German Burials for 1940

[Owen]

Been chatting to Dave (CROONAERT) about fighting around Oostaverne, south of Ypres in May 1940.
The question of where the German casualties are buried came up.
I know the German Divisions involved were 18th, 31st & 61st.
That info comes from 5th British Division History.
If we had OrBats for them from 1940 would that help narrow down possible German casualties from that action.
(I was going to look for them on Feldgrau.com but site seems to be down.)
ah, 18 Infanterie Div here on Axis history
31 Infanterie Div here
61 Inf Div here

Do German WW2 Burials list the Soldiers unit?
Even better has anyone any details on named German casualties for then?

[CROONAERT]

It's not actually where they are buried that's in question (they are in Bourdon and Lommel), it's a question of diffrentiating who is who in these cemeteries with the lack of detail available in the cemetery records. Unfortunately, it's not possible to just go of date alone as, obviously, the German Army was suffering casualties elsewhere on the dates in question also.

I'm awaiting a list from the kriegsgraberfursorge detailing which cemeteries were transferred into which cemetery, but I suspect (as in the case of their WW1 lists) that it will be simply a list of cemeteries and ,possibly, numbers transferred as opposed to detailed personal details. Then again, I might strike lucky!

Dave

[Owen]

Dave, what details appear for a German burial?
Any mention of a unit at all?

[CROONAERT]

It all depends on the unit that maintained/started the original cemetery (some were more "germanic" in record keeping than others), whether these records were passed in completion to the kriegsgraberfursorge (if they still existed) and whether these records were maintained. Post-war, the Volksbund also made their own records of transferrals and finds, etc with ,usually, a set format of paperwork. Unfortunately, due to the size of the task, these records can be incomplete also.
German burial records can be, at best, described as "variable". Because of the period I'm interested in, I'm hoping I might be lucky here, however.

Dave

[CROONAERT]

Originally Posted by Owen D

Dave, what details appear for a German burial?
Any mention of a unit at all?

At the most detailed (we're talking identified casualties here), the kriegsgraberfursorge have paperwork that lists details of unit, personal details including NoK, original burial details and dates, sketches of ID tag (if not the original) and, upon discoveries and transfers, a "skeletal" sketch (even detailing which body parts are missing!). At the absolute worst you might be looking at paperwork that simply lists a name (might even be just a christian name) and the current burial place and plot.

See what I mean by "variable"?

Dave

[Rich Payne]

This picture from "Mei 1940" by Peter Taghon shows German burials with temporary markers dating from 28th May 1940 at Houtem-Ten Brielen (just north of Ieper). The photo looks to have been taken some time later.



The caption states that the graves are from 82nd Infantry Regiment (31st Division) and that they suffered heavy losses on 27th May - 65 dead including Oberstlt.Bayer, the Commander of IIde 82nd Regt.

(Apologies that my knowledge of German units is poor and the caption is in Dutch)

Is this sort of info helpful ?

Rich.

[CROONAERT]

Originally Posted by Rich Payne

This picture from "Mei 1940" by Peter Taghon shows German burials with temporary markers dating from 28th May 1940 at Houtem-Ten Brielen (just north of Ieper). The photo looks to have been taken some time later.



The caption states that the graves are from 82nd Infantry Regiment (31st Division) and that they suffered heavy losses on 27th May - 65 dead including Oberstlt.Bayer, the Commander of IIde 82nd Regt.

(Apologies that my knowledge of German units is poor and the caption is in Dutch)

Is this sort of info helpful ?

Rich.

Houthem and Tenbrielen are actually SE of Ypres and are within the area of interest so, yes, that is very helpful, thanks. It's not a priority of mine to actually name the German dead, but I just need a rare few for something I'm doing and so this type of thing is especially useful. Photos of the original German cemeteries and graves from this action are most welcome (looking especially for images of the small plot that was in the vicinity of Hill 60 - the Bluff and 1940 graves in 1914-18 cemeteries).

Cheers,

Dave.

[Rich Payne]

Dave, looks as if I need "ondertiteling" on my maps of West Vlaanderen ! I found Brielen north of Ieper and didn't bother to look further although the geography should have told me to !

I'll see if I can find anything else.

Rich.

[Owen]

Good one Rich!
Dave,
Where would Bayer be buried now?
You know your way around the VDK site better than most.

[Harry Ree]

The Cologne cemetery at Zollstock contains quite a number of Wehrmacht 1940 burials whose dead must have fallen external to Germany possibily from the 10 May onslaught on the Western Wall.Greater still are the burials from late 1944 when the first German town of Aachen fell to the Allies.