What unit was called the Norfolk Regiment? The mystery of the disappearance of the Norfolk regiment

In any war, unexpected events occur. We also know a lot of strange, and sometimes mysterious, incidents. Some of them are recorded by eyewitnesses, while others are narrated 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 inexplicable tragic events occur. A vivid example is the story of one of the divisions of the Norfolk royal regiment. Our article is devoted to the subject: "The Disappearance of the Norfolk Regiment (1915)".

Norfolk Regiment

The Royal Norfolk Regiment was part of the British forces. It was created after the reform of the British army in the late 19th century, in 1881. The command was led by Lieutenant-General Hamilton.

The regiment consisted of six battalions and was a member of the 163rd Brigade of the 54th Division. He was considered a reserve part of the British army. Front-line soldiers often called soldiers, who were part of this regiment, "Saturday night warriors". One of his battalions also became famous for his incomprehensible disappearance during the battle, which was not even visible. This division of the Norfolk Regiment was subsequently listed as "missing".

There are many legends and versions about how British soldiers died. But two of them are considered basic, they are used in various sources most often. But nevertheless, which of them is true, still remains a mystery. The disappearance of the division of the Norfolk Regiment took place during the campaign at Gallipoli.

Gallipoli Campaign

The Gallipoli campaign is the most difficult period for British troops in this war. The soldiers tried to convince themselves that they could get out of this hellish hell. Conditions were not just bad, but terrible. In the trenches, the soldiers felt like in a hot oven. The wind burned faces, clouds of dust constantly rose above the valley. All sorts of places were filled with flies, corpses decomposed in the sun. From this across the plain a terrible stench spread.

The crippled soldiers did not receive normal care, their wounds festered, and the flies aggravated the situation, hording over the sick with hordes. There was a very dangerous form of dysentery. She spared no one, and the soldiers began to look more like walking skeletons. After the epidemic, the troops were terribly depleted. Among the soldiers was an atmosphere of hopelessness and despair.

But Hamilton felt that it was necessary to introduce fresh troops to the main directions in order to reverse the course of the campaign in their favor. For the battle, they chose a site in the area of height 60, where they subsequently sent a missing battalion 1/5. Colonel Bosch commanded them.

Place of Battle

The place of the battle was chosen by the Norfolk Regiment not by accident - at Gallipoli. The Turks, with whom the British army fought, the defense was fine, 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 Joined Gallipoli. He had to control the Dardanelles. It is a long narrow channel that connects the Black and Mediterranean seas. Its length is almost 65 kilometers along the Gallipoli peninsula.

The landing of the Norfolk royal regiment was decided in the Sulva bay. On August 10, the soldiers were already there. It was a terrible summer heat. Soldiers saw the place of military operations. Near the bay there is a salt lake. In the summer it dried up, as a result formed salt crystals, which were intolerably shining in the sun.

Behind a small strip of the beach was a large plain Sulva, which was supposed to be the place for a decisive battle. It was bordered by a chain of hills that stretched from the south to the north. This turned the plain into a giant 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 a powerful artillery. It took 45 minutes. There was almost no connection. As a result, the artillery opened fire without a clear agreement with the commanders, at the time indicated earlier. After that, according to Hamilton's plan, a battalion consisting of 267 men safely entered the hollow. In it hung a thick fog, in which the detachment disappeared. To the top of the 60th battalion never reached, Norfolk there so no one saw. 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 there in front of the battalion. In addition, it did not dissipate, but floated away in the form of a cloud.

The description of the battle in Hamilton's letter to the Minister Kitchener

Sir Bosham, who led the battalion 1/5 of the Norfolk Regiment of the British Army, in spite of the bitter battle, advanced along with his unit. He was an experienced officer, well proven in combat. The battle was hot, the battalion stubbornly advanced forward, crowding its enemy. 250 soldiers and 16 officers went into the woods. And after that they were never seen again. No one came back. 267 people disappeared without a trace.

How the unwary witnesses describe the disappearance of a battalion 1/5

22 New Zealand infantrymen from the 3rd platoon described the surprising disappearance of the 1/5 battalion not as Hamilton did in his letter. All of them claimed that while the soldiers were rising, 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 your information: some witnesses stated that they saw above the field a strange luminous object in the form of a cigar, strange sparks emanating from it. There were more than 50 such testimonies. However, the British government considered that the soldiers had a clouding of reason from the heat, so such evidence was not even considered.

The Battalion 1/5 of the formation entered this cloud, but on the other hand no man came out. It disappeared after about an hour, smoothly rising and sailing towards Bulgaria, to the north. But there was not a single person left on the open space, neither alive nor dead. The sounds of fighting or shots, when battalion 1/5 entered the cloud, no one heard. The mysterious disappearance of 267 men by the command of the Norfolk Regiment was explained in its own way-all the soldiers took the enemy prisoner. Only in what way - remains unknown.

There are classified documents that are indicated in them - no one knows. Some people believe that the British government has concealed extremely important facts. However, this to this day no one could prove. In England there is a volunteer group formed in the 1920s. Its purpose is to investigate this strange incident. Some of their statements indicate that the government knows more than reports to the public. However, there is no concrete evidence base.

Number of dead soldiers

Several sources mention several figures of the killed soldiers of the battalion 1/5 of the Norfolk Regiment. And many of them are quite contradictory. For example, one source claims that 145 people have disappeared. And in others - 200, even 2000 British military. But most often in the sources indicated 267 people.

Mysterious disappearance

The mysterious disappearance of the Norfolk regiment is covered 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 being held captive by the Turks, with whom they fought at that time.

After the surrender in 1918, Britain demanded the return of the battalion, which they believed to be captured. But the Turks, who fought earlier with the Norfolk Regiment, made an official statement that during Gallipoli's military operations there was no fighting in the area of Sulva Bay, and no British soldier was captured in the area.

As a result, the fate of the soldiers remained unknown until they found the bodies of half the battalion. But are the Turks guilty here? There was too much inexplicable that day. The battalion disappeared right before the eyes of many infantrymen.

Mysterious clouds

More details about the unusual clouds in which the 1 / 5th Battalion of the Norfolk Regiment disappeared, were told by several observers who were instructed to track the soldiers from the shelter. Separated them only 150 meters.

According to the description of the observers, the weather that day was just magnificent. The day was very clear. The picture of the bright sky was broken only by a few clouds of strange shapes. There were seven in total. What is surprising - they were all the same shape, in the form of a loaf of bread, and identical in size. Strange clouds hovered just above the height of 60, where the battalion 1/5, that is, directly over the Norfolk regiment, was heading. In addition, a very strong wind blew - at a speed of 5 mph, but the strange formations in the sky did not change their shape and did not move.

One of these clouds suddenly descended right onto the road, on the way to the battalion, when soldiers were climbing a mountain. It was 240 meters long, 65 high and 60 wide. The cloud was very dense and thick, its structure seemed homogeneous. There was a feeling that it was even hard to touch. The cloud reflected the sun's rays very strongly, and their brilliance blinded the eyes of the observers, because even a barrage of fire was not possible.

About an hour after the last soldier disappeared in a dense fog, the cloud very slowly broke away from the ground and rose up. Observers noticed that there were six other strange foggy formations at the top. And despite the strong wind, they all stayed in place until the cloud from the ground rose to their level. After that, all seven strange mists began to move simultaneously towards Bulgaria and after 15 minutes disappeared from sight.

Who is to blame for the death of the division of the Norfolk Regiment: the main versions

Until now, remains an unsolved mystery - where the Norfolk regiment disappeared? Naturally, few believed in mysticism, so they decided that the whole 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 division of the Norfolk regiment. And they hear about strange clouds for the first time.

The second version of what happened is the intrigues of aliens. In addition, according to rumors, four such strange clouds appeared on that day also over the Turkish troops. They were completely round and did not obey the gusts of a strong wind. But none of them came down to the Turks. Ufologists with this hypothesis readily agree, claiming that there were very many cases of abduction of people by the alien intellect. They believe that a certain force could well transfer them even into another dimension or into a parallel world.

How and where found the dead soldiers

Only in 1918 new details emerged about the disappeared battalion. The British appeared in this place already as winners. During the detour of the battle site, a cockade of the royal regiment was discovered. Surveys began, and it turned out that one Turkish peasant complained about the corpses of British soldiers who in the past suddenly just filled up his site. He had to throw them into a ravine.

There is here one oddity, which was for a long time held back by official sources. The peasant, who found the corpses of the soldiers, claimed that they were all terribly mutilated, with broken bodies. There was a feeling that they were dropped from a huge height. The peasant was frightened by evil forces and tried to quickly get rid of the bodies, throwing them into one heap in 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 the sad figures in the report. He reported that only 186 bodies were found, and 122 of them are Norfolk. Identified, unfortunately, only two - Barnaby and Carter. But many have gone missing, and their fate is unknown until now.

Another mystery of the disappeared battalion

The disappearance of the Norfolk Regiment causes a lot of controversy. All the bodies found soldiers, who disappeared mysteriously in the ill-fated misty cloud, found the Turks behind the defense territory. And this place is no longer a battlefield. Yes, and it is located almost a kilometer from the ongoing military operations at that time.

Assumed that the fighters were gradually destroyed by enemies. But if you recall the testimony of all the witnesses, then there were no shots, no fighting and no shouting - this is the first. And secondly, very much embarrassed by the fact that this territory was far beyond the front line, which means there should not have been significant Turkish combat units capable of destroying a battalion of 267 people.

Top Secret

The mysterious story of the disappearance of the Norfolk Regiment still raises more questions than answers. The unexpected disappearance of the whole battalion in front of many witnesses has been classified for a long time. And only in 1965 the information reached 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 a whole battalion.

All data was classified. Attempts to sort out remained unsuccessful until 1919, when, finally, half of the missing soldiers were found. But the rest of the data is still not available. Either they are, but they were also classified and will only come out after many years.