Investigation into the death of Joseph Engling
Concerning the 25th Infantry Regiment
The archives indicate that the 25th Infantry Regiment was split into two and became the 15th and 208th Infantry Division. Reading the book by Rene Lejeune, it is clear that Joseph Engling served on the Eastern Front with the 15th Infantry Division. Meanwhile, particularly on 30th November 1917, during the Battle of Cambrai, the Regiment had lost many men. It therefore appears that Joseph Engling was sent to the 208th Infantry Division at the Western Front. His Regiment was on the front at Cambrai between 19th September to 8th October 1918 and then from 24th October to 4th November in Valenciennes, having retreated under pressure from the Canadians.
The circumstances of his death and his burial
The Canadians were positioned on the other side of the canal. Joseph Engling was probably killed by artillery fire aimed at the National Road from Cambrai to Iwuy to disorganise the retreating Germans. Joseph Engling having been killed on October 4th, it is likely that his comrades, they could not do it the same day, were able to recover his body the next day. He was the only one killed and it is not in the ‘No Man’s Land’. (see also p. 104, book by Rene Lejeune where Engling tells how he will recover the body of a friend). Joseph Engling also cites the proximity of a small military cemetery and pre-dug graves. Despite the confusion, it is probably not likely that he was just buried in a shell hole but maybe in a provisional cemetery in the area of Thun St.Martin and the main road. We currently do not have the actual cards or proof indicating the position of British or German provisional cemeteries at the time in that particular position.
Confusion
It is therefore reasonable to assume that Joseph Engling has been temporarily buried in a small cemetery of Thun Leveque - Thun Saint-Martin, which has since disappeared. His name has been summarily focused on the tomb because it is true that on October 5th, the situation was becoming increasingly worrying and that soldiers had other defensive priorities, burials had be carried out very hastily. The tomb had to be marked only with a helmet on a cross or often a piece of wood, even the helmet often fell to the ground with the name written on it. Also an artillery bombardment during the final offensive on October 9th could have caused the loss of the exact location. Finally, burials in formal cemeteries was not carried out until after the war as late as 1924.
The organization of cemeteries
It is also important to know that fifteen days after the armistice was signed, the Germans had no right to stay in France. The French were in charge of organizing the German cemeteries and to implement the consolidation of the bodies. The work lasted from 1919 to 1924. The British also worked for the burial of the bodies and created their cemetery on the road to Solesmes dedicated to the soldiers of the liberation of Cambrai. Thus the bodies of soldiers buried in the surrounding villages or recovered during the work of clearing, were then brought back to the Solesmes Road. It is therefore more than confident that the German bodies possibly buried in this small provisional cemetery beside the road were finally exhumed and returned to Cambrai.
The Ossuary Cemetery Solesmes Road
Whenever a doubt remained about the formal identity of the soldier, officials were forced to place them in the ossuary and not in individual graves. Only identities of 439 soldiers buried in the ossuary are known (16%), which is low compared to the 2,746 bodies. Joseph Engling had to correspond to this scenario. There was evidence of the presence of his body at this point, without any certainty, whether the remains were his. As a result, there could be no question of individual burial. Thus, it was placed in the ossuary with his companions in misfortune and his name engraved on the plate.
The wrong date of death
One might think that at the Thun-St-Martin/Eswars cemetery, the name was still somewhere
readable but the date of death, if it had been stated, had disappeared which has led to
another confusion in the future. The date of 1 December 1918 transferred to the ossuary,
which in the confusion, can not fall as a simple administrative error. It could also be
recovered in the context of the time. The French found themselves with an enormous burden
of work and had to manage the burial of their enemies against whom they still had many
grievances.
At noted on the web site of the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge it indicates the death
of Joseph Engling as October 4th.
Soldiers "unknown" in individual graves and soldiers "unknown" ossuary
It may explain the fact that some soldiers "unknown" are buried in individual graves by the fact that they were buried by the Germans between 1917 (opening date of the cemetery) and October 1918, as foreseen in the guidelines imposed . It ordered a tomb for each individual soldier. Precisely because of this directive, that the cemetery on the Solesmes, the Porte de Paris Road was established and was quickly revealed as too small. The solution of mass graves was also found to be non-satisfactory given the need for due respects to the dead. The ossuary of the road east of Solesmes is therefore post-conflict. For proof, it is not on the plan for 1917.
Municipal Archives
Finally, later municipal archives, are in possession of cemetery lists at the time,
containing the names, first names, date of death, Regiment and No. of buried soldiers are
identified. Listings where obviously the name of Joseph Engling does not appear.
Philippe Lafarge
Translation: Brian Tierney.