Celtic Wood - Passchedale

[DeanneandTony]

I would really really like to get a photo of a grave at Dochy Farm New British Cemetery (my uncle's brother).  We missed it when we were in Flanders thanks to our rather grumpy tour guide (long story).  Anyway, does anyone know how I might go about it?  As we're in Australia can't exactly 'pop' over.

Deanne

[Buzancy18]

You could try a photo request on
http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/index.php?showforum=164

There are Belgian contributors who will be nearby.

Buzancy18

[Viktoria]

 We attended the 50th anniversary of Passchendaele(3rdYpres)in October 1967.
 An aeroplane of the Canadian Air Force flew over Tyne Cot Cemetery and dropped a poppy for each soldier killed in that engagement. They fluttered down and built up against the small white headstones like drifts of red snow.
 We saw a woman frantically looking at the headstones, I spoke to her and she said she was looking for her father, Private Strachey of the Inniskillin Fusiliers, killed October 17th 1917.
 She was with a coach tour and had no time to consult the register at the gate  as we were at the lower end of the cemetery where her coach was parked on the small road.
 On our way to Ypres where there was to be a service in St.George`s memorial Church we stopped our car and got out to visit a tiny battlefield cemetery where the graves were in no order , the men buried randomly. And there he was. We had not got the woman`s address, had not seen which coach company it was and had no way of contacting her. It was heartbreaking.
 We proceeded to Ypres where The Northumberland Fusiliers ( just back from the crater district in Aden) were standing guard duty. They were a bit cross as there was a fair on in the big square in front of The Cloth Hall. They wore hackles in their berets and the Belgian people thought they had won them at the shooting gallery where similar bunches of feathers could be won if you shot all segments of clay pipe  threaded on a thin wire with the feathers at the top. Things were getting a bit edgy and the lads were getting quite upset so we spoke to a police officer to explain the hackles  represented great bravery shown in battle and the lads were battle weary having just come from Aden and this duty was an honour for them and explained the name  Tyne Cot and its association with Northumberland and this regiment  etc . He spoke to people and stallholders and we told the lads to pass the word around no harm was meant the Belgian people did not understand. The lads were treated to chips but sadly they were disappointed when there was no vinegar just mayonnaise or pickles!  I can hear them still --" Hey mon they`ve no vinegar for wor chips!"
 What a privilege to have attended that ceremony. I have one of the poppies which had caught in my son`s jacket hood.We found it later when he took it off in church.
 The little higgledy piggledy cemetery has now been "rationalised" to make mowing easier!!!!!
  But they are kept so beautifully that I mustn`t complain, but there was a poignancy about it beyond what you would  feel anyway.
                                                           Viktoria

[DeanneandTony]

thank you Buzancy18 - I will try that site.

Deanne

[mwylie]

Celtic Wood

Mystery explained[edit]
In 2008, researchers Chris Henschke and Robert Kearney undertook steps to solve the mystery. By analysing after action reports, wartime diaries and witness statements that were able to be verified, they say they are able to account for the fate of all the missing men beyond a reasonable level of doubt and attributed the mystery to the fog of war, clerical errors and misreporting.[1]

The attack[edit]
Rather than the "rolling curtain of death" expected to shield the attack, the barrage was light and scattered when the 10th charged across the 180 metres (200 yd) separating Celtic Wood from the Australian trenches. The terrain to be crossed consisted of tree stumps, bomb craters metres wide and due to heavy rain over the preceding days, mud that in some places was knee-deep. Compounding this, the 10th had made two raids on Celtic Wood the previous week, leading the Germans to reinforce and install extra machine gun nests. Lt Scott ordered a frontal attack on the German trench while he led a group around to flank it from the rear. Despite being outnumbered, Scott was successful and the German troops began a retreat as soon as they were fired on from the rear.

German reinforcements quickly arrived and engaged the Australians in hand to hand combat, pushing them back while at the same time German artillery opened up, laying a curtain between the Australian and German trenches making a retreat impossible. Within a short time all the officers were dead or wounded and Sergeant William Cole tried to fire the flare signalling the withdrawal but was killed as he was firing the flare. The remaining men were left to find their own way to safety.

From cross-referencing all the available records, researchers believe that a massacre was unlikely as the British had begun an artillery barrage on the position preventing German troops from pursuing the retreating Australians. At the same time the German artillery barrage continued, preventing the Australians from retreating. Caught in the barrages, the 37 missing soldiers were likely killed in the heavy shelling and along with the bodies of those previously killed in the attack, left no recognisable remains to be recovered.[1][6]

Historian Chris Henschke stated: "the raid wasn't a great mystery, but it was simply a raid with a very high proportion of casualties... It is a story of a typical small unit action that went wrong."[1]

Notes[edit]
^ Jump up to: a b c d e Faulkner, Andrew (24 April 2011). "Anzac mystery solved after 94 years". The Advertiser. Retrieved 26 May 2012.