Mystery of First World War tank crew

Belfast Telegraph ^ | Monday, 21 July 2008 | Matthew McCreary

[nickcarraway]

Relatives of a Co Down man who died in action in World War I are being asked to solve a riddle about one of the conflict’s most historic battles.

Private William Galway, from Church View in Holywood, was a gunner in the Tank Corps. He was killed aged 25 during the Battle of Cambrai in 1917.

Private Galway was a crew member in one of the terrifying new weapons which breached the German Hindenburg Line at a village called Flesquieres, where he is buried in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery.

Military historians are trying to track down further details about Private Galway, and hope he might still have relatives living in Northern Ireland who may be able to help.

“Ten years ago, one of the 378 fighting tanks which took part in the British attack was recovered from the battlefield, where she had been buried,” said Rob Kirk, a journalist researching the history of the battle.

“D51 — known as ‘Deborah’ — was in remarkably good condition for a machine which had been disabled by shellfire and buried for 80 years.

“She was traced by a local historian, Philippe Gorczynski, who has now installed Deborah as the centrepiece of what he hopes will be a permanent museum to mark the battle.”

But an enduring puzzle about the tank remains over who crewed her on that fateful day. Researchers know it reached the centre of the village before being hit by shells from a German field gun. They know her commander, Second-Lieutenant Frank Gustave Heap, won a Military Cross for leading half the eight-man crew to safety.

Four crew died, and there are four headstones, including one for William Galway, side-by-side in Flesquieres Hill military cemetery. All of them are for Tank Corps men from Deborah’s D Battalion, who were killed on the day Deborah was shelled, November 20.

There are headstones elsewhere in the cemetery for three other tank men from the same battalion killed that day.

“Which four of these men in the cemetery crewed Deborah?” Anyone with information can contact Mr Kirk by emailing rhjkirk@hotmail.com.

[Ron Jeremy]

Why aren’t they interested in tracking down the families of the other three guys?

[ClearCase_guy]

I’ve got dibs on the movie rights for “Deborah does Cambrai”.

[B4Ranch]

ping

[TalonDJ]

If they died right there then they did not go back to England and tell their kids and their kid’s kids what happened that day. Hence their familes don’t have any useful information

[archy]

ping

article forwarded to Patton Museum's curator and staff.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables of home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England’s foam.

But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain;
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain

[archy]

D-51 Deborah: -more-

Uncovering of Great War Tank
Cambrai Battlefield, November 1998
D51 Deborah (F) Direct hit