In any war, unexpected events occur. Many strange and sometimes mysterious incidents are also known. Some of them are recorded by eyewitnesses, while others are transmitted in folk tales. And war is always a place of terrible events. A lot of dead and wounded, pain, suffering, often hunger and disease ... But there are times when there are completely inexplicable tragic events. A vivid example of this is the story of one of the units of the Norfolk Royal Regiment. Our article is dedicated to the theme: "The Disappearance of the Norfolk Regiment (1915)."
Norfolk Regiment
The Royal Norfolk Regiment was part of the British forces. It was created after the reformation of the English army at the end of the 19th century, in 1881. The command was led by Lieutenant General Hamilton.
The regiment consisted of six battalions and was part of the 163rd brigade of the 54th division. He was considered a backup part of the British army. Front-line soldiers often called the soldiers who were part of this regiment "Saturday night warriors." One of his battalions became famous for his incomprehensible disappearance during the battle, which was not even visible. This unit of the Norfolk Regiment was subsequently listed as "missing."
There are many legends and versions about how the British soldiers died. But two of them are considered the main ones, they are used most often in various sources. Nevertheless, which of them is true remains a mystery. The disappearance of the Norfolk regiment occurred during the campaign near Gallipoli.
Gallipoli Campaign
The Gallipoli campaign is the most difficult period for the British troops in this war. The soldiers tried to convince themselves that they could get out of this infernal hell. The conditions were not just bad, but terrible. In the trenches, the soldiers felt like in a red-hot oven. The wind burned faces, dust clouds constantly rising over the valley. All the latrines were filled with flies, the corpses decomposed in the sun. From this across the plain spread a terrible stench.
The crippled soldiers did not receive normal care, their wounds were festering, and the flies exacerbated the situation, scattering hordes of sick people. A very dangerous form of dysentery has arisen. She spared no one, and soldiers began to look more and more like walking skeletons. After the epidemic, the troops were terribly exhausted. Among the soldiers there was an atmosphere of hopelessness and despair.
But Hamilton considered that it was necessary to send fresh troops to the main directions in order to turn the tide of the campaign in their favor. For the battle, they chose a site in the region of height 60, where they subsequently sent the missing 1/5 battalion. Colonel Bosch commanded them.
Place of battle
The battlefield was not chosen by chance by the Norfolk Regiment - by Gallipoli. The Turks, with whom the British army fought , had excellent defense, and the British army was weakened - it lacked ammunition, food and drinking water. Therefore, Hamilton decided to strike at the weakest point of the enemy.
Norfolk Regiment July 29, 1915 entered into Gallipoli. He had to control the Dardanelles. This is a long narrow canal that connects the Black and Mediterranean Seas. Its length is almost 65 kilometers along the Gallipoli Peninsula.
They decided to land the Norfolk Royal Regiment in Sulva Bay. On August 10, the soldiers were already in place. There was terrible summer heat. The soldiers saw the scene of hostilities. Very close to the bay is a salt lake. In summer, it dried up, resulting in the formation of salt crystals, which shone unbearably in the sun.
Behind a small strip of the beach was the large plain of Sulva, which was to become the place for a decisive battle. It was bordered by a chain of hills that stretched from south to north. This turned the plain into a gigantic arena.
The mysterious disappearance of the Norfolk Regiment in the Sulva region
The military operation began on August 12, 1915 at 16.00. First, they prepared powerful artillery. It took 45 minutes. There was almost no connection. As a result, artillery opened fire without clear coordination with the commanders, at the time indicated earlier. After that, according to Hamilton’s plan, a battalion of 267 men safely entered the hollow. A thick fog hung in it, in which the detachment hid. The battalion never reached the summit of 60; no one saw the Norfolk there. After a short time, the fog cleared, but the hollow was empty. There were no living or dead soldiers in it.
But numerous eyewitnesses describe what they saw in a different way. A mysterious fog appeared right in front of the battalion. Moreover, it did not disperse, but sailed away in the form of a cloud.
Description of the Battle in Hamilton's Letter to Secretary Kitchener
Sir Bocham, who led the 1/5 battalion of the Norfolk Regiment of the British Army, despite a heated battle, moved forward with his unit. He was an experienced officer who had proven himself in battle. The battle was hot, the battalion stubbornly moved forward, crowding its enemy. 250 soldiers and 16 officers plunged into the forest. And after that they were no longer seen. Nobody came back. 267 people disappeared without a trace.
As described the disappearance of the battalion 1/5 involuntary witnesses
22 New Zealand infantrymen from the 3rd platoon described the surprising disappearance of the 1/5 battalion that they saw, not like Hamilton in his letter. All of them claimed that while the soldiers rose, a gusty wind rose and an unusual silver cloud appeared. It was very dense and reached a length of up to 800 feet, a height of 200, and a width of 300.
For reference: some witnesses stated that they saw a strange luminous object in the form of a cigar above the field, strange sparks came from it. There were more than 50 such testimonies. However, the British government considered that the soldiers had clouded their minds from the heat, so such evidence was not even considered.
A 1/5 battalion entered the cloud in formation, but not a single person left on the other side. It disappeared after about an hour, rising smoothly and sailing towards Bulgaria, to the north. But in the open space there was not a single person - neither living nor dead. No one heard the sounds of a fight or shots when a 1/5 battalion entered the cloud. Too incomprehensible and mystical disappearance of 267 people, the command of the Norfolk Regiment explained in its own way - the enemy captured all the soldiers. Only how - remains unknown.
There are classified documents, what is indicated in them - no one knows. Some people believe that the UK government has hidden extremely important facts. However, no one has been able to prove this to this day. In England there is a volunteer group formed in the 20s. The purpose of her work is to investigate this strange incident. Some of their statements indicate that the government knows more than it tells the public. However, there is no concrete evidence base.
The number of dead soldiers
Various sources mention several figures of the dead soldiers of the 1/5 battalion of the Norfolk Regiment. And many of them are quite controversial. For example, one source claims that 145 people have disappeared. And in others - 200, even 2000 British military. But most often 267 people are indicated in the sources.
Mysterious disappearance
The mysterious disappearance of the Norfolk Regiment is shrouded in darkness. After the tragic events, when the battalion of the Norfolk Royal Regiment disappeared in an incomprehensible cloud of fog, Britain was firmly convinced that the soldiers were held captive by the Turks, with whom they fought at that time.
After surrender in 1918, Britain demanded the return of the battalion they had seized, according to their assumption. But the Turks, who had previously fought with the Norfolk Regiment, made an official statement that during the military operations near Gallipoli there were no battles in the area of Sulva Bay, and not a single British soldier was captured in the area.
As a result, the fate of the soldiers remained unknown before they found the bodies of half the battalion. But are the Turks to blame? There was too much inexplicable that day. The battalion disappeared literally in front of many infantrymen.
Mysterious clouds
In more detail about the unusual clouds in which the 1/5th battalion of the Norfolk Regiment disappeared, several observers told who were instructed to track the soldiers from cover. Separated them only 150 meters.
According to observers, the weather on that day was simply magnificent. The day was very clear. The picture of the bright sky was broken only by a few clouds of a strange shape. There were seven in total. What is surprising - they were all of the same shape, in the form of a loaf of bread, and identical in size. Strange clouds hovered just above a height of 60, where the 1/5 battalion was headed, that is, directly above the Norfolk Regiment. In addition, a fairly strong wind was blowing - at a speed of 5 mph, but the strange formations in the sky did not change their shape and did not budge.
One of these clouds suddenly fell right on the road, on the way by the battalion, when the soldiers climbed the mountain. It was 240 meters long, 65 meters high, and 60 meters wide. The cloud was very dense, dense, its structure seemed homogeneous. The feeling was that it was even hard to the touch. The cloud very strongly reflected the sun's rays, and their brilliance blinded the eyes of the observers, therefore it was not even possible to provide a barrage fire.
About an hour after the last soldier hid in dense fog, the cloud very slowly took off from the earth and rose up. Observers noticed that there were six other strange foggy formations at the top. And despite the strong wind, they all remained in place until a cloud from the earth rose to their level. After that, all seven strange fogs began to simultaneously move towards Bulgaria and after 15 minutes disappeared from the eyes.
Who is to blame for the deaths of the Norfolk Regiment: basic versions
It remains an unsolved mystery - where did the Norfolk regiment disappear? Naturally, few believed in mysticism, so they decided that the entire battalion was quietly captured by the Turks. But, as it turned out later, they claimed that they did not even know about the existence of this unit of the Norfolk Regiment. And they hear about strange clouds for the first time.
The second version of what happened is the machinations of aliens. In addition, according to rumors, four such strange clouds appeared over Turkish troop arrangements that day. They were completely round and did not obey the gusts of a strong wind. But not one of them descended to the Turks. Ufologists willingly agree with this hypothesis, arguing that there were many cases of kidnapping by an alien mind. They believe that a certain power could well transfer them even to another dimension or to a parallel world.
How and where did they find the dead soldiers
Only in 1918, new details surfaced about the disappeared battalion. The British appeared in this place already as winners. During a tour of the battlefield, a royal regiment cockade was discovered. Surveys began, and it turned out that one Turkish peasant complained about the corpses of English soldiers, who in the past suddenly simply overwhelmed his site. He had to dump them into a ravine.
There is one oddity about which official sources were silent for a long time. The peasant, who found the corpses of soldiers, claimed that they were all terribly mutilated, with broken bodies. It seemed that they were thrown from a great height. The peasant was frightened of evil spirits and tried to quickly get rid of the bodies, dropping them in one pile into a ravine.
Found part of the missing battalion
On September 23, 1919, an officer who found the bodies of soldiers from the Norfolk Battalion 1/5 presented sad numbers in the report. He reported that a total of 186 bodies were discovered, and 122 of them were Norfolk. Unfortunately, only two were identified - Barnaby and Carter. But many were still missing, and their fate is still unknown.
Another mystery of the disappeared battalion
The disappearance of the Norfolk Regiment causes a lot of controversy. All the found bodies of soldiers, mysteriously missing in the ill-fated foggy cloud, were found outside the territory of the Turks' defense. And this place is no longer a battlefield. Yes, and it is located almost a kilometer from the military operations at that time.
It was assumed that the soldiers were gradually destroyed by enemies. But if you recall the testimonies of all the witnesses, then no shots, fights and screams were heard - this is the first. And secondly, the fact that this territory was far beyond the front line is very embarrassing, which means that there should not have been any significant Turkish military units capable of destroying a battalion of 267 people.
Fingerboard "Top Secret"
The mysterious story of the disappearance of the Norfolk Regiment still raises more questions than answers. The unexpected loss of an entire battalion in front of many witnesses was kept secret for a long time. And only in 1965 did the information reach the general public. In 1916, the government appointed a state commission, which was to investigate the circumstances of the defeat of the army and the loss of the whole battalion.
All data was classified. Attempts to sort it out were unsuccessful until 1919, when, at last, half of the missing soldiers were found. But there is still no data on the rest. Either they are, but they were also classified and will emerge only after many years.