9 November 2014

[theborderer]

The 9 November 2014 was seen by the World as the 25th Anniversary of the falling of the Berlin Wall. However, another ceremony was held in Stahnsdorf, a small village near Berlin, which was from 1945 until 1990 part of the German Demokratic Republic, a Remembrance Day parade was held for the 1147 casualties from WW l. I laid Remembrance crosses on 10 graves from my Regiment.

On my way.jpgLaid crosses.jpgKOSB grave 1.jpgMartins Ghurka.jpg

[bwat]

KOSB graves just outside Berlin?

OK, so I did a little googling and from what I can gather this cemetery is one of a few for soldiers who died all over Germany during WWI. Am I right? And if so were these soldiers mainly POWs who died in captivity?

[theborderer]

That is true. A full list of casualties buried in Germany can be found on www.cwgc.org By looking for a cemetry you find lots of details. Next Sunday is the German Remembrance Day and I will be near Dippoldiswalde, Near Dresden in Saxony to place a cross on the 1 grave of a British soldier.

[bwat]

Thanks for the reply. Only this year I learned that, according to Niall Ferguson, just over 26.4% of Scots in uniform were killed which is relatively high (compare with 15.4% German, 16.8% French, 26.8% Turks, and 37.1% Serbs). All in all, over 10.9% of Scottish males 15-49 were killed.

Edit: I'm seeing people on the web questioning these numbers. Who knows? All I know is that i) that would have been me if I was born back then, and ii) my life was better because of the reaction to the horrors of that war and the political changes it brought about.