3058440 David Innes DALGETTY, 4 Seaforth Highlanders: POW 15/06/1940; died 16/04/1945. Any details?

Hi,
Whilst clearing out a cupboard I came across some mixed postcards and documents I bought years ago. Within this unrelated pile of items, I rediscovered a WW2 POW's letter home to his mother. It is a folding, preprinted German document, which the soldier could write his message and have sent to his family. The same as this one here- WW2 Stalag V111C POW Letter Sheet Legation of Colombia London 1942 Censored. My example was written by 3058440 Pte David Dalgetty, he had been made a prisoner at St Valery in June 1940. David was a member of the 4th Bn. Seaforth Highlanders and his home address was in Gilmerton, near Edinburgh.
I decided to do a search online to see if there were any bits of additional information about him and discovered that he died on the 16th of April, 1945 and is commemorated on the Dunkirk Memorial. I cannot find an entry in the digitalized newspapers.
I see the NA have a file on him, with photograph etc, which I will apply for. However, do any members have him on file or have any details about how and where he died? There is a death record for him on the Scotland's People website, which I have yet to access.
Thanks for looking.

 

Hi dbf,
Thanks for the link to Coulthard, I have only read a small part of the thread, but it does look interesting so will read it properly tonight when I have more time.
I have just downloaded the Scotland's People death record for David, it is Service Return sheet which is standard for Wartime casualties, which lists several WW2 Military deaths. It confirms his name, number, date of death and country of birth. The country of death is listed as Germany. Libya, Burma and Sicily are given as locations for other deaths, so I presume David must have died somewhere in Germany. The only other information contained on the form reads "Presumed killed as a Prisoner of War Category 'C'." Not sure what Category 'C' refers to, but it is interesting they use the word Killed and not died. There is a KIA listed from Burma also listed a Category 'C'.
I think I will put in an order for the POW items held at Kew to see what they say. I am sure I have read that some men were accidentally killed by friendly fire and others my have died in Soviet hands through rough treatment or friendly fire.
I wonder if he is buried in a civilian cemetery somewhere.
Many thanks,
Stewart

 

Hi,

The POW cards held at TNA are the German central POW Index Cards seized by the Allies at the end of hostilities. As he passed away so late in the war when Germany was in a state of collapse I doubt the cards will have been updated with his death details - it is usually a very brief entry with fuller details passed to the Red Cross.

In the normal course of events POW deaths were usually communicated to Swiss Red Cross for dissemination to the man’s home nation. Again with a mid April 1945 death I doubt the nature of the death would have been passed to Red Cross at the time.

However an immediate post war enquiry might have been initiated with Red Cross so it might be more beneficial to make an enquiry (it costs nothing) there rather than pay NA expensive rates for copies of the index cards.

Here is the ICRC link -

Requests for information about people held during Spanish Civil War or Second World War: Quarterly limit reached

Steve

 

Couple of records here, Prisoners Of War 1715-1945.
(presumed killed in air raid)

cheers, Graham.

 

Hi Graham,
That is indeed an excellent find. I might try and follow up the other men killed in the same raid and see if more details can be found.
Hi dbf,
Thank you very much for all of your help, suggestions and advice. It has all been very interesting and most helpful.
Hi Steve,
Thanks for your observations about the POW records held at Kew. I think I will apply to get copies out of curiosity as it would be nice to see a photo of David and get an idea of which work camps he was sent to etc.
Many thanks to you all.

 

Interesting, Hufton was originally buried in the village cemetery in Mariaort, which is just to the west of Regensburgh. He was originally an Unknown, according to the CWGC Graves Concentration report. There are 12 others who were buried in the same graveyard and all died on the same day. The site does not let you scroll through the other pages for this cemetery, but I will keep looking. It seems possible that David might just have been reburied as an unknown soldier.

 

Try the CWGC website. Enter Date of Death and Dunkirk Memorial in the search boxes.

Vitellino

 

Also from Find my Past;

 

Hi,
I have been doing a bit more digging into other men who died on the same day and thought I would share what I have found so far.
There are 3 other men who are listed in the Dunkirk Memorial to the missing, who all died on the 16th of April, 1945 and who were Prisoners of War. They are-

1460953 James D Shields, Royal Artillery [He is listed on the air raid sheet posted above in post #8],
6396202 Clifford A Rollings, 2nd Surrey's
6913721 John R Piggot, 1st Rifle Brigade.

Hufton, who is also listed on the air raid sheet above has an exhumation sheet recorded with his CWGC record- https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/f...-details/2101944/charles-hufton/#&gid=2&pid=1. This shows he was originally buried in the village of Mariaort, as mentioned in post #11. After reexamining this sheet I noticed that they have given bodies an individual body count number and the highest on this record is 21. So, we know at least 21 bodies were recovered from the site of the bombing.
Durnbach War Cemetery has 21 interments recorded who died on the 16th of April 1945, however, a check of this list shows that not all of them were exhumed from the graves at Mariaort. Also, an inspection of the exhumation returns shows that of the 21 bodies recovered, 2 do not appear as named casualties on the CWGC site. They were bodies 6 and 12. They do not appear as unknown soldiers within the exhumation reports either and so far I have been unable to find any record of them on the CWGC site. I wonder if one of them might be the remains of David I Dalgetty?

I have not yet found a map on which I can pinpoint the site of the exhumation, yet. It would be good to know the exact location where these men were initially buried.

Finally, it seems that the railway bridge near Mariaort was the target of American bombers on the 16th of April, 1945. I found this document online, see page no.130-

8th Air Force Tactical Mission Report: operation no. 948-14 April 1945, 951-15 April 1945, 954/955-16 April 1945 : United States. Army Air Forces. Air Force, 8th cre : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

73 Aircraft dropped 435 X 1000 HE bombs on the target area. The target being the Regensburg west [Mariaort] Railway Bridge. This bridge was rendered impassible to trains following the raid.

Does anyone have any advice on how to identify the burial locations and reports pertaining to the two unnamed soldiers exhumed from Mariaort cemetery? I expect these details will be held on file by the CWGC.
Thanks for taking the time to read through my research notes so far.