Not wishing to hijack thread but I too have a request for the following Recce Men. BRUSSELS TOWN CEMETERY [Thanks to David Lam] 43rd Regt Reconnaissance Corps Trooper ALFRED DOUGLAS MARTIN X. 25. 12 61st Regt Reconnaissance Corps Trooper STANLEY STAMP X. 25. 14. CEMENT HOUSE CEMETERY [Thanks to David Lam] 15th Regt Reconnaissance Corps Trooper HAROLD HOYLE XVII. B. 6 DEERLIJK COMMUNAL CEMETERY [Thanks to Pierre Vandervelden] 15th Regt Reconnaissance Corps Serjeant HERBERT WILLIAM HANBY Grave 4. Trooper JAMES CHARLES NEVILLE Grave 3. GEEL (STELEN) CHURCHYARD [Thanks Robert [ramacal]] 61st Regt Reconnaissance Corps Trooper ALBERT EDWARD MATTHEWS Brit. Plot, grave 8. Trooper REGINALD ROBINSON Brit. Plot, grave 1. Lance Serjeant SIDNEY SMITH Brit. Plot, grave 20 GEEL WAR CEMETERY [Thanks Robert [ramacal]] 49th Regt Reconnaissance Corps Trooper FREDERICK HENRY ANDERSON BARNES II.C.14 Trooper ARTHUR MORRISON CROSSLEY II.C.13 Trooper ROBERT ARTHUR GRIFFITHS I.D.14. Trooper DAVID JOHN HOWELLS II.C.12. Lance Corporal JAMES PRINTY I.D.17. 53rd Regt Reconnaissance Corps Trooper ROBERT THOMAS RASDALL II.A.22. GENT CITY CEMETERY [Thanks Andy Baker] 5th Regt Reconnaissance Corps Trooper FRED WILLIAM CORBIN 18. 7. 2. HEVERLEE WAR CEMETERY (Thanks Richard) 3rd Regt Reconnaissance Corps Trooper KENNETH WILLIAMS 12. E. 2 49th Regt Reconnaissance Corps Serjeant DANIEL TREVOR JENKINS 6. F. 20 Lance Corporal PHILIP ROBERT STAPLES 6. F. 21. HOTTON WAR CEMETERY [Thanks to David Lam] 61st Regt Reconnaissance Corps Trooper DENNIS ROBERT CARTER VII. B. 7. Trooper RICHARD CHARLES COLLINGWOOD VII. B. 6 Serjeant STANLEY THOMAS EDWARDS V. B. 10. Corporal GERALD TRICKETT METCALFE VIII. E. 12 Trooper JOHN WILLIAM STEWARD V. B. 9. Serjeant ALEXANDER YOUNG VIII. E. 11 2nd Derbyshire Yeomanry Lieutenant JOHN LIONEL ROBERTS V. D. 5. Captain FRANCIS LESLIE SAUNDERS V. D. 6 KRUISHOUTEM COMMUNAL CEMETERY [Thanks to Pierre Vandervelden] 61st Regt Reconnaissance Corps Trooper ERNEST HARRY BRANCH Grave 3. LEOPOLDSBURG WAR CEMETERY [Thanks Robert [ramacal] / David Lam] 3rd Regt Reconnaissance Corps Lieutenant PETER JOHN CALLAHAN II. D. 20 Serjeant CHARLES DUFFY IV. B. 2. Corporal JOHN THOMAS HAND II. D. 19. 49th Regt Reconnaissance Corps Corporal RALPH ARRAN II. C. 6. Trooper CYRIL BAKER III. B. 5. Trooper JOSEPH FAIRHURST II. C. 4. Trooper KENNETH FORSHAW II. C. 3. Serjeant WILFRED MARTIN II. C. 2. Trooper HAROLD JOHN NICKELLS II. C. 5. Serjeant CHARLES EDWARD WILLIAM WRAIGHT II. C. 7. Lieutenant ALEXANDER BRUCE HARGREAVES BROWN II. C. 1. 53rd Regt Reconnaissance Corps Trooper CHARLES MCALLISTER BATEMAN III. E. 12. Lance Corporal DAVID JAMES STUART DAVIES III. E. 11 Trooper JOHN EVANS VII. A. 9. Corporal WILLIAM SINCLAIR GUNN VII. A. 7. Trooper JOHN ANTHONY MYLES VII. A. 8 Trooper EDWARD TUCKLEY III. E. 13 LIER BELGIAN MILITARY CEMETERY [Thanks to Pierre Vandervelden] 49th Regt Reconnaissance Corps Corporal WILLIAM CHARLES RALPH BONNER IV.A.2 OOIKE CHURCHYARD [Thanks to Pierre Vandervelden] 15th Regt Reconnaissance Corps Trooper AUSTIN ARTHUR DESMOND DAVIES Grave 1 Trooper BRINLEY THOMAS MIGGINS Grave 2. SCHOONSELHOF CEMETERY (Thanks Tom and Andy) 49th Regt Reconnaissance Corps Trooper LESLIE ARDEN Corporal K G HENNIS IV. D. 37. Trooper DONALD WILLIAM HURLEY I. E. 2. Trooper JAMES PHILIP STARKEY III. D. 18. SERINCHAMPS (HAVERSIN) CHURCHYARD [Thanks to Pierre Vandervelden] 2nd Derbyshire Yeomanry Trooper BRINLEY CHARLES ROBERTS North East part TURNHOUT COMMUNAL CEMETERY [Thanks David Lam] 49th Regt Reconnaissance Corps Lieutenant THOMAS WILLIAM SALMON Panel 7. Cheers Paul
There is a good chance that I shall venture in the direction of Heverlee this weekend. If any photographs are required, please shout (or forever hold thy peace !)
I've been to Heverlee today and photographed those headstones requested. It is one of the nicer set cemeteries on the edge of a wood with public access. This is the school across the road which was used as a hospital in 1944/5 and which led to the location of the cemetery there. Rich
Rich, thanks for excellent photos and really nice to see the former hospital too. Great. Your help much appreciated. D
Rich, Thanks for excellent photos, and thanks for your time and trouble. Another cemetery finished. Cheers Paul
My father served with 4 Welch during WW2. He was with them from the time they landed in Normandy, until the end of the war. Sometime in 1946, before he was demobbed (1947), his unit found themselves in the small Belgian hamlet of Terlanen. Upon entering the church yard, they found some graves of British soldiers killed during the withdraw to Dunkirk in 1940. They probably were not the first to find the graves, but it did have some sort of an impact on my dad, as he chose to photograph the site. http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=120&pictureid=1001 I Googled the title of the pictures (that he had written in). It was`nt strictly correct as his caption calls it `Tombeek` Church, when it is in fact Terlanen Church. I came up with the following two photos http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=120&pictureid=1002 This was taken sometime after, when the site had been cleaned up. I`m not sure, but the bodies may have been reburied, further apart. I`m also assuming they were orginally buried by Belgian civilians after the area was occupied by the Germans. And finally, this is what it looks like today, thanks to the work of the CWGC. There are 15 servicemen, from various regiments and units buried in the churchyard. Of those, 8 are unidentified http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=120&pictureid=1003
Andy Many thanks ! Like, probably a lot of other people on this forum, and at 54 years old, I wished I had asked my father a lot, lot more questions about the war before he died.. Regards Steve
Those 1940 graves relate to some of the first casualties from the BEF's contact with the German forces. 2nd Division were on the right flank, joining the French forces at Waver. The River Dyle would have slowed down a tank but was very little obstacle for determined engineers. Many of the 1940 graves are unidentified because, as you say they are reburials and the individual identities were lost. There was a lot of tidying up of roadside graves in the year or two afterwards and then again in 1945 when many were concentrated in Leopoldsburg. The Administrative History of 21st Army Group referred to elsewhere on the forum mentions that the British began dealing with the 1940 casualties immediately that areas were liberated in 1944 /45. I think that for many, it was one of the reasons for wanting to go back.
Rich Am I right in assuming that, in this particular case, the soldiers would probably have been buried by Belgian civilians, and, only if the dog tags survived, would they have been identified ? Steve
I Googled the title of the pictures (that he had written in). It was`nt strictly correct as his caption calls it `Tombeek` Church, when it is in fact Terlanen Church. I came up with the following two photos Hi Pistolero, The error in "Hamlets" was possibly easy to make as "Tombeek" is only a short distance (2kms) from Terlanen. There is a cemetery there with only seven graves/headstones of Commonwealth Air Force lads whose Halifax bomber was shot down by a night fighter (Lt Schnaufer-Rumpelhardt, NJG1, St Trond-6th Victory) Your father may have even seen both cemeteries. This from "Find a Grave seems to show the seven headstones in both photos. Find A Grave: Overijse (Tombeek) Churchyard There is one Australian, four British and two Canadian of 78 squadron who crashed returning from a bombing raid (Germany-1942) on the great old industrial city of Saarbrucken. Halifax W7809 Information Type Halifax Serial Number W7809 Squadron 78 X1D EY-? Operation Saarbr_cken Date 1 28th August 1942 Date 2 29th August 1942 Further Information "Serial Range W7801 - W7826. 26 Halifax Mk.11. Part of a batch of 200 HP59 Halifax Mk.11. W7650-W7679; W7695- W7720; W7745-W7784; W7801-W7826; W7844-W7887; W7906-W7939. Delivered by Handley Page (Cricklewood & Radlett) between 5Aug42 and 3Sep42. Airborne 1941 hrs 28Aug42 from Middleton St.George. Shot down by a night fighter (Lt Schnaufer-Rumpelhardt, NJG1, St Trond-6th Victory). Crashed between Overijse and Tombeek (Brabant), 17 km SE of Brussels. All are buried in Overijse (Tombeek) Churchyard. Sgt J.A.B.Marshall RAAF KIA Sgt G.E.Dunn KIA W/O T.M.Manning KIA Sgt J.P.Martin KIA Sgt T.H.Miller RCAF KIA Sgt S.Ross RCAF KIA Sgt J.G.Mellor KIA There is a report from a local resident that the crash-site was in Huldenberg; Bois de Bilande, Belgium. "
Spidge This did cause a bit of confusion at first, as to whether it was the 1940 army graves at Terlanen or the Air Force ones at Tombeek. Having studied a few photos, I`m absolutely sure its the army graves at Terlanen. The Tombeek site shows some kind of pitched roof building to the right of the headstones, whereas there is still the wall at Terlanen. I`m still finding out how they (fathers unit) came to be in Belgium after the war as I thought they covered the area around Hannover during the occupation of Germany. Thanks for posting Steve
Hi Pistolero, I was not questioning your result as there is a perfect row of seven graves visible at Tombeek and your fathers photo shows a greater number which correlates with the cemetery details at Teranen. Good luck with the rest of your research.
