-POW names so that I could return a bit of your kindness.

This then is another one-liner from the war diary.
On April, 5th a recon patrol of Infanterieregiment 279 (no time of day known) enganged a patrol (presumed to be British, unit unknown) north of Zeurange (no distance or other info on the position known).
Leutnant Krause of the Grenzinfanterieregiment 125 (temporarily assigned to IR 279) was mortally wounded. His grave is not documented, most likely because as a member of the Grenzinfanterieregiment 125 he came from the nearby Saarland and was directly buried in a private grave.

Thats already all that I have. As you can imagine I´d be very happy to learn more about this engagement.

Thanks a lot!
Martin

 

It gets better

 

Captain Lynn-Allen saved Private Burt Evans life at the Wormhoudt Massacre on 28th May and was murdered shortly afterwards by the SS.

 

Andy, great stuff as always, thank you!

The unit here was the 2nd Batallion of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment?

Did you read about the German Leutnant being too heavy to carry? Now thats some interesting news. Too bad I could not find his grave.

On a more serious note, I have to admit that I am not familiar with the Wormhoudt Massacre. But I will read into it (I have seen its a topic here) and also make sure to mention it together with Captain Lynn-Allens name.

Thanks a lot!
Martin

 

And the coordinates 131879 (thanks Earthican and Peccavi) result in a perfectly plausible location!

 

The unit here was the 2nd Batallion of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment?

It looks that way

 

from 5 Glosters War Diary

 

This is what I was looking for in the other diaries...No.6 is the one that killed the German Officer.

 

Ok, I surrender!
Its the Glosters then?

 

Nothing new in this diary but thought you would like to see the trace map:

 

No, it's 2 Warwicks. Battalions get the same paperwork sent out from Bde HQ and share info amongst themselves from what I can gather.

I don't have anything else on the above incident.

 

I'm assuming you are fairly familiar with the ground? Do any of the poistions/bunkers/OP's/trenches etc still exist?

There appears to be more detail in the diaries about this area before May 10th than what happened happened afterwards. Understandable I guess considering what happened-I suspect all these 'little' contacts, casualty details, citations etc would make an interesting book with pictures and maps.

 

But Andy look at that 2nd Warwicks map again.

Damn me if it has not got the grid co-ords - northerly 286 and 290
and westerly 410!

 

Yep - the co-ordinate translator's position for (4)w121 Q(2)902 and the 2nd Warwicks Map are absolutely exactly the same.

 

A little bit more Gold for you

 

I'm assuming you are fairly familiar with the ground? Do any of the poistions/bunkers/OP's/trenches etc still exist?

There appears to be more detail in the diaries about this area before May 10th than what happened happened afterwards. Understandable I guess considering what happened-I suspect all these 'little' contacts, casualty details, citations etc would make an interesting book with pictures and maps.

You can bet, there is quite a lot left of these positions, as long as they are within a forest. When I was there I had no map (did not know you back then unfortunately) so I could never be sure when and by whom the trenches etc. were made. First the French were there, then came the BEF, then the French again, then the Germans moving West. Then in 1944 the other way round. Thats why I never managed to positively identify a position as French or British or German. There is this German here in the forum who has posted his finds from using a metal detector in these areas. Thats the only way to get a good identification, but as it is illegal I´m not doing that.

If more maps were available, especially German maps it would make a great book. For my book its a chapter. A large one. All my photos are from the German units. And there is not one photo showing a British position. Some photos of French positions but even they are rare.
Thanks to you many places have now been identified. You can be sure to find me there once the ground is frozen. I will try and get some good photos from the positions mentioned in your replies.

I would think with your sources it would take a British author to make a very good book about these times.

 

A little bit more Gold for you


Very nice, thank you! According to this:
http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/SearchUI/Details?uri=D7356275
it was awarded in June! Could not find him on the war graves website so it seems he survived the war.

And he got a bar to the MC in 1945
http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/37072/supplements/2453/page.pdf

And a newspaper article about the 1940 award:
06 May 1940 - PENETRATED MILE INTO GERMAN LINES. Leader of Amb...