The Caretakers: War Graves Gardeners and the Secret Battle to Rescue Allied Airmen in World War II

by Caitlin Galante DeAngelis

When World War I ended, hundreds of British veterans stayed in France to work for the newly chartered Imperial War Graves Commission. Through the 1920s and 1930s, these veteran-gardeners married local women, raised bilingual children, and dedicated themselves to caring for the graves of their fallen comrades. When World War II swept through Europe in 1940, more than 200 War Graves gardeners were stranded in Nazi-occupied France. Their bosses explicitly ordered them to remain at their posts, even when their villages were under attack by the invading Germans. While some escaped, others were arrested by the Nazis. A handful managed to stay free and join the French Resistance. With their English-language skills and unshakable loyalty to the Allied cause, the gardeners and their families took on crucial roles in the effort to save British and American airmen shot down in France. In some cases, they hid the airmen in World War I cemeteries. In The Caretakers, internationally renowned cemetery expert Caitlin Galante DeAngelis tells the true story of three of these unlikely Ben Leech, a barman from Manchester who became a cemetery gardener in Beaumont-Hamel and joined the Resistance; Rosine Witton, the wife of a British gardener, who served as a key conductor on the famous Comet Line and survived Ravensbrück; and Robert Armstrong, an Irish gardener who worked for the Resistance until he was captured by the Nazis and sentenced to death. Through meticulous research, never-before-published journals and papers, and compassionate storytelling, DeAngelis honors the sacrifices made by War Graves gardeners and their families.

360 pages, Hardcover

Published January 16, 2024

Reviews

[JD · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very well researched book about a completely unknown history of World War 2 for me. I am a big admirer of the work that Commonwealth War Graves Commision does to honor and remember the dead of the World Wars and thereafter. Saying this, it was hard to read how they mistreated their gardeners in and around World War 2, the very men who keep the memories of the dead alive.

Most of the gardeners in 1940 were World War 1 veterans, with some surviving some of the costliest battle of the war. They chose to stay behind in France to help tend the graves of their comrades and settled into French life in northern France and Belgium looking after all the memorials and graveyards. By lack of leadership and foresight, these men were forced to stand by their posts during the Fall of France and were thus left behind under German occupation with the understanding that they were still employed as gardeners. Most of these men, almost all of them in middle age were interned, except for a few that slipped through the cracks or were from neutral Ireland. Here the real story of the struggles not only the gardeners faced, but also their families left behind.

The story focuses mostly on three individuals, two gardeners and the wife of an internee, and how they navigated life under occupation and the role they played in helping downed Allied airmen to escape back to England. Other members of this community also feature and most of their tales are also told in the book. The features I liked in the book, is the story of the civilian internees and their experience in the camps and the Resistance escape lines for the downed airmen.

In the end this book is about suffering and heartbreak. Even though the War Graves survived the war and are still being tended to and visited, the individuals focused on all suffered, be it physically, spiritually or financially after the war, none of them really had happy endings. Very interesting read and highly recommended.

[Meg · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s rare to read a nonfiction book that is written with the ease of a novel but with the facts still present, but Caitlin nails it. This is such an important book that contributes original ideas to an underrepresented part of both the history of the Commission and the occupation of Europe, and I cannot begin to share how good the book is. It is well-researched, rounded and I couldn’t put it down. Highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the topics described.

[Larissa Mar · Rating 1 out of 5]

This author repeatedly harassed members of my French family, trying to get in contact with us, seeking contact to talk about presumably an epilogue/what became of a person (a family member of ours that served) they were probably trying to write about in this book. It was disrespectful and entitled behavior, and this author kept pushing when no one responded to first inquiries. Sometimes people don’t want to talk about members of their family that were awful people. Serving in a war doesn’t a person a saint, being of use in a war doesn’t make a person a saint.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this quirky book about a small sliver of society that the bigger picture of WW2 quickly forgot. The downed pilots will never forgot those caretakers who risked their lives to rescue them.