I am interested in a casualty of "Operation Varsity". On a concentration sheet he was idetified as: Bamford J L - Royal Artillery - KIA 24/03/1945 (the last entry on the form below) However, there is no Bamford J L to be found on the CWGC Website. What could the following entries mean: GHQ 2nd Echelon unable to trace He was found in the vicinity of DZ "A" - apparently in a single grave (grid reference is given) and was re-interred on the Reichswald Forrest Cemetary. Thanks for any suggestion that could be of help for my Research!
From the below it looks like they backtracked on the ID when they couldn't match him up with any casualties
Thanks everybody. I will have to check about the grave in the Reichswald - but judging by the form that AB64 attached this casualty is most likely listed as "unknown". AB64 - which search term helped you to find that form? Can one enter "unknown"? I never tried that... Best regards Alex
Have you contacted CWGC Contact us | CWGC Re Reichswald Forest War Cemetery 176 of the burials are unidentified. Cemetery Details | CWGC
That’s exactly what I meant Alistair, couldn’t bring it up on my old dog n bone. ID rescinded, buried as UBS. Cheers
I had a check at one of the identified soldiers beside him (Waine) in the hope that their forms overlapped and this one did. I had hoped the form would maybe explain the ID as sometimes they note the ID was from "disc", "paybook" or whatever but nothing I had initially identified that Waine was in 32.D.7, so assumed "Bamford" was in 32.D.5 so looked up casualties in the cemetery and did a download and tried search for this grave in case it showed him (maybe with a variation on the name) but couldn't get a hit so assumed it was now an unknown.
Thank you, AB64. I am collating - or have done so and am checking again - the fatal casualties for Op. Varsity between March 24th and 26th, the time span which I define as the actual battle for the airborne bridgehead. It's been done before but I am actually making interesting discoveries- for myself at least. I am also relating the fallen soldiers to the locations on the battlefield. Based on the CWGC concentration forms I have 29 "unknown" British casualties on my list (available information followed by grid reference): Soldier 216493 Soldier same location Soldier RA same location Soldier RA same location Soldier Airborne 171509 Soldier Airborne same location Soldier 6 AB Div 171513 Soldier 6 AB Div same location Soldier 6 Ab Div same location Soldier 188492 Soldier 13 Para Pte same location Soldier 17799? Soldier 7 Para Pte same location Soldier 12 Para 191512 Soldier 216493 Soldier 3 Para/R Sigs 158471 Soldier 3 Para 158471 Soldier Arirborne Div 207488 on 1/25.000 Soldier RA 172485 (= „Bamford“ = unknown) Soldier 216493 Soldier RA 216492 Soldier RA 216492 Soldier RA 216492 Soldier Sjt 6 A/B Div 159523 Sheet 7057 Soldier Sjt 6 A/B Div 159523 Sheet 7057 Soldier Glider Pil. 157529 Sheet 7057 Soldier RA 189480 Soldier 189480 Soldier 184508
Am unable to trace a J L Bamford Royal Artillery on ancestry in either, index to War Office: Roll of Honour, Second World War , or index to Royal Artillery Tracer cards.
The fact there isn't a number suggests the identity wasn't from ID discs or a similar strong source, so possibly from a name in uniform etc which might have been mixed up with someone else in the unit or a reissue from a previous owner etc or some scrap of paper in pockets, maybe another soldier dropped something next to him, so many possibilities - I think "J L Bamford" may be a total red herring, I tried looking at men commemorated at Groesbeek from the 24th March with a similar name but none jumped out. Checking Births etc on Ancestry between 1915-25 there are no B L Bamfords (just a John L St J Bamford who died in 2011) Would local archives hold any kind of records of bodies recovered? maybe if he was found by civilians first rather than the Graves unit would it initially go through Police and be recorded by them
I will check with the Municipal Archives at Hamminkeln... 33 and 35 GRU started their work on April 3rd or 4th 1945. Some weeks later the local authorities were ordered to record all field graves and collect all available information of Allied soldiers buried in the area. An official order in writing came on June 20th 1945. Auxiliary policemen, elderly men (who had not served as soldiers and were therefore not interned as POW) as well as schoolchildren were recruited to do this. The lists collated back then are available in the local archive.