British General Hospitals at Venray

According to Line of Communication Order of Battle dated 26 Apr 45 – 9 (British) General Hospital (600 beds) was in Venray-NL prior to moving to Bergen-Belsen in May 45, only have a 4-figure grid reference so a firm location is not possible.

21st Army Group later British Army of the Rhine (under construction)

 

Hi Keith,

thanks for sharing the results of your research - great to have photographic evidence. However, I am bit surprised they had the time to pose for a photo on March 24th - is the date confirmed?

Best
Alex

 

Hello Keith,

I visited the Natioan Archives in Kew last Saturday. There are no war diaries for the British General Hospitals but i found one for 21 Field Dressing Station which worked alongside the BGH in Venray. From that War Diary in transpires that No. 9 BGH was housed in St. Servatius Institute (see paragraph 3):




The page below suggests that No 84 BGH was located at Oostrum which is confusing as you write that No 81 BGH was established at Oostrum:


With best regards
Alex

 

Hi Alex,

Great to hear from you and a great piece of detective work on your side.

I think the puzzle is now cracked for all three BGHs in Venray:
1) No 9 - St Servatius on Stationweg which was evacuated in October 1944. The grid references in your documents are almost spot on to the map below.
2) No 81 - in Oostrum which we spoke about before and have the diary of a nurse that worked there plus photos taken in 1945
3) No 84 - the difficult one but your findings got me going. This BGH was based on the playing fields adjacent to St Servatius and was tented accommodation only (hence why we couldn't find an address).

I attach a few photos. One is a map from 1945 compared to today. The 1945 (left) clearly shows St Servatius and the playing fields next door. It also shows the proximity to Oostrum. The horizontal road is Stationweg and you can see it had hardly changed after all these years. Then I found a photo of a football match on those fields taken in 1942. In the above 1945 map I guess it might be around the 'S' in Sint.

What do you think? Have we nailed it?

I have not been back to Bislich since we last communicated but I have been to Xanten and looked across. I now think it is possible that Arthur was a member of the Carrier Platoon which landed in Bislich Bay to take the Fahrhaus for use as an RAP. I have found personal accounts which suggest that area from the water's edge to the (now) restaurant was heavily mined. So recently I have paid a search fee to the Royal Highland Fusiliers museum in Scotland for anything they might find on Arthur. That I think will end my search for what happened to him and I will then complete my writings.

I hope we might still meet in Bislich one of these days. Apart from its personal significance to me, it will be great to meet you.

Best regards
Keith

 

Hi Keith,

yes, we should definitely meet next year. I am planning to spend a few days in the area the week after Pentecost. So let's arrange something then, ok? I also want to come to Venray to get a feel of the place...

We are getting closer to the BGH situation in Venray - is there any proof that 84 BGH was under canvas near St. Servatius? What puzzles me is this sentence in the war diary above:

Do you have a war time map with Allied map reference grid? Unfortunately we only have the four digit 7926 information. Oostrum is a bit away from Sint Servatius...

Best
Alex

 

Hi Alex

That sounds grand. Perhaps cover both and I can take you to the cemetery and introduce you to the local historian who is particularly focussed on Venray.

I got the tented area from one of your attachments and it immediately rang a bell in my head because I think I had read that somewhere else. I will check.

I attach three maps for grid references 26, 27 and the six digit number (posted in that order - red flags) gathered from the papers you posted. They are not exact and fall within the grid. I am just wondering if Oostrum should be taken literally seeing there is a BGH there. Could they have been confused?

Anyway, you have rekindled my interest and I will research further. The local historian is back from holiday next week and I will review with him too.

Best
Keith

 

Keith,
yes, we'll do both locations next year! As to the 84 BGH location - let's wait what the historian has to say. The unit I researched, 21 FDS, was set up under canvas in the playing field behind Sint Servatius - that's what I gathered from the documents...

I can send you the complete War Diary for 21 FDS (March 1945) if you want - by Wetransfer if you send me an email address by PM.

Regards
Alex

 

Alex
I just checked Crew again (Army Medical Services, Vol 5) and he definitely says that Nos 9 and 84 were in Venray, not Oostrum. Only No81 is listed as being in Oostrum. There is a comment that I don't understand:
"21 FDS screen for 81 and 84 BGHs".

Not sure how to do a PM on here, sorry.

Cheers
Keith

 

Hello Keith,
how are you these days? Maybe this could be of interest to you:


Source:




Some more info:
Het gymnasium van Venray

Best,
Alex

 

Hi Alex,

Many thanks for your note and for thinking of me as you came across the stuff you sent.

We are all good thanks and hope this note finds you well. We were actually supposed to have been in Germany this weekend but William is down with a virus so here we are, at home. Poor lad is not well. We had planned to see the Christmas Market in Xanten and then do some shopping in Kranenburg on the way home. Apart from the attachment to Arthur, I enjoy Xanten and like the town.

So I started comparing the stuff you sent and found that we are saying very much the same thing having approached from different angles. That is comforting.

I think we are clear of BGH 9 and 81. Its BGH 84 that has always been difficult to pin down. Both the war diaries from FDS21 and the private papers of Father Fay who was the chaplain attached to BGH 9 talks about erecting tents behind St Servatius. In 1945 that was open land. Father Fay even goes on to talk about being next to a Franciscan Monastery which I found was near to Paterskerk. Its about 1km from St Servatius and in 1945 there was a road connecting the two. That tends to support the Army's concept of a hospital area (9+84).

I believe the photo you sent is of fairly recently developed apartments called Franciscanerpoort. Coincidence? It is a redevelopment, not a new build. That would seem to put us both at the same spot for BGH 84.

Reading more about BGH 9, this was a fully fledged hospital with three surgeons and upgradable to 2000 beds. 4800 casualties passed through in the two weeks after the Rhine Crossing started, a record for any BGH. That's 300-odd per day. So it is possible if the casualties mostly required a surgeon then some casualties may have been moved to St Elisabeth civilian hospital.

Arthur was injured around 2:30am on 24th March 1945, one of the first, even before a casualty station was operating on the east bank and they were laid at Bislich Bay to be loaded into empty Buffaloes returning to the west bank. He might have been an early evacuation to Venray if his injuries were immediately considered serious. In which case I would expect he was admitted to BGH9 and doubt he would have been moved from there. If his condition deteriorated before he was evacuated then he may have been moved closer to his date of death and may then possibly have been moved to St Elizabeth where he died. I doubt we will ever know.

For reasons I won't bore you with now, I am convinced that he was Carrier Platoon. On 24th March they were in the first wave, in their designated Buffalo on foot not with vehicles, to take the Fahrhaus to be used as an RAP. They were offloaded at Bislich Bay and had a small bund to mount before facing the defenders. I have studied medical records and recall my Dad saying he was told Arthur had a chest wound. That would suggest small arms fire from the Fahrhaus at short range rather than a shumine which would have caused damage to the lower body.

So that is where I am at Alex. I am now editing my account of Arthur (third time) and am trying to close out now and stop the research. However, and interestingly, I did stumble across a photo of a memorial stone for him at the grave of his parents in London, erected by his brother who I used to call my Uncle Bert. Arthur has no living relatives only a lady in Australia who became a distant relative by virtue of a remarriage. She had heard of him but had no details to offer me.

So will end now.

Great to be in touch again Alex and lovely to hear from you. Its great to stay in touch and one day I hope we will be able to meet, my wish would be in Bislich.

Best regards, as always
Keith