Commonwealth War Graves Commission

On the afternoon of 11 July 1944, a Canadian Corps HQ once again became operational on the soil of France. Lieutenant-General Guy Granville Simonds assumed responsibility for 8,000 yards of front in the Caen sector. There was little time or inclination to mark this event or link it with the memory of the vaunted Canadian Corps of World War 1 fame—there was too much to be done. Elements of the newly-arrived 2nd Canadian Infantry Division would take over part of the line and acquire some badly needed experience. Plans for the Corps’ role in Operation “Goodwood” had to be elaborated while Simonds met with his Divisional and Brigade commanders. The following documents are reproduced from the War Diaries of the 2nd Field Historical Section, July 1944 (National Archives of Canada RG24 Volume 17506). Major A.T, Sesia, who commanded the unit, tried to record Simonds’ words in the first extract, but settled on a summary of the General’s views in subsequent reports.

Bruno Bobak enlisted in the Canadian army in 1943 at the age of 20. As an amateur artist who sketched his bunk mates for extra money he came to the attention of the Historical Section at Canadian Military Headquarters in London and was taken on strength as a service artist. After completing officer training in the summer of 1944 he became an official war artist and served with 4th Canadian Armoured Division from December 1944 to July 1945. The two years he spent as a war artist provided him with the equivalent of the art schooling he had never had and it allowed him to become a painter, which he continued to be for the next seven richly productive decades. Resume : Bruno Bobak s’enrola dans l’Armee canadienne en 1943; il avait 20 ans. Pour se faire un peu d’argent, il esquissait des croquis de ses compagnons de dortoir. Cela attira bientot l’attention des autorites qui l’affecterent en tant qu’artiste militaire. Une fois sa formation d’officier terminee a l’ete 1944, il devint un ar...

The Régiment de Maisonneuve provided one of the 36 infantry battalions which served in the Canadian army during the campaign in Northwest Europe. It was one of four French-Canadian battalions raised in the province of Quebec during the first months of the war. Originally the Department of National Defence had intended to create a French-Canadian brigade but when it was

On the afternoon of 11 July 1944, a Canadian Corps HQ once again became operational on the soil of France. Lieutenant-General Guy Granville Simonds assumed responsibility for 8,000 yards of front in the Caen sector. There was little time or inclination to mark this event or link it with the memory of the vaunted Canadian Corps of World War 1 fame—there was too much to be done. Elements of the newly-arrived 2nd Canadian Infantry Division would take over part of the line and acquire some badly needed experience. Plans for the Corps’ role in Operation “Goodwood” had to be elaborated while Simonds met with his Divisional and Brigade commanders. The following documents are reproduced from the War Diaries of the 2nd Field Historical Section, July 1944 (National Archives of Canada RG24 Volume 17506). Major A.T, Sesia, who commanded the unit, tried to record Simonds’ words in the first extract, but settled on a summary of the General’s views in subsequent reports.

This describes how this anonymous book is concerned with a private trip by Lord and Lady Willingdon to the scenes of British battles in Iraq in April 1918 as part of their mission to care for the wounded and fallen from the Mesopotamian Campaign. This has a strong resonance with the British Museum as its then director, Sir Frederick Kenyon, wrote a seminal report entitled 'War Graves: How the Cemeteries Abroad Will Be Designed'. The Museum played a much more important role then in the recording and protection of archaeological sites in southern Iraq than previously recognised, and the acquisition of this rare publication adds a new nuance to that activity. The frontispiece features Gertrude Bell. It was spotted in an antiquarian book catalogue and is the first copy to be catalogued in a UK public institution.

Not every soldier who served with or under Simonds would share this enthusiasm. The General's cool, detached, analytical mind was accompanied by an overwhelming selfconfidence and a degree of arrogance which could make life very difficult for those, who in Simonds' view, failed to live up to his standards. Simonds did not attempt to lead, he sought only to command. An army of volunteer citizen-soldiers, with an officer corps of widely varying experience and ability certainly needed solid professionalism at the top, but it also needed something more-a type of leadership which could raise it above a collection of fiercely independent and proud regiments and Simonds, like Crerar, could not provide this.

in CAPANO Francesca, MAGLIO Emma, VISONE Massimo (a cura di), Città e guerra. Difese, distruzioni, permanenze delle memorie e dell’immagine urbana, tomo I - Fonti e testimonianze, Atti del X Convegno Internazionale di Studi “CIRICE 2023” (Napoli, 8-10 giugno 2023), FedOA - Federico II University Press, Napoli 2023, pp. 877-885. [ISBN: 978-88-6887-175-8]

One of the lesser-known World War II UK and Dominion Forces unit types was the Graves Registration and Enquiries Unit (GREU), or the Graves Registration Unit (GRU). These units were located behind the lines and were responsible for curating the war dead between their burial—theoretically by front line troops but not infrequently by GRUs themselves—and their concentration into permanent war cemeteries. This volume presents the wartime diaries of Walter (Wally) von Schramm, the Officer in Command of one such unit, the New Zealand Graves Registration and Enquiries Unit (NZGREU), during and immediately after the war's North African campaign. The diaries run from January 1941 to July 1943 and cover his journey from the UK to Egypt, his initial service in Egypt with a training battalion based at Maadi Camp outside Cairo, his service in Libya and Egypt with the NZGREU, and his return to New Zealand. Also included are a short essay on the work of GRUs in the Middle East and Africa, possibly written by him for the NZEF Times, a free newspaper produced for Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force (2NZEF) personnel, a series of excerpts from his official unit War Diary, and an unattributed and undated protocol, apparently issued to him as Officer in Command of the NZGREU, outlining the duties of a GRU. Collectively, these forgotten and till now unstudied documents provide a unique insight into both the role of, and everyday life in, a GRU during and immediately after the campaign, revealing to us their attendant routines, frustrations, dangers, stresses and—at times—disgust and horror. In this way they add significantly to our knowledge and understanding of the campaign, and also of these essential, but lesser-known units. The present chapter considers the post war and possible future trajectory of the region's war cemeteries, including several of those on which Wally and his unit worked. The complete volume was published on ANZAC day 2024.

While the battle for control of Etavaux and Maltot was fought, Lieut-General Miles Dempsey, the commander of Second British Army, met with Guy Simonds, CO of II Canadian Corps, to plan a new offensive in the Canadian sector. On 21 July Montgomery had issued a directive which required II Canadian Corps to remain "as active as possible" so that the enemy would believe that "we contemplate a major advance towards Falaise and Argentan.. .. The Germans must," Montgomery wrote, "be induced to build up strength east of the Orne so our affairs on the western flank can proceed with greater speed." 2 This directive is often cited as proof that the Canadian assault on Verrieres Ridge, code-45

While the battle for control of Etavaux and Maltot was fought, Lieut-General Miles Dempsey, the commander of Second British Army, met with Guy Simonds, CO of II Canadian Corps, to plan a new offensive in the Canadian sector. On 21 July Montgomery had issued a directive which required II Canadian Corps to remain "as active as possible" so that the enemy would believe that "we contemplate a major advance towards Falaise and Argentan.. .. The Germans must," Montgomery wrote, "be induced to build up strength east of the Orne so our affairs on the western flank can proceed with greater speed." 2 This directive is often cited as proof that the Canadian assault on Verrieres Ridge, code-45

The Régiment de Maisonneuve provided one of the 36 infantry battalions which served in the Canadian army during the campaign in Northwest Europe. It was one of four French-Canadian battalions raised in the province of Quebec during the first months of the war. Originally the Department of National Defence had intended to create a French-Canadian brigade but when it was

Gegenstand dieser Arbeit ist die Untersuchung der Konstruktion von Erinnerung im Kontext des britischen Remembrance Sunday. Die kollektive Inszenierung von Erinnerung durch die Veteranenorganisation Royal British Legion wird der individuellen ...

Die Ideen für die kulturwissenschaftliche Untersuchung eines Gegenstandes oder Phänomens entspringen in der Regel aus eigenen Interessen und Motivationen, d.h. sie dienen der Befriedigung der persönlichen und unaufhaltbaren Neugier und tragen zum besseren eigenen Verständnis der unmittelbaren Umgebung und der Welt bei. Das Thema "Sterben-Tod-Trauer" beschäftigt meine Phantasie und meine Emotionen seit Jahrzehnten. Zwei bewegende Erlebnisse, denen ich im Ausland beiwohnte, motivierten mich zum Nachdenken und zur intensiven Auseinandersetzung mit diesem Thema. Das erste bedeutende Erlebnis ereignete sich in Bulgarien im Jahre 1990, als die bestehende sozialistische Ordnung zerfiel und das Land und seine Menschen die tiefste soziale Not seit der Nachkriegszeit durchlebten. In Nova Tscherna, einem kleinen Dorf an der Donau, im Nordosten des Landes schien die Zeit trotz Wandlungen und Neubeginn stehen geblieben zu sein. Dort wohnte ich einem mehrtägigen Bestattungsritual bei. Die Rituale, die im Kreise der Großfamilie und Freunde, in greifbarer Nähe des Todes, mit liebevoller Hingabe sorgfältig vorbereitet und mehrere Tage und Nächte in Anwesenheit des Verstorbenen bewusst erlebt wurden, erfüllten mich mit Andacht und brachten mich zum Nachdenken. Die rituelle Abschiedsszene in der griechisch-orthodoxen Kirche beeindruckte mich besonders. Während der Liturgie lag der Verstorbene vor dem Altar in einem offenen Sarg. Danach bildeten zunächst die nahestehenden Familienmitglieder, dann später Verwandte und Freunde eine Reihe, um mit einem Abschiedskuss von dem geliebten Großvater, Vater, Bruder, Freund, Bekannten usw. Abschied zu nehmen. Zwei Jahre später nahm ich an einer Beerdigung in einer süddeutschen Kleinstadt teil. Eine ältere Verwandte meiner Familie, die seit den Nachkriegsjahren in Deutschland lebte, war aus dem Leben geschieden. Die Bestattungszeremonie wurde von einem Bestattungsunternehmen organisiert und der letzte Abschied der Hinterbliebenen-für viele die einzige Möglichkeit zur Abschiedsnahme-fand innerhalb von einer Stunde in der Friedhofskapelle statt. Das ästhetisch perfekt organisierte Begräbnis wurde im engsten Kreise der Familie und Freunde vollzogen. An diesen beiden zeitnahen Beispielen, aus unterschiedlichen Kulturkreisen, wird der Umgang mit Verstorbenen aus ganz unterschiedlichen historischen, gesellschaftlichen und kulturellen Kontexten heraus deutlich. Daraus ergab sich für mich die Frage, wie die soziale und kulturelle Auseinandersetzung mit der gegenwärtigen Todesproblematik in Ungarn aussieht? Die Rolle der geografischen Lage Ungarns zwischen Ost-und Westeuropa ist im kulturellen Bereich viii entscheidend. Das Land befindet sich seit über zehn Jahren in einer Umbruchssituation, die sich auf soziokultureller Ebene durch Experimentieren vollzieht, das heißt, traditionelle Brauchformen gehen zurück und modernere Erscheinungsformen und Verhaltensweisen verändern die Brauchtumslandschaft. Die unterschiedlichen Umgangsformen der letzten Jahrzehnte mit Sterbenden, Toten und Hinterbliebenen zeigen dabei Ähnlichkeiten sowohl mit den bulgarischen als auch mit den deutschen Verhältnissen. Die tiefgreifende Veränderung der Verhältnisse während der Wende im Jahr 1989, die mich während meines Studiums an der Universität in Pécs/Ungarn begleiteten, haben meine Umgebung und meine Wahrnehmung stark beeinflusst. Diese Zeit sowie persönliche Betroffenheit haben mich auf dem Weg zu dieser Themenwahl geleitet. Das Studium der Empirischen Kulturwissenschaft an der Universität Tübingen ermöglichte mir Seminarangebote zum Themenkreis "Sterben-Tod-Trauer" sowie zu angrenzenden Bereichen wahrzunehmen und die so gewonnenen Erkenntnisse in meiner Arbeit zu vertiefen. Diese Arbeit ist folglich das Ergebnis mehrjähriger Beobachtung und Forschung sowie Manifest persönlicher Interessen. 3 Die Legalisierung der Zweiten Wirtschaft-der Schattenwirtschaft, in welcher man "außerhalb des staatlichen Rahmens, zusätzliches Einkommen erzielen konnte"-war die nachträgliche rechtliche Anerkennung der gesellschaftlichen Entwicklung und Praxis der letzten zwanzig Jahre.

David Macri recently defended his PhD thesis "Hong Kong in the Sino-Japanese War: The Logistics of Collective Security in South China, 1935-1941" at the University of Hong Kong. The thesis raises new and important questions about the strategic background to the events of late 1941. Dr. Macri is also interested in operational and tactical issues and this report from the US National Archives is of special interest to Canadians. The author, Major Reynolds Condon, was an American assistant military attaché in Hong Kong who witnessed the battle before being released back to the US. His report, while not always factually correct, helps shed some light on aspects of the battle for which he was an eyewitness.

If I should die, think only this of me: That there's some corner of a foreign field That is forever England. 2 Rupert Brooke subsequently imagines an "English heaven" of flowers, clean air and rivers, the laughter of friends, and "hearts at peace", in stark contrast not only to the horrors of trench warfare but also to his own inner turmoil and to the realities of life at home for the majority of his compatriots. Nevertheless, despite or perhaps because of its naïve sentimentality, Brooke's "The Soldier" is "probably the best-known sonnet published in English in the twentieth century" 3 and serves as a paradigmatic articulation of English national identity in the face of the trauma of the First World War. Its mystique was heightened by the poet's death on the way to Gallipoli in April 1915, which although attributable to an infected mosquito bite rather than to heroism in battle, led to him being eulogised in The Times for his willingness to die "for the dear England whose beauty and majesty he knew". The writer, probably Winston Churchill, hailed Brooke as "all that one would wish England's noblest sons to be in days when no sacrifice but the most precious is acceptable". 4 Brooke's and Churchill's "England" was at odds with the multinational and multi-ethnic composition of the British imperial forces that went to war in 1914. Indeed, such a concept of "England" was not a literal geographical 1 The research for this essay was funded by an RCUK Global Uncertainties Leadership Fellowship. I am also grateful to the editors of the International Journal for the Study of the Christian Church and to Taylor & Francis for permission to reprint some passages that first appeared in my article in that journal, 15:1 (March 2015), 23-38, " 'Martyrs as really as St Stephen was a martyr'? Commemorating the British dead of the First World War".

Standort des Denkmals Wie in vielen umliegenden Dörfern wurde auch im Dorf Lindenau nach dem Ende des Ersten Weltkriegs ein Denkmal für die in diesem Krieg gefallenen Einwohner errichtet. Den Standort des Denkmals können wir dank alter Meßtischblattkarten herausfinden, auf denen das entsprechende Symbol in der Dorfmitte eingezeichnet ist. Ich habe keine Archivfotos gefunden, die dieses Bauwerk zeigen. Nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg wurde das Dorf in Lipienica umbenannt, und das Denkmal wurde entfernt. Tatsäch

In a unique constellation, and in immediate proximity to one another, the Südwestkirchhof in Stahnsdorf near Berlin comprises three World War I military cemeteries: A German, a British, and an Italian war cemetery. The article not only compares the design of the three cemeteries, but also the alterations across the decades following the war; especially World War II and the period of the Division of Germany brought about substantial changes to these sites. By analyzing the handling of the often very practical problems of maintenance and attendance of these diplomatically highly sensible memorial sites, they emerge as indicators of changes in international relationships and national remembrance politics.

In a unique constellation, and in immediate proximity to one another, the Südwestkirchhof in Stahnsdorf near Berlin comprises three World War I military cemeteries: A German, a British, and an Italian war cemetery. The article not only compares the design of the three cemeteries, but also the alterations across the decades following the war; especially World War II and the period of the Division of Germany brought about substantial changes to these sites. By analyzing the handling of the often very practical problems of maintenance and attendance of these diplomatically highly sensible memorial sites, they emerge as indicators of changes in international relationships and national remembrance politics.

The 100th Anniversary of the Second Battle of Ypres was marked with Royal Attendance of a remembrance ceremony and, perhaps more importantly to most Canadians, a “shout-out" to the battle given by Don Cherry on Coach’s Corner. The ways in which this battle has been remembered and written about have shifted significantly in the last 100 years, and this paper attempts to chart some of the ways in which it has been understood by scholars and soldiers. Just outside of the Belgian town of Ypres, a few paces from the village of St. Julien, at the former site of an intersection known as Vancouver Corner, the granite figure of a brooding soldier— bowed but unbroken— rises on a granite plinth to monumental height. At eleven metres high, the soldier looks down on an otherwise sleepy intersection. The base of the memorial is inscribed simply with the word “Canada.” It is surrounded by trees, farm buildings, and military cemeteries— thirty-two can be found within the twenty kilometres encl...

The Empire Air Training Scheme (EATS) was established during World War II (WWII) to dramatically increase the British Empire’s air power capabilities. Between 1940 and 1945, the training facilities of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) expanded phenomenally. At the outbreak of war, the strength of the RAAF numbered 3489 personnel of all ranks and its training schools numbered three. By November 1944, RAAF personnel numbers had increased to 183,822 and schools numbered 59. During this period, the RAAF amassed a vast assemblage of material culture, while its personnel created innumerable memories related to training for wartime service.
Australia’s involvement in total war resulted in the transformation of agricultural and residential land into sites of modern conflict on the home front. Newly erected airfields, hangars, workshops, barracks and kitchens were filled with aeroplanes, vehicles, machinery, tools, utensils, uniforms and people. The logistics of EATS required the militarisation of the physical landscape, the implementation of belligerent technologies and the development of air combat skills. Accidents, injuries and fatalities were all significant risks for trainees. Eighty years after its commencement, the impact of EATS remains evident in diverse artefacts, landscapes, memories, memorials and performative remembrance practices.
This thesis explores the legacy of the RAAF’s unprecedented expansion during WWII by analysing the material and affective heritage of EATS on Australia’s home front. It unites the written and archival history of EATS with its collected assemblages, in order to provide a more comprehensive and inclusive account of the Scheme. My analysis is structured around the museological inheritance of two former EATS schools in New South Wales: 10 Elementary Flying Training School, Temora and 5 Service Flying Training School, Uranquinty. I ask what remains of these schools to interpret Australia’s participation in EATS and whether their physical and social landscapes sustain an enduring legacy of this vast enterprise.
As I engage with both the historical records of EATS and current-day museum collections, a key intervention is to quantify and analyse its ‘uncollected heritage’. I compare the artefacts and stories that have been retained with those objects and narratives that are absent. My intention is to encourage the collection and interpretation of a heritage that is more representative of the aerial armada that transformed Australia and its involvement in a truly global war.

This article explores the interactions between the Imperial War Graves Commission and the bereaved. It particularly focuses on communications between the Commission and those with loved ones who died as a result of the First World War, as outlined by the Commission’s charter, and who are commemorated across England. Through a close study of some of the recently digitized e-files held in the Commission’s Archives at Maidenhead, broader discussions surrounding the questions commonly asked by members of the public are showcased, thus highlighting the unique nature of the work undertaken by the Commission across England.

Hero stones act as war memorials in ancient India commemorating the local and social heroes who died while protecting the communal tribes or the given area. Engravings on the stones are made to immortalise the heroes with symbols or with heroic pictures sometimes depicting the incidents of their heroic deaths or sometimes the stone also has engravings according to their social status in the community.

Im August 2014 jährt sich der Ausbruch des Ersten Weltkrieges (1914-1918) zum 100. Mal. Im Sommer 1914 entfesselte Europa einen unfassbar grausamen, erstmals global ausgetragenen Konflikt mit Folgen, die unsere Gegenwart bis heute prägen. Was uns Deutschen allerdings häufig wenig bewusst ist und bei unseren Nachbarn in Europa für Irritationen sorgen kann: In Deutschland scheinen die Millionen toten Soldaten und Zivilisten des Krieges von 1914-1918 nahezu vergessen zu sein. Das Gedenken steht hier ganz im Schatten des Zweiten Weltkriegs. Der Große Krieg, wie Belgier, Briten und Franzosen noch heute den Ersten Weltkrieg nennen, ist dagegen im kollektiven Gedächtnis unserer (west-)europäischen Nachbarn und anderer Nationen wie Australien, Neuseeland oder Kanada tief verankert. Wie können wir daher heute für die Dimensionen dieser "Urkatastrophe des 20. Jahrhunderts" (George F. Kennan) und die Spuren, die sie bis heute hinterlassen hat, sensibilisieren? Wie können wir dazu bei...

State obligation to guarantee both individual burial and upkeep of graves of fallen soldiers and victims of political violence has become a respected principle in international relations during the course of the 20th century. Much academic attention has been paid to responses of societies to western front wartime experiences and the subsequent creation of vast interwar period cemeteries, which established a common notion of the war grave as a symbol for the destructive outcome of modern warfare. In Germany, however, where most war cemeteries were built after 1945, war graves are less entangled with the history of trench warfare. Since maintenance of war graves can be understood as an international practice since WW I, this nevertheless allowed Germany to build war cemeteries in various countries in the decades after the Second World War. This article examines the international preconditions under which war cemeteries were built after both World Wars and how this affected access to g...

The concept of memory (memorial site) has gained crucial importance in recent years for the identification of places (areas) and in the affirmation of local identities. The memorial sites are areas where usually tragic events have occurred and resulted in a cultural change. In these places there are still signs of these historical events and/or tangible and intangible indications created by the society such as: monuments, obelisks, marble inscriptions, others. Sicily represents an ideal area for studying memorial sites; not only because of the number of dominations in the past centuries, but also for the significance of all places where the mafia has taken its root. These elements have caused several changes in the culture and in the landscape. Sicily is the land where “Operation Husky” began, in the summer of 1943. This agreement between the Americans and the British aimed at occupying Sicily, Italy after World War II. Seventy years after this operation the territory is still marke...