The Commonwealth War graves cross |
The churchyard of St John the Baptist, has many graves of service personnel, a fact that is not surprising given that the RAF Base at Scampton lies just over the road from the church. One thing that is surprising however is that the churchyard contains a number of graves of German war dead.. When all the German dead of the second world war were being collected up and re-interred in the large war cemetery in Cannock Chase the relatives of these men refused permission as the graves here are treated with the same respect and looked after in the same way as the British war dead.
The German Graves |
2. Unteroffizier (Sergeant) Alfred Altenkirch, born 20.9.1924 in Bergeow, killed in action 4.3.1945
3. Leutnant (Pilot Officer) Kurt Hanning, born 11.9.1919 in Hannover, killed in action 12.5.1941
4. *Helmuth Wimmender, born 19.5.1920, killed in action 12.5.1941 (further details unknown)
*E.H. Reidel, (date of birth not given, details unknown), killed in action 12.5.1941
this 5th body in the 1941 graves Shares a grave with Wimmender was not discovered till the 1960's and was a ground crew man originally posted as a deserter.He apparently tagged along for a jolly
Front Row - Left to Right:
1. Unteroffizier (Sergeant) Rudolf Scherer, born 4.4.1922 in Aschaffenburg-Alzenau, killed in action 4.3.1945
2. Obergefreiter (Corporal) Werner Nollau, born 8.10.1923 in Oschatz, killed in action 4.3.1945
3. Unteroffizier (Sergeant) Wilhelm August Christian Hansen, born 30.3.1916 in Herford, killed in action 12.5.1941
4. Gefreiter (LAC) Johannes Dietrich, born 8.12.1918 in Heinrichswalde, killed in action 12.5.1941
No one seems to have any concrete proof of what happened to the 1945 crew but there were heavy raids on the night 3rd 4th March with Junkers 88's sneaking back in formations of Halifax Bombers and attacking them as they came in to land ,this crew were possibly aboard a Ju88 that was brought down in nearby Welton ?.
The rear section of Wargraves |
Hi - This may shed some light on the German aircrew graves at Scampton:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.aircrewremembrancesociety.co.uk/styled-15/styled-22/styled-171/index.html
Excelllent ,thank you for the link and its nice to know people look at the older posts as well ,again a big thanks for the link .
ReplyDelete