Trying to Locate where my Relative served in Belgium

[alcalder]

Hello,

I have just joined this forum and I'm wondering if anyone can help me locate where a relative served during World War 1.

He was working with the 5th Australian Broadgauge Railway Operations Company (also called 59th when he served in 1917). I have his war diary and I am pretty sure he was near the Third Battle of Ypres since in his diary he mentions "the big push" on 31st July.

On Sunday, 22nd July, he and four others visited an aerodrome to see all the "flying machines" and on the same day visited the "King of Belgium's country residence". In his diary he says he's in Perelkock, but no such place exists. It could be an anglicism of a Belgium name since he wrote Audruicq as Audruick.

He is being bombed regularly by "Taubes" by "Fritz" (obviously the germans).

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Also, if you could email your reponses that would be fantastic - just remove and replace the obvious marks in the email address below. Thank you so much

Lynda

alcalder_at_ozemail_dot_com_dot_au

[duckman]

Hi Lynda,

I'd agree that it seems likely that he was in/around 3rd Ypres, although the Australian Divisions were not involved until well after "the big push" he mentions (they were fed in in September). Railway companies would be held at Army level, and thus would be used independently of any other Australian forces, which were held against I ANZAC (1,2,4,5 Divs - in GHQ reserve) and II ANZAC (3 Div, NZ Div & a British division - holding ground taken at Messines, to the south of Ypres, in June) at the time.

Can't give you an answer, but a possible location for one.

(Obviously, I don't know if you've checked this, so sorry if I'm teaching you to suck eggs)

Go to the National Archives of Australia's RecordSearch - http://www.naa.gov.au/The_Collection/recordsearch.html

Search on Broad gauge railway company, All Words, Date Range 1910-1925. (note "broad gauge" - two separate words)

That gets 65 Hits. Click on Display and you will see their holdings. It includes:

5th (59th) Australian BGRO [Broad Gauge Railway Operating] Company: Brief record

War Diaries for:
3rd Section, Australian Railway Troops, and 59th Company (Australian), Railway Operating Division RE, and 59th Australian Broad Gauge Railway Operating Company - September - November 1917 (Diary covers September-November 1917 and has appendix containing history January-June 1917)

5 BGROC - Jan 1918, April-Dec (monthly) 1918, Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr-May 1919
59 BGROC - Dec 1917, Feb 1918

and Field Returns:
5 BGROC - Jan-Apr 1919

and a couple of Courts Martial

None of these specifically cover the period you want, but the first two I mention have a good chance of containing info you are after.

I haven't examined the contents of any of these are they need to be ordered from NAA.

I must add that I am amazed that anyone still referred to "Taubes" as late as mid-1917. The Taube was long out of service by then, and though the name had been used generically by British and Commonwealth troops to include any German aircraft, I would have thought the term would have gone out of vogue before the end of 1916.

Just shows to go you...

[Regulus]

Hi,

Welcome to the Forum !

King Albert I from Belgium stayed at De Panne during WW I, where there was also the fieldhospital of the Queen, L'Océan. The royal household stayed at the Villa Maskens.

Did he make any mentioning on the airplanes ? Nationality ?

Perelkock is another hard question. There's nothing close with known placenames. The closest ones were in German territory, so nothing on that one for the moment. I wonder if the ...kock isn't meaning hoek in Flemish, which means corner, but there are hundreds of these names in West-Flanders only...

Did he give any description on the location ?

Not much help I'm afraid.

Best from Johan

[alcalder]

Hi Duckman and Johan,

Thankyou for your tips. I have tried all day to login to the National Archives again. I was on there last night and found my GGF Service Record, which was very exciting. But I want to do that search you suggest, no luck yet. I'll keep trying.

As for details in the war-diary, unfortunately not. I think he wasn't a very educated man since his diary is very simple and full of spelling and grammar mistakes and not a lot of explanations. He only refers to the areoplanes (as he writes it) and flying machines and the "Taubes". No nationalities, no nothing. He doesn't even have a year on the diary, this I had to work out from his service record and the historical account of the Third Battle at Ypres.

I have no doubt that Perelkock is an anglicism of a true name and I'm still looking. Hoek is an option but I was wondering whether Bullecourt may even be close. It's a very hard one. I'll get there. Poelcapelle is also a possibility since Capelle and Kirche are both German for chapel/church. I'm not holding my breath of that possibility, though.

I'll try looking up those royal residences, thanks. But would mere privates be able to wander around the grounds of a royal residence or perhaps it is a building commandeered for the war effort or abandoned?

Thanks again.

LyndaA

[duckman]

Lynda,

Bullecourt seems most unlikely, it is in France, east of the Somme battlefield, and quite a distance from Flanders. The fighting there took place some time before the period you are looking at (April '17). Certainly railway troops were laying track up towards the Bullecourt area as fast as they could in March/April 1917, following the German withdrawal in that area, but everything you have said points to 3rd Ypres in this connection.

Let me know if you strike out at the NAA. I can probably give you hand getting info (living in Canberra has some advantages!)

And you have my sympathy - I've recently spent some time deciphering my Great Uncle's creative spelling of foreign placenames.

Good Luck

Duckman

*BREAKING NEWS*

Look at this map

A couple of kms NE of Poperinghe is a village called Perelhoek (I think - I can't quite read the map). Might be Peselhoek.

Looks like Johan was on the mark (to no-one's surprise).

Mystery solved?

[Graeme]

Looks like "Pezelhoek" to me.

Graeme

[alcalder]

You guys are champions! That's amazing. I'm now going to go and check every reference I can to Pezelhoek.

Thanks again.

LyndaA

[Rick]

Lynda,

Using the expedia map finder, it is spelled Peselhoek, (at least now-a-days). R.

[Regulus]

Hi,

Rick's right, Peselhoek it is now, part of Poperinge. I had been thinking of Poperinge already, but didn't make the link with Peselhoek...

Duckman and Graeme however did make the link !

Many troops were lying in reserve in this area, Poperinge also well known for Talbot House.

Also there was a station overthere at the time ! There was a campement in the Peselhoek area, known as P camp.

Go to : http://www.poperinge.be/NL/index.htm

Then you go to the left down corner, where you will see a symbol in the form of Belgium, it's the one on the right down, click it, you get a map of Belgium, and under the map click on Stadsplan Groot Poperinge

You will get a map of Poperinge - go to square D5 click on it, you will see the Pezelstraat and the Pezelhoekstraat. The corner of both these streets is the real Pezelhoek.

Best from Johan

[Graeme]

Johan

What a wonderful link.

Graeme