|
During the First World War there was a prisoner-of-war camp for German officers nearby in Colsterdale at Breary Banks. Oberleutnant Otto Ludwig Wisseler, an unmarried teacher and reserve officer in the Infantrie-Regiment Prinz Friedrich der Niederlande (2 Westfaelisches) Nr. 15, was captured at Hamel in July 2018 and placed in Colsterdale Camp. Otto committed suicide soon after his arrival, on 10th August 1918 and was buried at St Paul's Healey, under the yew tree north of the church. in 1959 his body may have been exhumed and taken to the German Military Cemetary on Cannock Chase in Staffordshire, although his gravestone remains under the yew tree and is still just legible. The graves of two British WW1 soldiers lie beside it. The 10th August 1918 was 2 days after the opening Battle of Amiens, which started the '100 Days Offensive', the final Allied advance which led to Germany's defeat. That day was called by Ludendorf 'The Black Day' (Der Schwartzer Tag) of the German Army. Possibly Wisseler understood its significance. |
