In Memory of
MERVYN STANLEY GRIVELL
Sergeant
644474
156 Sqdn., Royal Air Force
who died on
Tuesday, 24th August 1943. Age 21.
| Additional Information: |
Son of Abraham and Rosina Alice Grivell, of
Kingswood, Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire. |
Commemorative Information
| Cemetery: |
BERLIN 1939-1945 WAR CEMETERY, Brandenburg,
Germany
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Grave Reference/
Panel Number: |
Coll. grave 14. B. 7-8.
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| Location: |
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. |
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