October 27, 2007

Nazi attack on Scottish war graves

Vandals have painted swastikas and Nazi symbols over graves of Scottish soldiers who died in the Battle of the Somme.

French police are hunting the vandals who attacked the graves of 32 soldiers killed during the First World War in the battle for Contalmaison. The incident has resulted in thousands of pounds' of damage in an attack described by a Scottish historian as an "appalling desecration" days before Remembrance Sunday.

Peake Wood Cemetery, near the village of Contalmaison, records 103 fallen Allied soldiers and is one of many small plots scattered across battlefields, each with their distinctive white headstones administered by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGS). The cemetery marks the spot from which the final assault was made on Contalmaison on 1 July, 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme and the scene of much heavy fighting by Scottish battalions.

The site is yards from a memorial to McCrae's Battalion, the celebrated Edinburgh unit formed with a large number of professional footballers, many from Heart of Midlothian FC.

Captain Lionel Coles, the Watsonian commander of the footballers' company, 16th Battalion the Royal Scots, was killed on the edge of the cemetery. Jack Alexander, who wrote the history of the battalion and who serves on the committee of the charitable trust that cares for the memorial that was erected in 2004, said he was disgusted by the vandalism. "As we move towards Remembrance Sunday, this appalling desecration is not the kind of thing we expect to see," he said.

The CWGC was notified of the attack last week and immediately arranged for the graffiti to be removed. Peter Francis, a spokesman, said: "It took a whole day. We were shocked and very, very angry."

Jacky Tonnel, the mayor of Fricourt district, which includes the cemetery, said: "I am outraged. Nothing like this has ever happened in Fricourt before and I can't understand it. I don't know if it was some kind of stupid game, whether it was adults or youths who did this, but one thing is for sure: it is scandalous and unacceptable."

Sir George McCrae raised his battalion of troops in less than a fortnight, thanks largely to the keenness with which many Hearts players enlisted. The club was top of the league when war broke out in 1914 and its players were renowned as some of the best footballers anywhere. But just four years later, there was barely a player left who had survived unscathed.

Contalmaison, just outside the town of Albert, was reached by McCrae's force in July 1916.

Scotsman

7 comments:

Red Squirrel said...

Bollocks!
You lot are the ones who sneak out at night and daub graves and public buildings!( not to mention mistaking a sikh Temple for a mosque, and then trying to pin it on the local BNP.)
The British Public are starting to ignore your tripe! In fact we are becoming immune to all this 'nazi' and 'racist' shite.
Wankers!

Anonymous said...

Will the nutzis like Red Squirrel fuck back off to Stormfront. This is an anti-racist forum, not a place to peddle your sick far-right libel.

Antifascist said...

I'm going to leave Red Squirrel's posting on because it demonstrates the stupidity of most so-called nationalists. Why anyone would want to desecrate anyone's grave is beyond me but to suggest anti-fascists might be responsible is truly moronic.

Antifascist said...

Swindon BNP activist Mark Bulman (who has used the pseudonym Bullock) was sentenced to five years after attempting to firebomb a local mosque using a BNP leaflet as a fuse. He also daubed swastikas and racist graffiti on local shops and businesses that he believed to be ‘ethnic’.

Red Squirrel said...

Never heard of him, are you able to provide a date? I do remember some years ago that an ex-army 'gun nut' planned a one man mission to blow up a Mosque, it was all over the papers, but no mention of BNP.
By the way,
Your response to my post on here was even more rude and filled with derogatory expletives than mine was!
If you wish to have a proper debate on 'who is a nazi'or any other topics, just leave a comment on my site and debate will flow!.I may not have the time, but I am sure there are others who would be delighted at such an opportunity! Unlike you people I prefer to have my comments unmoderated.
By the way I am neither an anti-semite nor do I hate people of other races.
Free Speech eh? Try it.

Anonymous said...

http://82.69.12.18/lancasteruafblog/index.php?itemid=654

Red Squirrel said...

Hello,
Thank you for the link,
I only had vague memories of the actual event from the Swindon Advertiser, but I do remember thinking that he must be a 'nut' of some kind.
I did feel very annoyed that the Sikh Gurdwara had been targeted, because I attended school with some excellent kids, Sikhs, as well as Hindu's and Afro- Caribbeans.
What I am trying to say is that I have no cause to feel antipathy towards people of other ethnic backgrounds. True diversity means that people can live together without conflict, not some globalised burger eating Huxlean dumbed down proletariat, controlled by institutionalised ignorance, bureaucracy and dependence.
Even this I could sort of accept, if it were not for the exteme Islamist ideology that is causing so much grief for everyone, it may seem 'useful' to you at present to support Islamist fundamentalism, but what of the end result? Slavery.