In memory of Corporal John Edwin Greenwood (Lest we forget)

Bridge House today at Langemarck-Poelkapelle, right beside Bridge House Cemetery. It was rebuilt after the war.
It is most likely that Corporal John Edwin Greenwood past time here as it was used as an advanced dressing station
​by many units after its capture on July the 31st.

Death and mud

During the battle of Passchendaele, the continuous rain and shelling had changed the battlefield into a deadly pool of mud. It was one big swamp of craters, filled with decomposing bodies. Soldiers who survived the horrors of the great war recalled afterwards that the mud could be as deadly as the bullet from a German gun itself. It could suck you in, deeper and deeper. ​
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​When wounded on the battlefield, sometimes the only option was to take cover in such a mud filled crater hoping to be rescued in time. If you didn’t had the luck to be pulled out, you literally drowned.

Collecting the wounded

For a soldier it was strictly forbidden to stop during an attack to save a wounded comrade. Helping and collecting the wounded was a task for the stretcher bearers, who worked in the same conditions as the attacking soldiers.  They kept on going back into the fields, unarmed and unprotected, searching for the wounded, with the constant risk of being killed. 
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In normal circumstances, 2 men were assigned to a stretcher.  However, on a muddy battlefield 4 men were required to evacuate the wounded, and in the worst circumstances a total of 6 men was needed.

Stretcher bearers in the mud, a daily routine. This famous picture was taken near Boezinge on the 1st of August 1917. 
​It gives a good view on the daily conditions these men had to work in. 
​Source: http://media.iwm.org.uk/ciim5/36/333/large_000000.jpg?action=d&cat=photographs 

Corporal John Edwin Greenwood

​One of these men was Corporal John Edwin Greenwood, killed at age 22 in a Pill Box near Bank Farm, on the 16th of August 1917 - the first day of the battle of Langemarck.
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Corporal John Edwin Greenwood, stretcher bearer with the 109th Field Ambulance RAMC. Killed in action on the 16th of August 1917.

He was a Stretcher Bearer with the 109th Field Ambulance RAMC (although the CWGC mentions the 9th FA) and attached to the 36th Ulster division. 

He was rewarded with the Military Medal for his heroic actions in 1917 during a fire of an ammunition truck. ​He is now remembered on the Tyne Cot memorial of the missing, panel 160.
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His family has not forgotten John and travelled all the way from Australia to Flanders in order to pay their respect to him today, on the spot where he died 100 years ago. Thanks to Christopher for sending me the picture of his Great uncle.

View from Frezenberg towards Fortuinhoek. Bank farm in the far distance in the middle of the picture. It were in these fields that the 109 FA stretcher bearers searched for wounded soldiers after the attack on the 16th of August.

Bridge House Cemetery at Langemarck-Poelkapelle. The cemetery itself was started by the 59th (North Midland) Division at the end of September 1917. It now contains the graves of 45 soldiers most who felt during the battle of Polygon wood. Right beside Bridge House Cemetery lies Bridge House itself. It was rebuilt after the war. It is most likely that Corporal John Edwin Greenwood past time here as it was used as an advanced dressing station.

Words from the battlefield

Sergeant Robert McKay, who was serving in the same unit as Corporal John Edwin Greenwood,  kept a diary.  His words give an insight on the daily conditions these men had to work in and and mentions the death of Cpl. Greenwood in his writing.

Diary of Sergeant Robert McKay

6 August
Today awful: was obliged to carry some of the wounded into the graveyard and look on helpless till they died.
​Sometimes you could not even obtain a drink of water for them.

7 August
Bringing the wounded down from the front line today. Conditions terrible. The ground is a quagmire. It requires six men to every stretcher. The mud in some cases is up to our waists.

8 August
Ground dried up a little today, noticed the dead lying in every imaginable position in surrounding shell holes.

14 August
One party of stretcher bearers was bringing down a wounded man when an airman swooped down and dropped a bomb deliberately on them. The enemy shells the stretcher-bearers all the time.

15 August - 16 August
The 109 Field ambulance has suffered many casualties. Today the enemy put a shell in through the door of a pill box called Bank fram. Killing practically all inside. Cpl. Greenwood, private Barrett and private Mc Cormick were all killed

The infantry took a few pill-boxes and a line or two of trenches from the enemy in this attack but at a fearful cost. It is only murder attempting to advance against these pill-boxes over such ground. Any number of men fall down wounded and are either smothered in the mud or drowned in the holes of water before we can reach them. We have been working continuously now since the 13th.
​The stretcher bearers are done up completely.

19 August
I have had no sleep since I went on the 13th. The 109th Field Ambulance alone had over thirty casualties, killed, wounded and gassed - and this out of one hundred men who were doing the line.​

Source: Passchendaele (Philip Warner)

Many battles to come

The Battle of Langemarck itself which started on the day John died was just a small phase in the 105 days of the battle of Passchendaele. Again, many men found their dead in Flanders mud for just little gained ground. Although the fighting kept on going all along the Ypres salient, the next great battle was to happen in September when the push was made towards Polygon wood. ​​
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Please reply and let us know if you have any relatives who fought during the battle of Passchendaele.

Thank you for sharing our blogpost!

Sources
​Passchendaele (Philip Warner)
Before endeavours fade (Rose E.B.Coombs)
They called it Passchendaele (Lyn Macdonald)
http://www.ramc-ww1.com/profile.php?profile_id=11704
http://guysboroughgreatwarveterans.blogspot.nl/2013/07/stretcher-bearers.html

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About our blog

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We take you along our photographic journey through the World War battlefields in Belgium and France. 

In remembrance of these World Wars, ​we highlight every month a specific battle, region or regiment. ​​​ 

With our black and white photographs and self written poetry, we share our impression of these historic, heroic and tragic events.

August 2017

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From the 31st of July until November the 10th we remember the Battle of Passchendaele and the soldiers who fought and died in Flander’s mud during these 105 days of slaughter.

Discover how we tell the stories behind our black and white pictures from the battle of Pilkem Ridge to the battle of the Menin Road.

Source: http://media.worldbookonline.com/image/upload/f_jpg,w_630,c_limit/content/lr012174.jpg (map edited)