Knox Box of Miscellany

Dawn Knox – A rearranger of words into something hopefully meaningful…

Sons of Three Countries Remembered – Albert Kiekert

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Albert Kiekert

Albert Kiekert

Natalie Taylor-Scotcher as the narrator talking to Albert Kiekert, played by James Le Lacheur

Natalie Taylor-Scotcher as the narrator talking to Albert Kiekert, played by James Le Lacheur

The final service man who was featured in theĀ  ‘Sons of Three Countries Remembered’ was Albert Kiekert, from Heiligenhaus, Germany.

Here are some details about him from the script:

Albert Kiekert joined his brother’s regiment, the First Lothringischen Feldartillerie-Regiment Number thirty-three (First Lorraine Field-Artillery Regiment number thirty-three) and was wounded three times. He later joined the Fliegerabeilung (Artillerie) 278 S (Air Section Artillery 278 Saxon) where he became an observer in a biplane reconnaissance aircraft. On the twenty-seventh of January 1918, Kiekert and a pilot were on a reconnaissance flight near Dun-sur-Meuse. The altimeter showed the plane had reached a height of 11,000 feet when it was hit by machine gun fire and one minute and fifteen seconds later, the biplane crashed, killing both men. He was remembered by his commanding officers as being a dashing officer, loyal, dutiful and brave. Kiekert was liked and respected by fellow officers as well as ordinary soldiers.

Lieutenant of the Reserve, Albert Kiekert was twenty-five years old when he was killed.

So, two of the service men – George Burnett and Albert Kiekert were killed during the war – young lives tragically cut short. It interested me that he is remembered as being ‘a dashing officer, loyal, dutiful and brave’ and was ‘respected by fellow officers as well as ordinary soldiers.’

Who is to say if the three service men had met in another age, under different circumstances, that they wouldn’t all have been friends? Instead, they found themselves on different sides in a war that would rewrite the ‘rules’ of warfare and touch the lives of millions, during four harrowing years.

Let us never forget.

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