July 28th1917 at 7pm planes fighting in the sky. A German plane falls, burning in Stragier field, the conductor ‘Hauptmann’ loses his life there and is buried in Roeselare. Next day, 3 soldiers who died at the front are buried. : Joh. Wickert /10/450
Karel Braunschweig /9/450 musk. 27.07.1917
Now for infantry regiment 450 there is not much to find, they were part of 233rd Inf Div with IR 448 and 449, arrived in Flanders in May 1917 they were on both sides of the Ieper – Roeselare road and suffered heavy losses towards the end of July.
Sergt. Vinzent Seidel 10/54 gef. 28.07.1917, from Tarnowitz ( buried in Menen now)
two more casualties are buried later that day. Franz Winklewski gef. 28.07.1917 from Gerswalde, Mohrungen was a ‘ krankentrager’
Muskitier Vinzent Ciechanowski, 10/IR450 19 years old from Briesen
August 1, bad weather and the church in mourning. At “befehl der Kommandatur” the church had to be cleared because soldiers have to spend the night there. Just before nightfall, 500 soldiers are already there to rest by 7 p.m. They have already left. The next days is rain, rain and more rain.
on 5 August, the church is full of soldiers washing and shaving and doing all sorts of things, so the church service is held in the refectory of the monastery. On 7 August, Slosse noted in his diary that the beautiful trees in the cemetery that he had worked so hard to preserve were dying. Horses have been standing in the cemetery for weeks, gnawing at everything. Those trees were planted sometime after 1822. Mid-august the square is full of soldiers, horses and wagons father Slosse compares it with Piccadilly street in London. By August 19th the new Ortskommandant Zimmer brings the news that the new German cemetery will no longer be in use and that all new casualties will be brought to ‘ de Ruiter’ a hamlet near Roeselare. In total 62 soldiers are buried in the village. Majority of the names can be found now in Menenwald. One soldier is Gustav Streit, Vizefeldwebel, born in Rastenburg east Prussia February 8th 1900 who died on the 12th of August 1917, Leopold claims he was 14 when he joined the army and so the youngest one in the German army. I found he is buried now in Menen block C grave 1715 , was part of the 11 fuss artillery 01. Next to him is Friederich Himmelsbach Krankenträger Regiment: Bayr San Kp 27.
He is not the only krankentrager that originally was buried in Rumbeke, Pirkl Johann from the same Kompagnie died at the same day. Ludwig Gross died the 13th of August, so did Johann Daubner and Albert Nieder. Federl Michael also a Krankertrager on the 17th of August.
At last the church is back for the people on the 27th of August the Ortskommandant put out the following notice : Die Benutzung der kirche zu Gottesdienstlichen Zwecken ist vorher bei der ortskommandatur an zu melden. The second notice made leopold happy : Bivakieren an der kirche ist streng verboten.
Sources : oorlogsdagboek van Rumbeke in 1914 – 1918 door L Slosse
Menenwald.be
Verlustlisten ersten weltkrieg
Volksbund.de
Images of menen wald cemetery :
Note I have come to the conclusion that there is more information on the Belgian website Menenwald than on the volkbund one about the soldiers buried in Menen. That father Slosse wrote some names incorrect too.