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Location: Becklingen, Germany Lying less than 300km west of Berlin, Becklingen War Cemetery overlooks Luneburg Heath, where Field-Marshal Montgomery accepted the German surrender from Admiral Doenitz on 4 May 1945. Here lies the only member of my family who saw active service during the war; Lt. J.D. (Denis) Elmore, a tank commander in the 8th Armoured Brigade, Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry. He was killed in Bremen on 19th April 1945, when his tank was hit by a round from a German 88mm anti-aircraft/anti-tank gun. Two weeks later and he would have come home. Like so many, so far away from home but
not forgotten.
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Location: Hilversum, The Netherlands 16 British servicemen lie in the Noorderbegraafplaats in Hilversum. They all appear to have died after the liberation of The Netherlands. Something I will research. I was disappointed in the state of repair. A hedge of Lavender has been planted infront of the gravestones. Not a typical English garden. It certainly made it more difficult to read them and even more difficult to lay flowers. They looked better a few years ago. See below. Like so many, so far away from home but
not forgotten.
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Location: Bears' Lair, Hilversum Our first, but hopefully not our last LAN
this year. A fun day of COD4 and UT3 Instagib. 6 players made it
possible for some TDM and LB was on a losin' streak :P |
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Location: Texel, The Netherlands There are 2 war cemeteries on the Dutch
island Texel; one Commonwealth and the other Georgian. Texel was
the last battlefield in Europe. The heavily fortified island was
a pivotal point in the German Atlantic Wall system of defense. The
men of the rebellious battalion were soldiers from the Soviet Republic
of Georgia captured on the Eastern front. They had been given a
choice rarely offered by the Germans: the captured soldiers could
choose either to remain in the POW camps, which would mean almost
certain death, or to serve the Germans and be allowed a degree of
freedom. The battalion was formed of men who chose the latter option.
In the early hours of 6th April, determined not to obey orders for
a transfer to Harlingen and expected mainland combat against the
Allies, Georgian officers of the 822nd Infanterie Bataillon roused
their troops and mutinied. A bloody battle raged on for two weeks
after the cessation of hostilities on the Dutch mainland before
the Canadians liberated the island on 20th May. During the Russian
or Georgian war (as it is known on Texel) approximately 800 Germans,
570 Georgians, and 120 Tesselan natives were killed.
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Location: Nijmegen, The Netherlands Like so many, so far away from home but
not forgotten.
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Location: Groesbeek, The Netherlands Like so many, so far away from home but
not forgotten.
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Location: Mook, The Netherlands The Commonwealth war cemeteries were designed to look like English gardens, and they certainly do. Like so many, so far away from home but
not forgotten.
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Location: Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer (Normandy), France It sounds strange, but the beach at Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer (Omaha Beach, sector Easy Red) seems to be bleeding. I noticed this during my visit last year (click here to see the photo's), but I didn't think much of it. A year later, and it's still doing it!? Click here
to watch the film.
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Location: Fontenay-le-Pensel (Normandy), France This is one of the most beautiful war cemeteries I have visited. Like so many, so far away from home but
not forgotten.
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Location: Tessel (Normandy), France I thought that the atmosphere in Bois Jacques (Bastogne) was incredible (click here to see the photos), but it is nothing compared to Tessel Woods (Normandy). Although half of the woods has been ploughed away, this Normandy battlefield seems untouched after 60 years, with slit trenches (including the British forces' HQ), gun/mortar emplacements and bomb craters still clearly visible. Here the Britsh and German forces fought a battle of attrition as the British forces pushed down from Fontenay-le-Pensel towards Vendes. Below a few photos of the battlefield and
a map of a night patrol showing the route taken to try to capture
a German soldier. Click here
to read the story.
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Location: Vergt-de-Biron, (Vichy) France You might have thought that Vichy France
was the place to be during WWII, but not for the 63 French civilians
burned in the church at Vergt-de-Biron or those forced to work in
the German war factories. Vergt-de-Biron is a very small village
in the middle of nowhere. You just wonder what type of person could
do such a thing.
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Location: Margraten, The Netherlands Frag_Harry visited the American War Cemetery in Margraten, while in the area. It was a sunny day and the marble grave stones were almost blinding. One thing that impresses me about the war cemeteries is the fact that they are so well looked after, making them very sad, but beautiful places to visit. Lt. Col. Robert Cole of the 502d PIR 101st
Airborne Division is buried here. Robert was awarded the Purple
Heart for leading his men in a bayonet charge across the bridge
over the river Douve while pinned down by intense German machine
gun, mortar, and artillery fire on their way to Carentan on D-day+5.
He was killed during Operation Market Garden in Best (The Netherlands)
on September 18th 1944.
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Location: Venray, The Netherlands Frag_Harry visited the Venray War Cemetery,
while in the area. When reading the visitors' book he saw that the
family of Private Percy Gennard of the King's Shropshire Light Infantry
had visited the cemetery earlier this year. Like so many, so far
away from home but not forgotten.
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Location: Ysselstein, The Netherlands Frag_Harry visited the German War Cenetery
in Ysselstein. What's 30,000+ war graves when 50,000,000+ people
died. Well the sheer size of the graveyard and number of graves,
some of which of very young children (supposedly the Nazi youth),
really makes you think 'What a waste of life' and ask yourself 'Why?'.
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Location: Wageningen, The Netherlands Frag_Harry visited the Wageningen General
Cemetery, one of the many general cemetries with war graves, while
in the area.
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Location: Oosterbeek, The Netherlands Frag_Harry and BigBear visited both the
Airborne Museum Hartenstein and the Arnhem Oosterbeek War Cemetry
after having picked up Frag's new wood burner in Limburg. We were
given a tour by a man who collects anything and everything to do
with Operation Market Garden. He told us some fascinating stories
about those buried there.
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Location: Rhenen, The Netherlands Frag_Harry visited the Dutch war cemetery
Grebbeberg. Those buried there died fighting in the area in May
1940.
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