From Dickebusch Lake to St. Eloi Part Eight – Croonaert Chapel Cemetery

The final cemetery on this tour is one we have seen before, although we have never set foot inside. 

And you are right, this cemetery doesn’t really fit beneath the title of this tour, ‘From Dickebusch Lake to St. Eloi’,…

…although in mitigation we are not so far away, almost exactly a mile south west of the crater we visited last post (dark blue), the cemetery marked as a small mauve square centre bottom of this map that also shows all the stops on the tour, being the same map I showed you back in Part One.

On a misty morning a few years back we found ourselves looking across these same fields, but our objective that day lay in the woods behind us, and a visit to the cemetery would have to wait for another day.

And that day turns out to be today.

One further picture taken the first time we passed by shows, on the far right of the picture,  a CWGC cemetery sign,…

…and as we return to the present, this is where the path to the cemetery begins.  In the background, three miles away to the south east, clouds drift across the summit of Mont Kemmel.

The two memorials at the start of the path remember two French soldiers killed near here early in the war.

Lieutenant Lasnier was an infantry officer killed in action on 15th November 1914,…

…and Alphonse Bourges a private killed on 14th December 1914, this plaque placed here by his granddaughter one hundred years later.

Croonaert Chapel was originally a roadside shrine on the Wytschaete-Voormezeele road, and was marked on maps of the time, this one dated June 1916.  Our original position, looking towards the cemetery (orange), is marked as a green dot.  The German trenches are shown in red, the British front line the dotted blue line that crosses the map (and intersects with our current position, the red dot), the cemetery clearly in what was No Man’s Land up to the Battle of Messines in June 1917.

And you will probably have also spotted that the British front line once crossed this path for a second time a short distance ahead of us,…

…just about here,…

…where today the track takes a ninety degree turn to the left towards the cemetery…

…and the Grand Bois – Great Wood – beyond.

At this point we are well-and-truly in No Man’s Land, and will be so throughout the rest of our visit, and always, always, it is a most strange place to be.  For two and a half years, no man could have walked these fields in daytime, as we are doing, and survived.  And who knows what lies beneath our feet as we wander……

Cemetery entrance,…

…and some seriously beautiful stonework, to these eyes.

A single grave greets us on entry,…

…this man of the Chinese Labour Corps buried here in January 1919, most likely victim of an accident, I would have thought, a man who died from an illness unlikely to be found in a No Man’s Land cemetery.

But this is really a Messines cemetery,…

…begun the day the British swept across No Man’s Land and beyond, following the nineteen huge mine explosions that devastated the German lines on the morning of 7th June 1917 (click here for the cemetery plan).

No less than forty four of the seventy five burials now here are men killed on 7th June, almost certainly in these very fields, because why make such a small cemetery here for any other reason.  This, I am quite sure, was where the dead were brought to be laid out and, if possible, identified, and this then became their burial ground.  And I say ‘burials now here’ because there were also once fifty one Germans buried here, all of whom were killed, I would guess, on 7th June.  Their bodies were removed after the Armistice.

All but five of the men buried in the first two rows were killed on 7th June,…

…but what is interesting is the date of death given to the three of these five who lie in Row A in the foreground.

A close up – as good as I can show – of the relevant headstones.  On the far left, a private of the King’s Own (Royal Lancaster Regiment), next to him a Royal Welsh Fusilier lance corporal, and one headstone from the right (the cleanest one), a Royal Welsh Fusilier private.  What makes these burials of interest is that all three men died on 5th June 1917, two days before the Battle of Messines began, at a time when this was very much still No Man’s Land, and when burying men here was totally out of the question.  I wonder if we can find out why they’re here.

The relevant page from the 9th Bn. Royal Welsh Fusiliers says the following; ‘A raid was made by the whole of C Company under 2/Lieut E. O. Roberts and 2/Lieut D. W. Thomas with the object of securing identifications. The raid was very successful. Copies of the report on and of the orders for the raid are attached.’  And luckily for us, orders & report still exist:

What is clearly stated is that Lieutenant Thomas was seriously wounded, two men were killed, and one was currently missing.  We have no idea if the missing man was brought in the following night, and what his condition, dead or alive was, but it seems that two of these men would not survive, and are almost certainly the two Fusiliers now buried in the cemetery.

Second Lieutenant Thomas and a number of other men involved in the raid would receive awards for their efforts.

The other man buried in Row A who died on 5th June is a man of the King’s Own (Royal Lancaster Regiment), and once again the regimental war diary fills in the blanks.  Beginning at the end of the page above and continuing below, this diary once again details the raid,…

…revealing that one man was killed, and I think we know where he is now buried.

I’ll include the war diary page for 7th June as well, because it mentions the three mines that exploded beneath what is referred to as the Hollandscheschuur Salient immediately before zero hour.  If you check back on the earlier map, you will find the farm of the same name marked,…

…and if we look across the cemetery boundary towards the south west, the farm is still there.

If you go still further and take a look on Google maps or whatever, you will see that the three mine craters are still very much there as well.

The Cross of Sacrifice looks out on No Man’s Land beyond.

Despite the site of the cemetery being in No Man’s Land on the morning of 7th June, by the evening it’s pretty clear how far the British had advanced beyond this point, the burials all neatly laid out with no suggestion of any real urgency, as often seen in battlefield cemeteries.

Anyway, having explained the anomalies to be found in Row A,…

…just before we leave the row, out of shot to the left,…

…in the cemetery’s south west corner,…

…there’s a single unknown soldier, one of seven in the cemetery, designated as Row A Grave 27.

Like Row A, all but a couple of the burials in Row B are men killed on 7th June, the first six (above) men of the King’s Own, two of whom are unidentified,…

…followed by these three men of the East Lancashire Regiment, again one unidentified.

There are more King’s Own men further down the row (left), a total of twelve in all, but the headstone with the most curious date of death in the row is pictured here on the right, this lance corporal of the 10th Bn. The Queen’s (Royal West Surrey Regiment) given a date of death of 24th February 1917, more than three months before this cemetery came into existence.

Once again, the regimental war diary gives us an explanation.  Likely one of the eleven men who were posted as missing after this raid, I suspect that Lance Corporal Sinfoil’s body had lain out in No Man’s Land since that night.

Men from five different regiments, although all 19th Division, all killed on 7th June 1917.  From left, Cheshires, East Lancs, Loyal North Lancs, South Lancs & Royal Lancasters.  Behind, at this end of Row C,…

…Royal Garrison Artillery men who died later in 1917, the last two, killed on 29th November 1917, two of the three final burials made here.

At the other end of Row C, three of the first four men, a Royal Welsh Fusilier and two South Lancashire men, are 7th June casualties,…

…the other headstones in the centre of the row mainly from later in June or July 1917.

Three of the five men in Row D, all three of them artillerymen.  The two R.F.A. gunners were killed on 31st July 1917, the R.G.A. gunner on the right killed a month later.

The row continues, after a large gap, with two more burials, one a R.G.A. battery serjeant major who died in September 1917, the other a Notts & Derby private who was killed in action on 16th April 1918.  One wonders his story, and why he ended up here in this pretty, isolated, little cemetery.  Note the steepness of the slope up towards the German positions in the trees at the top of the rise.

Looking south west, Mont Kemmel obscured by the tree on the left.  The British front line would have run very roughly parallel with the line where brown field becomes green, but a short distance closer to us.  The German front line would have crept into the picture from the left, not so far beyond the cemetery, as it curved round the strongpoint at Hollandscheschuur Farm,…

…seen here on the left.

In 1918, the Germans would sweep across this blood-soaked ground in their ultimately unsuccessful attempt to split the British & French armies and end the war.  By late spring this whole area was under German control, and it’s interesting (or not) to note the small changes between this May 1918 map…

…and this July 1918 one, as British cartographers interpreted R.A.F. reconnaissance photographs of the German positions.  Croonaert Chapel is named on these maps, close to the centre,…

…and near the bottom of this September 1918 one, by which time the Allies were once again on the march, and the front lines would meet once more, if only briefly, across the same patch of land as before.

Now, it may be that you wish to see what the Germans were up to in the trees at the top of the slope on the left here, in the months and years before the mines went up.  If so, I should click the following link: The German trenches at Bayernwald.  And that, folks, brings us to the end of another tour.  I hope you found it of interest.  Next tour will find us about twelve miles south and a little west of here, as we return to the flatlands of northern France, visiting the cemeteries and memorials between Laventie & Neuve Chapelle.  It’s a long one, and it’s coming soon(ish).

Incidentally, this week this little website passed half a million views.  Not bad, eh?  I thank you all, followers past & present, for your support.

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6 Responses to From Dickebusch Lake to St. Eloi Part Eight – Croonaert Chapel Cemetery

  1. Brian McTighe says:

    Very glad to be one of the half a million viewers. Keep up the good work!!

  2. Jon T says:

    I remember looking across at this cemetery when visiting the Bayernwald trenches and wondering what it was like. Now I know ! Will stick it on my ever expanding list of places I must visit sometime…

    Many congratulations on the 500,000 and a bit views – here’s to the next 500,000 !

    I cannot over emphasise just how much information I have learned from all your posts nor the inspiration to learn more and visit all these places and more I have gained too.

    Thanks for all your endeavours !

  3. Nick Kilner says:

    Superb M. An excellent end to the current tour! It’s always great to see documents pertaining to the award of medals. I think it gives real insight into the bravery of these men, which might otherwise be passed by.
    The concrete stepped plinth is something of a curiosity, I did wonder if perhaps it marks the entrance to one of the concrete German dugouts mentioned? And yes, very nice brickwork in the surrounding wall too!
    Very nicely done.

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