09-05-2025
80 Years after V-E Day, volunteers honor British soldiers buried locally
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — Following Japan's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, the United States was thrust into a global conflict. Germany declared war on the U.S. just days later, and by January 1942, launched U-boat attacks along the coastal waters of Virginia and North Carolina. 'Operation Drumbeat' was a devastating wake-up call.
'You could actually see ships burning against the night sky in Virginia Beach during that time,' said Military Aviation Museum CEO Keegan Chetwynd.
The U-boat offensive sank nearly 500 Allied vessels and killed roughly 5,000 merchant seamen and U.S. Navy sailors. Nazi Germany brought the war to our shores and we needed help fighting them off our coast. Thankfully, our neighbors across the pond were no strangers to the 'U-boat menace.'
Their help would come at a cost. Several ships, including the HMS Kingston Ceylonite, were sunk off the coasts of Virginia and North Carolina.
'Her majesty's trawler the Kingston Ceylonite was one of several ships that were converted from fishing vessels that were crewed by Royal Navy sailors who traveled over here to try and help the situation,' Chetwynd said.
On June 15, 1942, the HMS Kingston Ceylonite struck a German mine and sunk, killing 18 of the 32 men on board. Leading Seaman Charles R. J. Grimmer was one of the soldiers killed.
'So this man had come over here as a part of a group of sailors who were here to help us drive the Germans back off shore to buy us the time to get it together,' Chetwynd said, 'which was time that was well used because after the first six months of 1942, this really stopped happening.
Grimmer is buried in Oaks Lawn Cemetery in Norfolk, nearly 4,000 miles away from his home country. Unlike American soldiers, British soldiers killed during conflict are buried where they died. But Cheywynd and countless volunteers across the U.S. have spent the last couple months working to get a piece of these soldiers back home.
'The project is to basically get gravestone rubbings from British personnel that were killed either off the coast of the United States or in the United States during World War II,' said Zack Baughman, volunteer coordinator at the Military Aviation Museum.
'Project Bring the Boys Back Home' sent volunteers to 12 cemeteries across Hampton Roads and North Carolina. The rubbings are all collected by hand, and three copies of each grave are needed for the project. One copy goes to a museum in England, another to a genealogical project, and the final copy to any surviving family member of the soldier. Volunteers collected rubbings from 42 gravestones.
The Commemorative Air Force out of Dallas, Texas began the nationwide effort, and altogether, they will be flying more than 400 rubbings back to England. Last month, the Military Aviation Museum welcomed a Douglas R4D aircraft, sent by the Commemorative Air Force, to collect the rubbings and fly them 4,000 miles back home.
'When we heard that there was a group of people mustering to do this and to offer thanks in this way,' Chetwynd said, 'it seemed a really appropriate way to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.'
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