The British military cemeteries in Berlin - 1 of 2 ww1

Berlin is surrounded by by centuries of two world wars we explores the ww1 commonwealth cemeteries in the district of Berlin 

Transcript

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Hello and welcome to the Beat to Powerful Podcast, a travel blog taking you down the crisscross paths of a century worth of warfare. I'm your tour guide, Martin Lambert, and for the past 20 odd years I've looked after people and taken them to the battle sites of the First and Second World War. However, I've decided to take my own path, and through this blog, I can teach you how to travel to those sites that not many people get to see. Hello and welcome to Be to Battlefield. This week we're in Berlin and we're going to visit three of the Commonwealth Wargrave Cemeteries located in the city. Berlin is one of my spiritual homes. My grandmother grew up there during the war, and it's a place that has always drawn me back. But there are three Commonwealth Wargrave cemeteries located in the area, all with their own rich individual history. Now, one of them I haven't visited, but I've got to speak about it because of what happened in that turbulent time in the post-Second World War period. So there are two First World War cemeteries within the area of Berlin and the district of Berlin, and one Second World War, and they all have their individual stories. But one of the most interesting ones is the Serendorf Indian Cemetery. It's located about 40 kilometres south of Berlin, near Wundsdorf, and it holds the remains of 206 Indian servicemen who died during the First World War. Quite often when you wander around Germany and you go to the larger cemeteries, and I think back to Hamburg and Cologne, which have their own massive Commonwealth War Graves cemeteries, but sometimes when you go into the former war cemeteries within those areas, you'll find Indian soldiers buried amongst the Germans. And initially I thought this was perhaps part of the segregation from that area, but it leads to a very interesting story. Many of the Indian troops would obviously go to the Western Front in the early part of the First World War, the battles of Nerve Chapelle and Holobik come to mind. And then as the war progressed, they would be slowly sent out to the battles out in the Mediterranean, sorry, Macedonia, also out to um Mesopotamia, which was seen as a better way for them to serve. But for those who were captured in the early days, many of them would find themselves in Germany, and the Germans were very interested in them, and there are somewhere in archives interviews with these Indian soldiers. Some would perish, and the Germans respected their wishes, uh to obviously the way they'd be buried and they'd be cremated. So they'd be placed within the German plots, and they couldn't be retrieved, of course. So they rest where they lay, along with the Germans. And we think also to the Brighton Memorial, the Woking Memorial, to those Indian soldiers who uh spread themselves very, very far and wide. And we've also got to remember during the First War, the Indian Army was the biggest volunteer army. It was uh amazing, and it's it covers so many different uh spans of the army. When you think of the Indian Army, we have those, the Lancers, we have other various uh nations, very different ways they would have all fought, the Sikhs, the Hindus and the Muslims who fought amongst them. And they all had their own different traditions and own styles, but they came together to serve for the empire and die for that empire as well. But Zerandorf would find himself located in the Russian sector during the Cold War and sadly it would be left to wreck and ruin. It was actually put on an army testing range and the graves were completely destroyed. And it wouldn't be until 2005 that the site would finally be restored to the glory as it is like all the other Commonwealth Wargrave cemeteries. And one day I will get there. But sadly, it's not within public transport means, and I didn't have the means to get there at the time. Staying with the First World War at Berlin Southwestern Cemetery, which is located between Berlin and Potsdam, we have the South Western Cemetery, which is a cemetery, one of these large German cemeteries, which we the Germans, when they do things, they do them on size massively. The cemetery was started in 1909, and then in the 1920s, it was decided they would take the smaller burials located all over Western Germany and place them in one spot. So South Western Cemetery was created between 1922 and 1923, and it contains just over 1,300 British soldiers of the Empire. Sorry. Not just British soldiers, but it has those from all over the Empire. There's a large number of Newfoundland graves which I found very interesting. The Newfoundland Regiment from the island of Newfoundland, just off Canada, was part of the British Empire, and they'd served with the 29th Division throughout the First World War and wouldn't become part of Canada till much later. And we have men from the Merchant Marines, the Royal Navy, and of course all spans of the Empire. And it's quite an interesting cemetery to read. So it is one of those congregation concentration cemeteries which had time to be laid out, and there are some special memorials in there to graves that were sadly lost within the area. There are several First World War cemeteries throughout Germany that contain the remains of those who died as prisoners of war. We think more of prisoners of war during the Second World War, but of course, many of them would be captured and sent deep into Germany and parts of Poland to work as part of the war effort, even though it didn't really wasn't very particularly legal, and some were treated absolutely horrifically. What I always find interesting is if you ever get a chance, listen to the um those episodes of the last soldiers of the First World War, and those men who were captured in the spring offensive, and many of them in March 1918 had only been at the line, some just hours, some just weeks, and they'd be captured and taken prisoner. And those 18-year-old, 18-year-olds in 1918 tell their tales of being placed in these cages out in Germany. Many would die of disease, and of course, at the tail end of the First World War, influenza would strike throughout the world, and many of them would die of that. What I found particularly interesting is there were a large number of men from the Royal Naval Division, and they'd been captured at Antwerp in 1914, and one of those very forgotten actions which we can trace all the way into Germany as we stand here. Now this cemetery I couldn't I couldn't find it at the start because the the land on which the cemetery stands is surrounded by this massive pine forest, and even to walk around that is quite impressive. But as I looked through the trees, I found the cross of sacrifice and wandered through the pines and eventually came to the cemetery. And beside it is another First World War cemetery. To uh uh uh 70 uh seven 1,177 Italians who died during the First World War. We think of we obviously know that during the Second World War, fascism would rise in Italy and they'd be on their side, but during the First World War, they were fighting against the Germans and the Austro-Hungarians. And very much the same, they'd be brought into these larger cemeteries and die as prisoners of war. This was an absolutely amazingly turned-out cemetery, considering that when we've been to Cologne Italian cemetery, many of the graves have been smashed up and fallen to pieces. But this has been laid out and recreated, very least fairly recently, and it's another site to visit and see another side of the war that not many people will talk about. But back to the Commonwealth Wargrave Cemetery. On the right hand side of the gate, we can see a memorial to remember the British troops who came here during the Russian occupation. The site was allowed to be looked after, even though it was in the Soviet zone of Berlin, which I find particularly interesting. Now, if you follow me on TikTok, I've done some videos of this, but I was hoping to do a lot more there. But this site is a national park. So every time I was setting my camera up, and it's probably the only place in the area that's actually got a bench, because Comworth Wallgrave Cemeteries have places to think and sit and reflect. So tour uh not tourists, the locals were turning up, sitting down, having their lunches, having a little chat, and then going away, which I found quite amusing at some some point. But one video that I did get Pashadu was about Major Yates, a Victoria Crosswinner buried in the cemetery. Charles Alex and Avon Lavantin Yates was a member of the 2nd Battalion, the King's Own Yorkshire Infantry. In the very early days of the First World War, when we were completely disillusioned for the Battle of Mons and we retreated into France, and we had to have that one stand to try and stop the Germans in their tracks. At the Battle of Le Cateaux, on the 26th of August 1914, Major Yates would lead one final charge with his remaining men surrounded by him. Sadly, he'd be captured and many of his men would be killed. He'd be sent into Germany and he was forced to work into a factory and would die on the 24th, 25th of November 1914. However, his death is shrouded a little bit of mystery. Some believe that he took his own life when he tried to escape, so he wouldn't be tried as a spy or have to endure the constants of the monotony of being captured, but others stated that he was shot trying to escape, and they believe it was his third escape bid at the time. But he now rests here at Berlin South West Cemetery, and a grave which sticks out as emblazoned on it is that Victoria Cross. There are many different stories you can tell here, and if you are researching soldiers of the First World War and if you have a link for a prisoner of war, their records are kept by the International Red Cross. They're very interesting to look and dive into as you can see where they were captured, the date they were captured, and what camps they went through. So if you do want any information, send us a message if you know of anyone who died during the First World War or was taken prisoner during the First World War. We can always try and give you a bit of information behind those. Then if you've made it all the way to the cemetery, have a look around the German cemetery. There is a large First World War plot. For those from the area of Brandenburg who died, and it's very interesting to see the private headstones, some who died in 1914, emblazoned with the Pickelhorber, and then those who are the post-1916, you see the Stallhalm on top. German symbolism of the First World War and Second World War contains many of those things that are archetypal that we think of the Germans. That of the Iron Cross, the Eagle, and also the Stalhelms and Pickelhorbers and their equipment. It was very interesting as every single tomb seems to try and outdo each other with how flamboyant they are. And there are some of the German Second World War graves that you can see there, but not the large mass graves that we're used to seeing in many of the local areas. I always do enjoy wandering around a cemetery on holiday, and it sounds really weird, but if you do enjoy that, you're known as a taperphile, someone who's happy to wander around cemeteries. So this is a fair old journey outside of Berlin itself. For this, I actually went to Wannessee and went to the site of the Wannersee conference and then took a bus to the site. You then can then get a train into Torhau and then get a train back up into Berlin from there. The buses are very easy and it does is covered in your Berlin travel card. Anyone who's visiting Berlin, you can get an A and B ticket which will take you around the main centre of town, and then the ABC ticket, which only costs a couple of extra euros, can take you as far as Potsdam, and you can see all these wonderful sights within that area. So we're now going to leave the First World War and go on to the Second World War graves. But I'll cover that in the next episode. Hope you've enjoyed it, and next week we'll speak about the Second World War Cemetery, located just near the Olympic Stadium. Thank you for listening. If you've enjoyed this, please share and like it and put it on social media. You can also buy us a coffee. Link is in the show notes. And if you've got any questions you want to ask for the future episodes or perhaps some ideas, please email beattobattle at gmail.com. Thank you and good night.