Visiting the German Kriegräberstätte in Berneuil near Saintes France.

But if they weren't killed by battle, then why are they on a military graveyard? If we take the accidents for example.

 

where else will you bury them PD ? accidents or in battle it did not matter.

Skip Kanonier was used extensively in the Heer as a side note. A close friend was in the Artilliere and this was his designation on the Ost front.

 

Cheers Erich , i will download more pictures later today, including a Freiherr (Aristocrat) and an Oberst .

PD: as long as the men died on duty they'd be buried in a military cemetery. Even pows who died in 1947 are buried there. They all served and died as German soldiers. To be noticed, wheter private or officer, commun or nobility they are all buried in the same way: four men a grave, regarless rank or origins.

Something else : is this soldier's rank Schutze (Alfred Chlad)?

 

the grave of Freidrich Franz, Freiherr Von Hammerstein who served as an Unterofficer and die din 1944



and the grave of Oberst Erich Mewis who survived the war , sadly only to die in June 1945 .... aged 47.

 

Schutze = rifleman, that is a very rough translation, note the last two letters of TZ have been added later to the grey stonework.

 

Hi

Just wondering, but you mention that you checked for further information on these casualties (eg: killed in accidents, washed ashore, etc). Where did you obtain this extra info?

Cheers

 

Hi,

Places of death and birth + unit etc.. can generally be found at the Volkbund Kriegsgräberfürsorge site. If you want more you'd have to ask the Wast (archives in Berlin)

 

Gentlemen, my apologies, I did not mean to hijack this most interesting thread. I failed to see the discussion connecting it to the German Navy.

Gaines Blackwell



Another Kriegsgräberstätte.....Seeing this very good post reminded me of a German WW2 cemetery in Alsace, North of Strasbourg and East of Hauguenau, in the small French town of Niederbronn-les-bains. It is about 14K north of the Maginot line and less than to the German border. The US and French troops buried US and German soldiers there in 1944-45. After the war the Americans were moved to another US Cemetery at St. Avold and the 15,413 Germans now constitute the cemetery. I visited it many years ago, in film days, so am borrowing these digital images.











About 20-30K to the West is the town of Sarrebourg which contains another interesting result of WW1 &2. A Romanesque Monastery stood there, in the typical shape of a Latin cross. Due to war damage all that was salvageable was one arm of the cross plan, laid open by the missing nave. The Catholic Bishop of Saverne hired the notable Jewish artist Marc Chagall to design stained glass windows to fill the open end. It is now the extremely beautiful Chapel de la Cordeliers. A rather remarkable remnant of the wars .

 

Thanks for the reply.
I've also used these sites for info on naval losses - Die Schnellboot-Seite - S-Boats - Kriegsmarine - Losses and U-Boat Crew Lists which people may find helpful.

 

Gt : thanks for the new input of Niederbronn.

Mathsmal: also thank you for the Uboote casualties databank

 

Skip in regarding your reference to WaST you must provide proof that you are a relative to gain access to former Servicemen of the Wehrmacht. as for serious researchers we are out of luck now unless things have changed this past 9 months. And for Schnellboot losses they are all listed in the most detailed book studies the past 25 years of publication; Volkmar Kühn's work one of the oldest and still in print lists them in the back.

 

Erich, i´m not sure if you have to be a relative. The form you have to fill in allows to set a hook at a "non relative" selection. So i really don´t know, and i never had to sent anything special to them as i´ve searched about my grandpa´s. OK at one of them was the same name but not at the other one.

 

I think Ulrich is right Erich , I have several Wast documents myself which I got from non related searchers . I can imagine the access is restricted for non familly though.

 

well I know it is restricted to some extent although as I stated in the above posting WaST may have changed their tune to some degree, several German authors have had probs in the past obtaining full info on the deceased even Ritterkreuz winners and they are bonafide authors of several works on the subject.

 

I suppose their is still some very sensitive and classified info there, it explains why files are not thrown on the table

 

yes there is some restricted use information here at least this is what I was told 20 years ago. a certain KG comes to mind.

 

I placed an apology for unintentionally hijacking this most interesting post. I should have made it stand alone instead of interrupting the thoughtful responses. I tried to remove it but the photos baffled me. I will read more carefully in the future.

Kindly,

Gaines Blackwell