Who do you think you are?

George W. Bone's enlistment papers in 1889

Wednesday night I saw the episode of the BBCs Who do you think you are? featuring Minnie Driver.

It followed her attempts to find out more about her family and especially her father who had never spoken of his war service. He had, in fact been decorated for his conduct at the Battle of Heligoland Bight in 1939.

Family history is not always as fascinating.

Sometimes you will find generations of Agricultural labourers. There are some nuggets that really catch your eye - or someone who was involved with a major event. Unfortunately this is fairly rare.

Often all you will be able to gain is a snap shot of life from a census, get an idea of age, occupation, dates of birth/marriage/death etc. you can pad it out with some research into trades. For example my Second Great Grand Aunt Ada Williams was a machinist at Chatham Dockyard Ropery according to the 1911 census.

A visit to the site or reading up on the subject would give you a clearer idea of what life entailed for her.

As someone with a fascination for military history I find myself looking at the Soldiers and Sailors in the family - two of whom paid the ultimate price and died for their nation. My Great Great Grandfather George W. Bone who fell in the Boer War and my Great grand uncle Donald Homersham who was killed on the Somme in October 1916 three months after being awarded the military medal for bravery.

When reading around the subject of trench warfare and of the hot bloody fields of South Africa it is easy to draw comparisons to the lives of your family and wonder if they felt the same way or saw the same things.

Despite the frustratingly small amount that can be available for lower class families through history, there is a lot for you to find out, more than you would think. With all the genealogy websites out there it is really easy to get started and to map your family tree out.

As a starting tip I'd suggest you try and get as much starting information is possible such as your parents, grandparents and if possible great grand parents to give you as good a starting position as possible. As Censuses have a 100 year shelving period so the most recent you can get hold of is the 1911 and goes back as far as 1841. Beyond this you have to rely on Parish records for christenings, marriages and funerals which creates a sort of glass ceiling that only those with time and money to go in search of these records.

The other glass ceiling is the pay wall that plagues users. I've tried to do as much for free as possible but I'm hitting the pay wall and hitting it hard. There are a couple of documents that will clear up a lot of questions and the question of how George William Bone died during the Boer War. I do find it fairly frustrating but there it is.

It is something that is fascinating and is a worthwhile thing for at least one person in the family should undertake at some point. It is a sad fact that so much information about our ancestors are lost and anecdotes only last a few generations. 

History is all around us

Disused toilets near the Strand in Gillingham

History is a very important subject. It tells us where we've come from, where we have been and what we have done. In some circumstances it can even dictate where we are going.

History is the sum of human experience. If it is not learnt from then you are doomed to repeat it.

History is made by asking five questions; when, where, who, how and why?

Often we know four of the five but one is always a source of contention.

We know when the battle of little bighorn started, we know who led each side,  we know roughly where from the bodies discovered afterwards, we know why but we do not know how Custer's wing conducted itself or how it was defeated.

The truth will always be elusive and open to conjecture.

Local history is something that is all around us, you can't miss it. Not just the castles and cathedrals but also in other areas. The out houses behind the old Chatham Post office is clearly a stable for the stage coaches of old, plaques on houses with dates of construction, grave stones, blue plaques, missing houses in streets - it is all there.

Ever noticed that Gillingham high street has a road like layout with paving slabs on walkways along the side and a wide flat area in the centre? It is where the old tram lines used to run through the town.

You may think that nothing ever happens in the Medway towns but if you scratch the surface we have war, crime, pestilence, famine, death and a role in national and global history. There is something for everyone even if it is one thing that makes you go "huh!"

So how can you get involved or read more?

Well there are many good books in the local libraries any of the book shops in Rochester especially Baggins'.

There is also online resources both amateur and professional. You can check out Medway City ark, The kenthistoryforum and many more - just ask Google a question and the answer will present itself.

These are our towns, they are something to be proud of and generations of people have lived here and made a rich tapestry of events that is fascinating if you but take the time to look into it.

Not into Local stuff - why not take a look at your family? Lots of people get into it to see if they can replicate what they have seen on Who do you think you are? but are often disappointed. occasionally there is something really awesome that makes you think wow other times there is a lot of repetitiveness. It is worth looking into, even if you just go a few generations. There are plenty of Genealogy websites that will help you (for free to a point.) so why not?

History is not the reserve of dusty old professors who do not see the light beyond their libraries, it belongs to all of us and it is waiting for us to grab hold of it.

Guard down! The death of Officer Stites and the Battle of Alcatraz

The 2nd May 1946 was the beginning of a dark and bloody episode in the history of Alcatraz prison, an episode that saw two guards and three prisoners killed and a further two inmates executed for their role in the murder of Correctional Officer William A. Miller.

The escape plan itself was fairly straight forward and would have been a masterful move had it worked.
Officer Miller was over seeing Bernard Coy, who was sweeping the floor when he was called over to the c block door by Marvin Hubbard who had just returned from cleaning the kitchen areas. Whilst Miller was carrying out a check on Hubbard to make sure he hadn't taken any contraband he was attacked from behind by Coy and between the two men they restrained Miller, grabbed his keys and released Joe Cretzer and Clarence Carnes. Coy then scaled up to the gun gallery with a home made tool to spread the bars at a weak spot. Having greased himself up and starved himself for a few weeks Coy was able to slip in and lay in wait for officer Burch. After surprising Burch on his return he restrained him and lowered his Colt M1911, clubs and keys down to the others below.

Quickly moving on D-block they surprised Officer Cecil Corwin and forced him at gunpoint to release a dozen more prisoners, many of whom returned to their cells not wanting to be part of the escape attempt. However Sam Shockely and Miran Thompson joined the attempt.

The plan was to break out of the main doors using the guards keys and then using the guards as cover move to the launch (which docked between 14:00-30 daily) and head for the freedom of the mainland.
Luckily Miller had held on to the yard key so as not to disturb the Gun gallery guard, Burch, whilst he was on lunch, when they realised what was happening Miller quickly dropped the yard key down the toilet in the cell they were being held in. In the confusion of what keys to use the prisoners managed to jam the lock - the escape attempt had all but failed.

There were now up to nine guards held captive in cells as they each began rotation and suddenly found themselves in the Prisoner held block. In frustration Coy opened fire on guards in a nearby watch tower wounding one, he also bumped into assistant Warden Ed Miller who was carrying out a reconnaissance in force and fired on him too.

The alarm was raised and the area locked down.

Back in the block, Thompson and Shockely urged Cretzer to open fire with a Colt pistol on the guards so that they wouldn't be able to testify who was in the escape attempt. He openned fire in the enclosed space and it resulted in five injuries (three serious) including William Miller who would later die from those injuries.
At 18:00 another armed reconnaissance was organised under Lieutenant Bergen. The aim was to break into the gun gallery and gain the upper ground over the Prisoners and force them to surrender or be killed in a shoot out.

One of the guards was Senior Corrections officer Harold Porter Stites.

Stites had been born in Kansas on 3rd June 1897 and is recorded as living in Topeka Ward 2, Shawnee, Kansas on the 1900 Federal census with his father F. Herbert Stites, his mother Jennie and brother Fred.
By the 1910 census his father had died but he had a brother Edwin and Herbert.

He signed up to the Army for World War One (on 5th June 1918) where according to his Draft card he had been working as a Head waiter and was described as having blue eyes and brown hair.
His grave stone showed that he served as a Private First Class in 27th Infantry division which took part in the bloody fighting in France breaking the Hindenberg line.



Stites with his daughter Thelma

Post war he moved to Levenworth and began working as a prison guard. He married Bessie Etue on 21st November 1925 and they settled to having a family. By the 1940 census the family were living in Los Angeles and he had a Daughter Thelma (b. 1927), James (b. 1929), Robert (b. 1931) and Herbert (b. 1937). It is strange that the family lived in LA rather than on Alcatraz island itself. The guards worked six days straight with one day off and their families lived in close proximity. Even the Guard's family's laundry was washed and repaired by the Prisoners. According to Anna Thuman's book (see references) if a guard was well liked, like her step father Walter Donnington, then you could expect your belongings to be taken care of but if you were disliked then you could find items missing, ripped or buttons torn off.

 One can only assume that Stites didn't want his family trapped on the island should something happen. After all at Levenworth the prisoners would escape and disappear, on Alcatraz they could attack the guard's families, take hostages or even commit murder with relative impunity which was a constant worry of the families when an escape attempt was under way.

On 23rd of May 1938, senior Corrections officer Royal C. Cline was beaten to death by three convicts who then escaped onto the roof of the industries building. They attempted to take the guard tower on the roof and threw scrap metal at the guard on duty. Officer Stites returned fire with a rifle and the .45 revolver. Inmates Franklin and Lucas were injured but Limerick was mortally wounded in the head and died soon afterwards. Stites was called into an enquiry into the death of Limerick but was eventually exonerated. It makes sense that in the wake of this that they would have been moved off the island and Stites reassigned for the duration. This would tie into the 1940 census result showing the family in LA.

Now he was part of the team that charged C-block gun gallery. They laid down heavy suppressing fire whilst other guards tried to free Burch. The prisoners returned fire causing the guards, who were trapped in the confined space of the gallery, to take wounds. Stites was hit in the back and shouted out "I'm hit." He was quickly pulled to safety with the other wounded and the assault abandoned but was pronounced killed by an unknown assailant.

The US Marines were called in to settle the siege. At 19:00 another rescue attempt was mounted and unarmed guards rushed D-block under heavy cover from Gun galleries. One was wounded but they managed to recover the wounded guards and got them out to safety. When all was clear the barrage began. Holes were drilled in the roof of the block and grenades dropped down to corner the prisoners in a Utility corridor. By the next day they telephoned Warden Johnston to broker a deal but were told unconditional surrender was the only option. Later that day a guard on patrol was shot at and the barrage began again until 21:00. The following day armed groups of guards would sporadically run through the corridor and fire off rounds. At 9.40 the bodies of Cretzer, Coy and Hubbard were discovered and the siege was lifted.

Senior Corrections officer Harold Porter Stites was buried at Golden Gate national cemetery, San Bruno, California on 5th July. His daughter Thelma gave birth to his first grandchild the following year. His wife Bessie is buried in the same plot.

For their part in the murder of Officer Miller, Shockley and Thompson were sentenced to death together in the San Quentin Gas chamber and Clarence Carnes was sentenced to life as he was only 19 and too young to stop them from killing Miller.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_alcatraz For an overview.

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=10819 For details of his grave and death.

http://www.bop.gov/about/history/docs/fallen_hero_cline.pdf on the 1938 breakout attempt

http://www.bop.gov/about/history/docs/fallen_hero_stites.pdf on the death of Stites

Census' information from Ancestery.co.uk and the 1940 census here.

A Brief History of Alcatraz by the US Department of Justice, Kindle edition

Alcatraz School girl; A memoir my life on the Rock, Anna Thumann, Kindle edition

Die Wochenshau - German properganda news from August 17th 1940

The last stand of Inge Dombrowski

Yelena Zelenskaya portraying Inge in "Downfall"

As the Third Reich collapsed and the Red army cut through the German heartlands horror stories drifted west and filled the civilian population with dread.

The territory of East Prussia had been mauled by the advancing Russians. Civilians had been murdered, the weak, elderly, women and children. Women were gang raped by whole squads of Russian soldiers others raped to death. POWs were like wise shot, tortured or marched off to the East never to be seen again.

The Wehrmacht couldn't protect the civilians, either they were too busy fighting for their lives or using their arms to steal transport west or food. The organs of the state were similarly wreaking vengeance upon those who were seen as traitors or trying to save their own wretched hides and ill-gotten loot.

Scarily, these horror stories were true.

Anarchy and fear shook Germany to its very core. Many fled the red tide as it swept west. Others wouldn't flee preferring to fight on to buy the others time or to preserve Germany. Many could not leave for fear of retribution, lack of transport, physical inability or because they'd heard of refugees being murdered on the road or shot up by Russian aircraft.

The home front had gotten all the more desperate as time went by. As men of fighting age were quickly issued Karbiners, MP-40 or Panzerfausts and pushed towards the lines so the elderly, young boys and even young girls of the Deutsche Bunde Mädel filled in the gaps on second line positions. This included aiding the similarly aged Luftwaffe Flakhelfer.

As the Air war turned against the Luftwaffe in the skies above Germany's cities priorities for defence turned to Anti Aircraft guns over fighters. Great Flak towers were constructed and batteries of 88 mm guns were deployed. The 88 was a superb AA gun with the added bonus that it was mobile and could punch a hole through a medium tank quite easily. Like they had been on the front the 88s were deployed in the streets of Berlin at choke points to hold back the tide of Russian armoured vehicles and their barrels lowered.

In the centre of this storm and grim defenders was a teenage girl, Inge Dombrowski, a member of the Deutsche Bunde Mädel who served in the crew of one of the tank traps. There would have been shortages of ammunition, battle fatigue and somehow the knowledge that the war was coming to a close.

As a young girl, Inge would have been indoctrinated fully into the notions of National Socialism and the three Ks of the female Doctrine; Kinder, Kirche, Kuche. (Chilren, Church and Cooking.) Whether or not she was a strong believer or not can not be confirmed or denied but Nazism as a doctrine would have been drummed into her at school and at the BDM meetings etc.

The stress and the noise would have been horrendous as waves of Russian soldiers probed up the streets with heavy fire from Soviet Artillery regiments being rained down on targets the knowledge that they were only holding and unable to stop the Soviets nagging at them as they kept up a rate of fire on anything that appeared in the street before them never knowing when their last shot would be. The whole defence was an act of futility but with orders from the very top to stand their ground and for the young and indoctrinated, an unswerving belief in the Fuhrer and the promise of secret weapons or relief from the IX army to the south it was carried out. Fear of capture by the Soviets or of execution by the SS or Civilian death squads who roamed the lines looking for "cowards" and "traitors" also kept them at their posts. Boys and girls who were still of school age manning Flak guns against a battle hardened Soviet army - Chuikov's rifles had been in Stalingrad two years before and were baying for vengeance.

The incident of her last stand was shown in Downfall but is referenced though I've only found it in one book so far;  Joachim Fest, Inside Hitler's Bunker, pg 73-74. As the 88s fired until they wore down or were taken out by aircraft or their crews were picked off by snipers and infantry fire the inexperienced crews and young lads began to falter and flee for their lives.

Inge, fearing falling into the hands of the Russians because of the stories from East Prussia and other captured territories and what might happen to her, or like Magda Goebbels she believed in the Reich and Hitler to the extent that she couldn't imagine life in the world with out it and begged her Leutnant to take her life.

He is said to have drawn his Luger and fired then wracked with guilt or afflicted from the same sentiment and delusions of Nazi indoctrination, he also committed suicide.

Inge's death was symptomatic of the chaos of the end of the Reich and the desperate measures many felt they needed to take in the wake of the Soviet advance and the chaos that ensued. It is highly probable that had she fallen into Soviet hands she would have been raped and or killed as was the case for many women civilian and combatant in Berlin and with the fear of the future and not willing for this to be her fate, I can understand her choice in this.

Dornier down at Goodwin!

On the 26th August 1940 the German bomber came to rest on the sea off Deal on the Goodwin sands.

Dornier Do.17z in formation

Her surviving crew struggled free and into the sea praying for rescue as the bomber began to slip beneath the waves.

5K + AR (Werke no. 1160) had been part of the 7th squadron of the 3 bomber wing or 7/KG3 based in Antwerp-Deurne in occupied Belgium.[1] The crew of four were Unteroffizier Reinhard and Ritzel who were listed as Missing, Gefrieter Huhn who was killed and only Feldwebel Essmert was captured.[2] However Historian Chris Goss stated that two crew men were killed (one buried in Holland and One at the German Cemetery in Staffordshire) with two being captured. [3]

The BBC website (http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22380915?ocid=socialflow_twitter_bbcnews ) has a recreation of the crash. During a raid on the South east of England  (Some of 7 Staffel were chalked to attackk the RAF base at West Malling [4]) others seem to have been raiding the coastal areas such as Margate, Folkestone and Dover around lunch time returning to base at around 12:50. [5] Whatever her target 5K + AR was damaged by fire from an RAF Boulton-Paul Defiant most likely from 264 Squadron which claimed several Do. 17s on 26th August. Fw. Essmert would have brought his bomber down to a low altitude to draw less attention and to use the aircraft's superior low altitude handling to his advantage. Also it meant if he lost power it would be easier to bring in for a crash landing. It was a lost cause though, losing power he was forced to attempt a ditched landing over the Goodwins. The sea isn't an ideal surface to land on and it appears a wing was clipped and it flipped the aircraft which is why she is laying on her back.

So why is this find so important?

The Luftwaffe had three main bombers during the battle of Britain, the ubiquitous Heinkel He 111, the Junkers Ju 88 and the Dornier Do. 17z. Where as the Heinkel and Junkers would continue on as mainstays of the Luftwaffe's Kampflieger the Dornier was gradually retired by late 1941 and replaced by the Dornier Do. 215 and Do. 217 which used similar airframes but were different aircraft altogether. No Do. 17s are known to have survived and the last was scrapped in Finland in the 50s. Most of the Luftwaffe ones were either sold on, scrapped for their raw materials or converted for other uses.

It was one of the first modern bombers to be added to the fledgling Luftwaffe's stables in the mid thirties and was tested extensively in Spain by the Condor Legion. Although she was graceful, very manoeuvrable and her slim lines made her a hard target to hit compared to the bulky Heinkel, her bomb load was lacking as was the range. As the war went on and Luftwaffe strategists had to look at the very real possibility of prolonged fighting on the front with the need to strike further behind static lines rather than impressive high speed low altitude raids. The Ju 88 and He 111 were considered better suited and the Dornier line discontinued.

Parts and bits are held by various museums and collectors but not a complete airframe (minus cockpit glazing and undercarriage doors). Although she is made of Aluminium which degrades very quickly in salt water, it has been buried under the shifting sands which should hopefully have protected it.

As the planned lift occurs this weekend archaeologists and historians hold their breath to see what they will discover in her fuselage.

Notes

[1] Aircraft casualties in Kent Part 1; 1939 to 1940, Kent aviation historical research society, Meresborough books, Rainham, 1990 p.39

[2] Ibid.

[3] http://forum.12oclockhigh.net/showthread.php?t=22195

[4] Aircraft casualties in Kent Part 1, p. 39 entry numbers: 554, 561 and 567 all Dornier Do.17z's of 7/ Kg 3

[5] http://www.battleofbritain1940.net/0030.html

Other sources:

Jon Lake, The battle of Britain, Amber books, London, 2000

George Bone early life up to the Boer War

As my research into my Great-great Grandfather George William Bone continues I thought I would

document and share what I have discovered so far about his life leading up to his tragic death.

In the beginning I was handed the attached note by my Grandad (who had married George's Granddaughter Audrey Bone) when I first started working on the family tree.

It was intriguing and I took it very much at face value some twelve years ago and didn't research it. In 2004 I started messing around on Genesreunited and managed to clear up a couple of other details but it has only been in the last couple of months since casually starting on Ancestry.co.uk to pass the time that I have discovered the following narritive of his early life.

The Bone family were settled in the village of Westbourne in Sussex where William Bone (b. 1812) was an agricultural worker toiling in the fields a vocation he was joined in by his son Albert (b. 1841).

Albert married Louisa Terry (b. 1845 in West Wittering, Sussex) before 1863 and settled in to West Wittering and started having children.

Bertha (1863), Ann (1864), Edith (1868) and Emily (1870) all appear on the censuses and survive into adulthood. George William Bone was born in 1871 in Westbourne, Sussex and was the first of five boys. Albert (b. 1880), Arthur (b. 1882), Archibald (b. 1884) and Bertram (b. 1887).

The boys all seem to have wanted to better themselves and all learnt a trade. This was probably caused by the shift away from manual agricultural labour during the 19th Century, even Albert senior became a gardener as work in the fields dried up. George was a wheelwright, Arthur a groom, Archie a draper and Bertram a saddler with only Albert being different and becoming a shipping clerk.

Whether through coincidence or not, all the Bone boys joined the army. George joined the Royal Engineers in 1889 as did Albert in 1908, the others joined the Army service corp (Archie in 1900, Arthur in 1901 and Bertram in 1905).

George Signed up on the 25th March 1889 and was issued the army number 23654.

At the time of writing I have little details about his career prior to the Boer War. According to the 1891 census he was aboard a vessel serving as "Crew" in Northumberland.

He ended up at Brompton Barracks in Gillingham, Kent. It was here that he met Mary Ann Williams, possibly through her brother Richard who signed up on 23rd January 1894 and went on to become a sergeant electrician. Mary (b.1878 - 1948) was the second eldest of eleven surviving children (according to the 1911 census, Rebecca, Mary's mother, had had 12 children by her husband Richard, a retired Royal Engineer, Sadly one had died) and they lived at number 9 "Best town." Chatham in 1891. According to the author of Bygone Medway - after an exhaustive search, this is in fact where Hards town Chatham is now.

St Mary's Church circa 1905

Mary and William were married at St Mary's church in Chatham on 22nd March 1898.

War was looming though and regular soldiers were already being gathered to go to South Africa. As a master Wheelwright George would have been invaluable on the vast African Savannah where great convoys of supplies tracking back and forth laden with supplies.

The muster point was the Curragh Camp, County Kildare with his pregnant wife, though the wedding certificate states he was already at Curragh when he married Mary.. According to family myth he never saw his son Albert who was born 25th January 1899 as he had already departed for the Cape. If he had, he would have departed before the rest of the gathered forces who left later in the year. It is conceivable though, as an engineer that he might need to arrive before the fighting line regiments.

His career in Africa though is another story.