east_kent_winter_ 2012.pdf - The Western Front Association

Thanet does us proud
Thanet Male Voice Choir sang at the evening ceremony at the Menin Gate on Saturday 8th September. John
Websper reported that such was their performance that the protocol of "no applause" was broken at the end
of the service when they were roundly applauded by the crowd watching.
Labour MP suspended from Commons after blaming ministers for deaths of British
troops in Afghanistan
Paul Flynn, MP for Newport West, was suspended by Speaker John Bercow in September when he
accused defence ministers of lying over military policy in Afghanistan and said the public wanted
British troops brought home. Defence Secretary Philip Hammond was responding to reports that
Nato was scaling back operations with Afghan forces after a spate of attacks by rogue Afghan
soldiers and policemen. Mr Flynn directly accused ministers of culpability in the rising death toll of
British troops adding ‘Isn't this very similar to the end of WWI, when it was said that politicians lied
and soldiers died and the reality was, as it is now, that our brave soldier lions are being led by
ministerial donkeys.’
98 years on – remembering the 7th Cruiser Squadron
On September 22 1914, three armoured cruisers, HMS Aboukir, Hogue and Cressy, were sunk in the North
Sea by a solitary German submarine U9 commanded by Otto Weddigen.
Several years ago Dutch WW1 enthusiast and former publisher Henk van der Linden came across the graves
of some sailors from the HMS Cressy buried near the Hook of Holland in the small town of s-Gravenzande.
That chance find prompted him to write a book – the first account of the tragedy to be published in the
Netherlands, now translated into English – Live Bait Squadron: Three Mass Graves Off the Dutch Coast, 22
September 1914 (£19.95 ISBN 978-9461532602). Henk has devoted the past few years to honouring the men
of the three cruisers, culminating on 22 September this year in the launch of the English translation of his
book at a special event in Chatham.
Descendents of a Dutch fishing boat captain who helped to rescue some of the survivors attended, bringing
with them a silver cup presented by King George V. Also there was the descendant of a 15-year-old cadet
who survived two of the sinkings, but not the third, and a great grandson of a survivor who has dived the
wrecks.
The wrecks lie in international waters but not far from the Dutch coast. In 2011 newspapers reported that
they were being targeted by salvage vessels keen to extract valuable metals. Their action received much
criticism, both in the Netherlands and the UK. However, it was disclosed that the British Government had sold
the wrecks for salvage in the 1950s and that therefore their status as war graves was questionable.