Drowning of 50 men of 1st Bavarian Reserve Infantry

[GreyC]

Thank you for your response.

GreyC

[Matlock1418]

I for one having earlier commented 

On 29/06/2024 at 14:55, Matlock1418 said:

there's always a moral dilemma over such commemorations and/or their removal.

26 minutes ago, Bradford WW1 Group said:

What an interesting series of responses to an enquiry about the incident in January 1917.  Fifty deaths by drowning was an exceptional, unusual and tragic event by any standards, as acknowledged by some of the contributors to this string.

On 15th June, three small and muddy poppy crosses were unearthed as the site was being made ready for a commemoration event the following day.  Two of the crosses originally came from Bradford.  You can read about the event and see photos here:  https://ww1bradford.org/about/news/  (I'm aware of the typo which I'm sure Dai Bach will also spot.)  This is an annual occasion to which members of our Group are invited by the mayors of Serre les Puisieux and Hébuterne with whom we have a very long-standing friendship.

Normally, the many wreaths and tokens left at the site are cleared by the local community and 'dumped'.  We felt fortunate to retrieve these and will add them, respectfully and reverently, to our display cabinets at the Mechanics Institute with full explanation of the story/stories attached, including Charlie 2's list of names - fully referenced.

Throughout the last 10 years Sharing Remembrance has been a particular 'mission' of our Group (see: https://ww1bradford.org/about/news/page/4/).  This has been very important indeed in a multi-cultural, multi-faith and multi-ethnic city such as Bradford.  The work continues and we have seen a great increase in the numbers from all communities who attend remembrance events in November and on 1st July (for Pals and other West Yorkshire Regiment losses on 01.07.1916).  Later this year, the City will install the first Commonwealth Memorial to be raised outside London.  This has been planned by a cross-cultural group with the full support of, and assistance from, the City Council, local military units, military museums, CWGC and IWM.

If you need further evidence of what we do, please look at https://ww1bradford.org/commemorative-panels-overview/ and our list of speakers for the year: https://ww1bradford.org/about/whats-on/.

If you're within travelling distance you will receive a warm welcome at any of our meetings.

Personally I find some very welcome and pragmatic 'redemption' in this reply - the chances are, given the generally very common removal and dumping of commemorative tokens, that there will now and in future be greater and wider exposure of this historical event and the losses incurred, through this thread and Bradford WW1 Group - and on reflection this probably should now be commended. 

War is never a one-sided event.  

But each to their own.

M

[charlie2]

Thanks for the explanation

Charlie

[deutscherinfanteriest]

interesting but vert sad WW1 event unknown to me