Owen’s Owen’s fallen fallen foe foe German’s German’s body body found found in in the the trenches trenches that that inspired inspired poet poet
THE archaeologists found Private Jakob Hones when they were looking for the trenches where the First World War poet Wilfred Owen was inspired to write The Sentry. He was lying on his back with his German uniform rotted around him and his ammunition pouches full of bullets.
They reckoned he had been dragged there by his comrades after being killed at Heidenkopf on the Somme in Northern France in June 1915.
The former farmhand, who was 34, was given a proper burial last year at a military cemetery near Verdun. Now his grandson Walter Yapp has travelled to Britain to help launch an exhibition at the National Army Museum in Chelsea. Finding the Fallen highlights the work of archaeologists discovering the secrets of the Great War trenches.
The opening ceremony will take place after the two minutes of silent remembrance at 11am this morning on the 11th day of the 11th month – the time at which the Armistice was signed in 1918.
‘It is a very emotional time for me,’ said 52-year- old Mr Yapp yesterday. ‘ We knew about my grandfather, of course, but just that he was missing in the war.
‘When we buried him it was an emotional moment with a few tears. I find it incredible and impressive that such a thing has been done to salute an enemy.’
Private Hones, one of six children, died without seeing his daughter Louise – Mr Yapp’s mother – who was born on Christmas Eve, 1914.
Mr Yapp said: ‘He knew that his daughter was born because he wrote to say he had heard the news. He also said of the war, “I think we have seen the worst of this”.’
Private Hones was one of eight and a half million killed in the Great War – hundreds of thousands of whom still lie in unmarked graves.
He was identified after detective work by the team from No Man’s Land: The European Group for Great War Archaeology, who found him in 2003.
Although his uniform had rotted and his bread pouch contained nothing more than a comb, mirror, nail cleaner, pencil and spoon, the vital clue came from the fragments of his identity tag.
Although it was against regulations, Private Hones had scratched his name and the name of his village into the disc.
The village was Munchingen, near Stuttgart, where his grandson still lives.
Experts reckon he died on June 13, 1915, during a French bombardment. Wilfred Owen, an officer in the Manchester Regiment, described the same trenches as ‘seventh hell’ when he wrote about them in January 1917. He was killed seven days before the war ended the following year as he led his men across a canal at Ors in France.
Historian Alastair Fraser said: ‘ It seems that Jakob Hones was hit and seriously wounded during the preparatory bombardment, as his full ammunition pouches indicate that he did not take part in the defence of the position.
‘It appears that he did not die immediately as a family story has it that his brother Christian was with him at his death.’
Christian died a year later in Miraumont. Another brother, Wilhelm, died at Ypres.
‘It was all such a waste, all those lives,’ said Mr Yapp yesterday. ‘ It is a lesson to all who want to keep freedom and peace in Europe.’