Glatton in Wartime
Georg Rutzmoser
Meet Georg Rutzmoser, a German Infantryman who along with his colleague Heinrich Danzer, was captured from the battlefields of WW1 and was subsequently interned in a PoW "Hostel" in Glatton for the duration of the war. Sadly, both Rutzmoser & Danzer both died of influenza on the same day, 30th of November 1918, just 19 days after the guns fell silent and The Great War ended. Both soldiers were buried in a single grave within St Nicholas' Churchyard until 1963 when their bodies were exhumed and moved to the German Military Cemetary at Cannock Chase in Staffordshire where they occupy Plot 11, Row 5, Graves 70 & 71,
R.I.P. Georg Rutzmoser (grave 71) & Heinrich Danzer (grave 70).
Source: various including major source Sawtry History Society (SHS). Read more at:
Cambridgeshire Community Archive Network
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Articles: Terry Brignall MBE
Glatton's own fallen heroes
Remembering Glatton's own fallen. The commemoration plaques are mounted inside St Nicholas' Church for all to see
Crash of Dornier 217 near Glatton on 31st July 1942
On 31st July 1942, a Dornier 217 E-4 aircraft, registration number 5470, of the Luftwaffe took off from Deelen airfield in the Netherlands and was on route to “mark” the Vickers & Dunlop factories at Birmingham when it was shot down by anti-aircraft artillery defending RAF Glatton.
The aircraft was part of a Luftwaffe unit equivalent to the RAF’s “Pathfinders” whose role was to “target-mark” for the main bomber group following behind. The aircraft crashed in a field just outside Glatton Village (to the east of the wooded copse along Sawtry Road), with the loss of the four crew onboard. The Dornier jettisoned its store of incendiary flares (target markers) after being hit, one of which landed in the vicinity of 9/11 Infield Road, destroying the Priory Stores where Mr Tim Churchill was resident at the time.
The crew who died were:
Karl Laub
Hermann Werner
Karl-August Güssefeld
Hermann Hammelmann
Their bodies were recovered and rest at the German War Cemetery at Cannock Chase in Staffordshire.
RIP Karl, Hermann, Karl-August & Hermann; you were only doing your job!
