Dado
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Post by Dado on Sept 29, 2016 13:50:05 GMT
Today in 1918 was the beginning of the battle of St. Quentin Canal during WWI. The September 29th date sticks out to me personally due to the number of tombstones I've found with that death date during my 15 years of genealogical research and because of my own family's contribution to that battle. The battle was a combined assault by British, Australian, and American forces against the German forces along the Hindenburg Line. The American forces involved were the 27th and 30th Infantry Divisions. The 119th Infantry Regiment of the US 30th Infantry Division was originally a North Carolina National Guard unit which is why I've found the date on numerous headstones. My maternal Great Grand Uncle was killed on the opening day of the battle. His body was returned stateside and he was buried in a family cemetery on what is now the downrange end of a rifle range below the New River Air Station across Stones Bay from Camp Legeune. The cemetery was moved to the Federal Cemetery at Montford Point when the Navy stole all the land to build the Marine Base during WWII. An interesting aside (for me at least) is that my 2nd Great Grandmother didn't want to believe her youngest son (youngest of 7 sons) had been killed so my Great Grandfather who was the oldest son and a couple of his younger brothers broke into the funeral home the night before the funeral and opened the casket to verify it was him. It was. On the other side of my family, my paternal Grandfather was wounded in the knee on the same day. He survived his wound carrying the bullet in his knee for the rest of his life and returned to the fight on 5 December 1918. I never met him as he died 7 years before I was born but my Aunt (the youngest of 12) has told me that as a child she and my father (2nd youngest who I also never met) were always fascinated by the bullet as they could see the lump and feel it under the skin. Below are a couple of photos that I've found over the years. Camp Glenn, Morehead City, NC 1916. This is where both of my ancestors were posted prior to shipping out.  Combined Operations Map, 30th Div A.E.F., St. Quentin - Cambrai Front, Sept 27 to Oct 20 1918  A link to the wikipage on the battle. The Battle of St. Quentin Canal |
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ll SkagPipe ll
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Post by ll SkagPipe ll on Sept 29, 2016 16:19:03 GMT
Interesting. Thanks for sharing. What were your ancestors jobs? The ww1 gravestones I've seen usually have literal descriptions of their job. "Artillery cart driver" "quartermaster aid"
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Dado
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Post by Dado on Sept 29, 2016 16:56:51 GMT
Interesting. Thanks for sharing. What were your ancestors jobs? The ww1 gravestones I've seen usually have literal descriptions their job. "Artillery cat driver" "quartermaster aid" I assume they were both grunts. I haven't found anything that specifies any particular MOS (or whatever it was called back then). Here are the tombstones and a pic of my Great Grand Uncle. I'm not aware of any pics of my Grandfather in uniform but I do have one of my Grandmother who would become his wife in her Red Cross volunteer uniform.    |
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Dado
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Post by Dado on Sept 29, 2016 16:58:21 GMT
The grandmother pic.  I forgot about the 3 attachment rule.  |
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Vince Cable's Exotic Spresm
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Post by Vince Cable's Exotic Spresm on Sept 29, 2016 17:17:53 GMT
It's nice to see that sort of thing. Family serving in the two wars isn't something much talked about in the UK, at least not in my experience, so I don't know much of my family, but I found just one First World War death with my surname, a Royal Engineers sapper who died in June 1918. I'm probably related to him, since I've got a really obscure surname, but what puzzles me is that he's listed as living in Monmouth at the time of his death and his home town being Cheltenham, which are both in the South West of England, near Wales, and as far as I know my family has always lived north of the Humber. My mother's maiden name is a bit more common, so there's about 5000 war dead across both world wars with that name, but from Yorkshire there are seven, all from WWII; a gunner with the Royal Artillery, another RE Sapper, two RAFVR Flight Sergeants, one a bomb aimer with 178 Squadron and another of unspecified trade serving with a Canadian squadron, as well as a Private with the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, a Corporal in the Royal Horse Guards and a soldier with the Cameronians. I don't know if I'm related to any or all of them, but I'm going to have to do some digging around. One is buried at Dunkirk, three in Italy, one in Surrey, one in the Netherlands and even on in Japan. I shudder to think how the chap buried in Japan died.
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Dado
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Post by Dado on Sept 29, 2016 17:37:00 GMT
It's nice to see that sort of thing. Family serving in the two wars isn't something much talked about in the UK, at least not in my experience, so I don't know much of my family, but I found just one First World War death with my surname, a Royal Engineers sapper who died in June 1918. I'm probably related to him, since I've got a really obscure surname, but what puzzles me is that he's listed as living in Monmouth at the time of his death and his home town being Cheltenham, which are both in the South West of England, near Wales, and as far as I know my family has always lived north of the Humber. My mother's maiden name is a bit more common, so there's about 5000 war dead across both world wars with that name, but from Yorkshire there are seven, all from WWII; a gunner with the Royal Artillery, another RE Sapper, two RAFVR Flight Sergeants, one a bomb aimer with 178 Squadron and another of unspecified trade serving with a Canadian squadron, as well as a Private with the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, a Corporal in the Royal Horse Guards and a soldier with the Cameronians. I don't know if I'm related to any or all of them, but I'm going to have to do some digging around. One is buried at Dunkirk, three in Italy, one in Surrey, one in the Netherlands and even on in Japan. I shudder to think how the chap buried in Japan died. Both wars hit you Brits a lot closer to home and it's been my experience talking to old vets ranging from WWII US to WWII Germans that most don't really want to relive those memories. The German was my landlord years ago when I was stationed in Germany. It took quite a few beers to get him to loosen up but when he did he told me some interesting stories. He spent 10 years in a Russian gulag. He was Luftwaffe ground crew and told me the German pilots landed refueled and took off flying west leaving the ground crews to the mercy of the advancing Russian army. |
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Vince Cable's Exotic Spresm
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Post by Vince Cable's Exotic Spresm on Sept 29, 2016 17:47:36 GMT
It's nice to see that sort of thing. Family serving in the two wars isn't something much talked about in the UK, at least not in my experience, so I don't know much of my family, but I found just one First World War death with my surname, a Royal Engineers sapper who died in June 1918. I'm probably related to him, since I've got a really obscure surname, but what puzzles me is that he's listed as living in Monmouth at the time of his death and his home town being Cheltenham, which are both in the South West of England, near Wales, and as far as I know my family has always lived north of the Humber. My mother's maiden name is a bit more common, so there's about 5000 war dead across both world wars with that name, but from Yorkshire there are seven, all from WWII; a gunner with the Royal Artillery, another RE Sapper, two RAFVR Flight Sergeants, one a bomb aimer with 178 Squadron and another of unspecified trade serving with a Canadian squadron, as well as a Private with the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, a Corporal in the Royal Horse Guards and a soldier with the Cameronians. I don't know if I'm related to any or all of them, but I'm going to have to do some digging around. One is buried at Dunkirk, three in Italy, one in Surrey, one in the Netherlands and even on in Japan. I shudder to think how the chap buried in Japan died. Both wars hit you Brits a lot closer to home and it's been my experience talking to old vets ranging from WWII US to WWII Germans that most don't really want to relive those memories. The German was my landlord years ago when I was stationed in Germany. It took quite a few beers to get him to loosen up but when he did he told me some interesting stories. He spent 10 years in a Russian gulag. He was Luftwaffe ground crew and told me the German pilots landed refueled and took off flying west leaving the ground crews to the mercy of the advancing Russian army. One of my great-grandfathers didn't fight in the war, he was too old, but I've been told the story of how he was taking a walk along a riverside path in Yorkshire and got shot up by a pair of Italian fighters, and he had to hide under an upturned boat. Thankfully my town wasn't bombed during the war, but there is an interesting story with one of the churches. You can see in one of the stained glass windows where a part of it has been replaced with clear glass, and you can trace a line from that patch in the window to a little notch in the back of a pew. That's where a stray bullet from a German aircraft went. Also apparently you could stand on the outskirts of my town at night and watch Hull burn in the distance. There's some interesting stories from round my area, but it's nothing like other places. Too out of the way. |
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Dado
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Post by Dado on Sept 29, 2016 18:35:29 GMT
Both wars hit you Brits a lot closer to home and it's been my experience talking to old vets ranging from WWII US to WWII Germans that most don't really want to relive those memories. The German was my landlord years ago when I was stationed in Germany. It took quite a few beers to get him to loosen up but when he did he told me some interesting stories. He spent 10 years in a Russian gulag. He was Luftwaffe ground crew and told me the German pilots landed refueled and took off flying west leaving the ground crews to the mercy of the advancing Russian army. One of my great-grandfathers didn't fight in the war, he was too old, but I've been told the story of how he was taking a walk along a riverside path in Yorkshire and got shot up by a pair of Italian fighters, and he had to hide under an upturned boat. Thankfully my town wasn't bombed during the war, but there is an interesting story with one of the churches. You can see in one of the stained glass windows where a part of it has been replaced with clear glass, and you can trace a line from that patch in the window to a little notch in the back of a pew. That's where a stray bullet from a German aircraft went. Also apparently you could stand on the outskirts of my town at night and watch Hull burn in the distance. There's some interesting stories from round my area, but it's nothing like other places. Too out of the way. Yeah, that's the type of thing I was thinking about. I suspect it'd be hard to find anyone on your island that was around during that time frame that wasn't directly affected by the war and I mean more than just by the widespread lack of everything we take for granted. |
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I AM The Scouting Authority.
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Post by I AM The Scouting Authority. on Oct 31, 2016 22:27:33 GMT
My Great-Great Grandfather received the Mons Star as a member of the Medical Corp. As to where that precious medal is now is anyone's guess. Although I sincerely wish I could find it. At least I'd have a tangible link to the past and a fairly rare WW1 medal in my families possession.
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I forgot about the 3 attachment rule.
