The British and Their Military
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‘NOTHING CAN EXCUSE US IF WE FAIL’ The British and their Dead Servicemen, North-West Europe, 1944-1951 Submitted by Jennie Gray to the University of Exeter as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History In March 2016 This thesis is available for Library use on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. I certify that all material in this thesis which is not my own work has been identified and that no material has previously been submitted and approved for the award of a degree by this or any other University. Signature: ……………………………………… Page 1 Page 2 ABSTRACT Shortly after landing in France on D-Day, 6 June 1944, the British began a programme of care for the military dead of North-West Europe which would last for some seven years. The dead included not only the fatal casualties of the 1944-45 campaigns to liberate the occupied countries and conquer Germany, but also those who had died during the defeats in Norway and France in 1940. In addition, there the many thousands of missing RAF airmen who had been lost throughout the six years of the war. The Royal Navy, for obvious reasons, had few land-based dead, and thus it was the Army and the RAF who carried out the complex programme, ranging over vast areas of Europe and into Soviet territory as the Cold War began. The Army had the central role in registrations, exhumations, and the creation of the new military cemeteries, whilst the RAF’s focus was almost entirely upon the search for its missing airmen. The Services had different motivations and different agendas, but the ultimate goal of each was the honourable burial of the dead and the creation of registers of the long-term missing, who would later be commemorated on memorials. The British search and graves units, by the nature of their work, often discovered evidence of war crimes. The high cultural standing of the British dead was intrinsically related to the horrors of the Nazi regime, and revulsion against the nation responsible for so much suffering led to difficult policy decisions on servicemen’s graves in Germany. It was a matter of pride, however, that the German dead, many thousands of whom became the responsibility of the British, were treated in almost exactly the same way as their own servicemen. Page 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am indebted to a number of people in the Netherlands and Germany, who have willingly shared their own research and photographs. In the Netherlands, my particular thanks go to Wyb Jan Groendijk (Schiermonnikoog), Dirk Bruin (Vlieland), Jan Nieuwenhuis (Texel), Ymi Ytsma, Bob Gerritsen, and Patrick van den Berg. In Germany, my thanks go to Dagmar Brendecke and Walter Brun, Uwe Benkel, and the Missing Aviators Research and Recovery Team. In addition, I would like to thank all those families who, in the course of my RAF research, have shared official correspondence and personal letters, or have talked to me about their family’s experiences. The families of the following airmen have been particularly helpful: Wally Layne, Robert Butler, William Coates, David Dushman, David Little, and Jack Skingley. I was also like to thank Dr Michael McAllen, a former RAMC Medical Officer. As regards to the illustrations for this thesis, additional thanks are due to Geert Maassen at the Gelders Archief, Andrew Fetherston and Ian Small at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Patrick van den Berg and the De Boer family, and Paul Reed. I owe an immense debt of gratitude to Geoffrey Cotterell, who gave me the many letters written between 1944 and 1949, relating to the disappearance of his much- loved brother, Anthony. Lastly, I would like to thank my supervisor, Professor Richard Overy, for his patience, and for sharing his vast knowledge of the Second World War. Page 4 LIST OF CONTENTS List of Tables, Maps and Illustrations ………………………………… 6 Definitions ……………………………………………………………….. 8 CHAPTERS Introduction ..……………………………………………………………..…… 11 1. The Army and the Care for the Dead: Organisation, Planning, and the Immediate Burials of Soldiers ………………………………………. 53 2. The Army and the Care for the Dead: Liaison, Cooperation and Fieldwork in France and Belgium ………………………………………. 106 3. The Impetus behind the Search for the RAF Missing ………….……... 155 4. The RAF and Missing Research in the Field ……………………….….. 203 5. The War Office Casualty Branch: Its Work for the Missing, the Dead, and Their Next of Kin ……………………………………………. 251 6. The Divergent Agendas of the Army and the RAF …………………… 297 7. The Graves Service and the National Commemorative Programme …………..................................................................... 353 8. The Meaning of the British Military Dead ……………………………... 419 Conclusion: Breaking the Silence …………………………………………. 456 Sources and Bibliography ……………………………………………….. 476 Page 5 List of Tables 1. Burial Reports and Graves Registrations, 6 June–15 December 1944 …….... 77 2. Casualty Figures for 21 Army Group Chaplains, 6 June 1944–8 May 1945 .. 97 3. Burial Reports and Registrations, 14 August 1944 ……………………………..107 4. Army Missing Figures ……………………………………………………………. 256 List of Maps Map of Stott’s tour in September 1944 ………………………………………….... 61 Map of MRES operations ...…………………………………………………………205 Illustrations British tank crew ……………………………………………………………………… 91 Reverend Skinner holding a funeral service over an isolated grave ………….... 94 Reverend Skinner and a helper, sewing a hessian shroud…………………….... 95 Reverend Skinner and an unknown RC padre …………………………………… 95 Bayeux British War Cemetery in development …………………………………… 131 Painting crosses at Bayeux ………………………………………………………... 132 48 GCU at work …………..…………………………………………………………. 141 German funeral for dead airman, Vlieland ……………………………………….. 212 Aftermath of aircrash in North Holland,16 May 1941 ……………………………. 213 An airman washed up on the shores of Europe ………………………………..... 215 Coates crew, temporary grave marker ……………………………………………. 229 Barb and Bob, Daily Mirror, 18 September 1945 ………………………………… 243 Army GCU officers at Vredenhof Cemetery, Schiermonnikoog ………………… 350 RAF search officers at the Hotel van der Werff, Schiermonnikoog ………….… 351 Grave of James Gerald Marshall-Cornwall at Cahagnes ………………………. 375 Grave of George Charles Grey at Le Repas …………………………………….. 376 Page 6 Graves Concentration Report, containing Rex Whistler’s name …………….. 382 Arnhem Oosterbeek Cemetery takes shape …………………………………... 384 Battle cemetery for 5th Battalion Coldstream Guards at Heppen, Belgium … 386 Development of Arnhem Oosterbeek Cemetery ………………………………. 414 Page 7 DEFINITIONS Archives TNA The National Archives DEPARTMENTAL NAMES A.G.13 The Army Directorate of Graves Registration and Enquiries at the War Office S.7 (Cas) The Air Ministry Casualty Branch (beginning of war) P.4 (Cas) The Air Ministry Casualty Branch (wartime) S.14 (Cas) The Air Ministry Casualty Branch (after the war) ACRONYMS AAG Assistant Adjutant General AD Assistant Director ADGRE Army Directorate of Graves Registration and Enquiries, or Assistant Director, Graves Registration and Enquiries ADGR&E Army Directorate of Graves Registration and Enquiries, or Assistant Director, Graves Registration and Enquiries AGRC American Graves Registration Command AGRS American Graves Registration Service AMGOT Allied Military Government for Occupied Territories AMP Air Member for Personnel AOC Air Officer Commanding ATS Auxiliary Territorial Service BAFO British Air Forces of Occupation BAOR British Army of the Rhine BLA British Liberated Area, sometimes British Liberation Army BRCS British Red Cross Society Page 8 CIP Central Identification Point CO Commanding Officer DAD Deputy Assistant Director DADAGR&E Deputy Assistant Director, Graves Registration and Enquiries DADAGRE Deputy Assistant Director, Graves Registration and Enquiries DD Deputy Director DDW Deputy Director of Works ETOUSA European Theatre of Operations, United States Army GCU Graves Concentration Unit GHQ General Headquarters GR&E Graves Registration and Enquiries GRE Graves Registration and Enquiries GRO General Routine Order GRU Graves Registration Unit IRCC International Red Cross Committee IWGC Imperial War Graves Commission KIA Killed in action L of C Lines of Communication MIA Missing in action MO Medical Officer MR Missing Research MRES Missing Research and Enquiry Service MREU Missing Research and Enquiry Unit MRGRS Missing Research Graves Registration Section MRM Missing Research Memorandum NCO Non-Commissioned Officer OC Officer Commanding OR Other Ranks ORB Operation Record Book POW Prisoner of War Page 9 RAAF Royal Australian Air Force RAChD Royal Army Chaplains’ Department. RAF Royal Air Force RAMC Royal Army Medical Corps RCAF Royal Canadian Air Force RE Royal Engineers REFORSEC Reinforcements Section RNZAF Royal New Zealand Air Force SEAC South East Asia Command SHAEF Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force SOE Special Operations Executive WOCINDOC War Office Circular of Instructions Relative to Documentation in Theatres of War Page 10 INTRODUCTION Shortly after D-Day, 6 June 1944, the first British units whose primary task was dealing with the military dead began to land in North-West Europe.1 They were entering Fortress Europe, the immense region which the Germans had controlled since June 1940, within which lay numerous British dead. At first these units were only from the Army, but in the months that followed, as Europe was liberated, RAF units searching for the RAF missing also began to arrive. The Army and the RAF faced two immense, distinct