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Additional
Information: |
Son of
John and Jessie Hicks, of Wheatley Hill, Co. Durham. |
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Cemetery:
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BERLIN
1939-1945 WAR CEMETERY, Brandenburg, Germany |
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Grave
Reference/ |
Joint
grave 14. B. 12-13. |
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Location:
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The Cemetery is in the district of Charlottenburg, 8
kilometres west of the city centre, on the south side of the Heerstrasse.
From Theodor Heuss Platz in the district of Charlottenburg, near the
exhibition hall complex and next to the Olympic Stadium, follow signs for
Spandau, proceeding along the Heerstrasse. The Cemetery lies on the
Heerstrasse on the left hand side of the road and 3 kilometres from Theodor
Heuss Platz. Visitors should drive beyond the cemetery to the traffic lights,
then turn left directly onto a small one way street running parallel to the
Heerstrasse. The Cemetery entrance is on this small one way road. |
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Historical
Information: |
The
site of Berlin 1939-45 War Cemetery was selected by the British Occupation
Authorities and Commission officials jointly in 1945, soon after hostilities
ceased. To this War Cemetery were moved the graves from the Berlin area and
from Eastern Germany. The great majority of those buried here, approximately
80 per cent of the total, were airmen who lost their lives in the air raids
over Berlin and the towns in Eastern Germany. The remainder were men who died
in prisoner-of-war camps in these regions, some of whom were victims of the
notorious forced march into Germany of prisoners from camps in Poland, in
front of the advancing Russians. It is said that during the battle for Berlin
there was severe fighting between Russian and German forces in the cemetery
area. Districts from which graves were transferred to this war cemetery
include Leipzig, Konigsberg, Iena, Dresden, Halle, Rostock, Teltow, Wismar,
Mittenwalde, Neuburzdorf, Magdeburg, Grunberg, Doberitz, Buchholz,
Halberstadt, Blankenburg, Gotha, Tannenburg, Potsdam, Weder, Tessau,
Stralsund, Schweren, Munsdorf, Brandenburg and Schonwalde. From the
Olympischestrasse Cemetery in Berlin came 88 war graves. That cemetery
contained a large number of burials which were not the responsibility of the
Commission, and permanent maintenance of the war graves to the Commission's
standards would have been impossible. Special memorials, commemorate men
known to be buried in certain groups of graves in the cemetery, whose graves
within these groups cannot be individually identified. They bear the
superscription "Buried near this spot. " There are 3,583
Commonwealth burials of the 1939-1945 war commemorated here, 392 of which are
unidentified. There are in addition 266 non-war graves; i.e. graves of men of
the British Occupation Forces or their dependants, or of members of the
Control Commission. There are also 5 Polish foreign national burials. |