Post by yenilira on Jun 23, 2011 19:32:03 GMT 1
Casting our minds back to Whit's excellent article re the Japanese soldier who thought the last war was still being raged - “WII soldier still at war until 1974” (14th Feb.2011).
here is an even more “poignant” article in a similar vein:
Finding Missing WW1 Dead 90 Years On.
It may be surprising to learn that military “missing” dead from the First World War are still being found more than 90 years since the guns fell silent in 1918.
After the Great War the battlefields were carefully cleared of equipment, ammunition and debris. Known burial sites were examined and many burials in small cemeteries or individual graves were moved to larger concentration cemeteries. Some burial sites were left to a nation in perpetuity in gratitude for the sacrifice of these individuals.
However, some military dead have remained undiscovered for nearly 100 years since they fell. Some bodies have been disturbed by the construction of roads and houses. Some have been found by chance in the undergrowth in remote places.
A classic example:-
The remains of Private George Nugent of the Northumberland Fusiliers were found in October 1998. He had been killed on 1st July, the first day of the Battle of the Somme 1916. He had been recorded as missing in action. His body was found close to the mine crater blown on that day, known as Lochnagar Crater. He was reburied in the nearby Ovillers Military Cemetery on 1st July 2000, and a cross now marks the spot where his remains were located – they had lain undisturbed for 82 years.
Rediscovered Burials of Allied Soldiers at Fromelles, France :
In 2007 the remains of hundreds of British and Commonwealth military dead, believed to be mostly Australian soldiers, were discovered in mass grave burial pits near Bois Faisan (“Pheasant Wood”) near Fromelles in France.
It was believed that they were buried there in 8 pits by the Germans after the Action at Fromelles (19th to 20th July 1916), when very heavy casualties were suffered by the British 61st Division and the Australian 5th Division. Although the area was searched after the First World War, and the location had been marked on trench maps from the 1914-1918 period, for whatever reason these burials were not discovered and officially marked.
On 31st July 2008 a statement was issued that all of the remains would be exhumed and re-interred in a new military cemetery. In April 2009 there was a formal announcement that DNA samples would be taken from the human remains to provide the best chance of any possible future identification of the bodies.
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) took on the task of the exhumation and re-interment. The new military cemetery was constructed and the official dedication ceremony took place there in July 2010.
The “Missing”:
The difficult task for the graves registration services was increased by the nature of the fighting on certain battlefronts, such as the Western Front. The characteristics of siege and trench warfare on this battlefront meant that fighting often moved back and forth over the same ground.
Between battle actions the day to day survival in filthy holes or trenches dug in to the ground and the hazards of exploding artillery shells, snipers and grenades resulted in many casualties from sickness and wounds. Many casualties were lost in collapsed underground tunnelling operations to mine under enemy positions.
Conditions in the landscape often added to the number of casualties. Heavy, prolonged rain could turn the landscape into a sea of mud. Accounts by soldiers during the 1917 Battle of Passchendaele at Ypres (Belg: Ieper) tell of men drowning and disappearing in the waterlogged shell craters and deep, deep mud.
Graves and burial grounds situated in the area of a battlefront were often damaged by subsequent fighting across the same location, resulting in the loss of the original marked graves. Some bodies simply could not be retrieved from underground.
Added to this, the technical developments in the weaponry used by all sides frequently caused such dreadful injuries that it was not possible to identify or even find a complete body for burial.
These factors were generally responsible for the high number of “missing” casualties on all sides and for the many thousands of graves for which the identity is described as “Unknown”.
Cemeteries in the Ypres Salient:
www.greatwar.co.uk/places/ypres-salient-cemeteries.htm
Rolls of Honour and Finding a Grave:
For details about the various war grave agencies, memorials, rolls of honour and records available for researching those killed in WW1, and how to find a grave go to the page at:
Records for the War Dead of WW1-
www.greatwar.co.uk/research/military-records/ww1-war-dead-records.htm
"In Flanders Field" (J. McCrae)
YL.
here is an even more “poignant” article in a similar vein:
Finding Missing WW1 Dead 90 Years On.
It may be surprising to learn that military “missing” dead from the First World War are still being found more than 90 years since the guns fell silent in 1918.
After the Great War the battlefields were carefully cleared of equipment, ammunition and debris. Known burial sites were examined and many burials in small cemeteries or individual graves were moved to larger concentration cemeteries. Some burial sites were left to a nation in perpetuity in gratitude for the sacrifice of these individuals.
However, some military dead have remained undiscovered for nearly 100 years since they fell. Some bodies have been disturbed by the construction of roads and houses. Some have been found by chance in the undergrowth in remote places.
A classic example:-
The remains of Private George Nugent of the Northumberland Fusiliers were found in October 1998. He had been killed on 1st July, the first day of the Battle of the Somme 1916. He had been recorded as missing in action. His body was found close to the mine crater blown on that day, known as Lochnagar Crater. He was reburied in the nearby Ovillers Military Cemetery on 1st July 2000, and a cross now marks the spot where his remains were located – they had lain undisturbed for 82 years.
Rediscovered Burials of Allied Soldiers at Fromelles, France :
In 2007 the remains of hundreds of British and Commonwealth military dead, believed to be mostly Australian soldiers, were discovered in mass grave burial pits near Bois Faisan (“Pheasant Wood”) near Fromelles in France.
It was believed that they were buried there in 8 pits by the Germans after the Action at Fromelles (19th to 20th July 1916), when very heavy casualties were suffered by the British 61st Division and the Australian 5th Division. Although the area was searched after the First World War, and the location had been marked on trench maps from the 1914-1918 period, for whatever reason these burials were not discovered and officially marked.
On 31st July 2008 a statement was issued that all of the remains would be exhumed and re-interred in a new military cemetery. In April 2009 there was a formal announcement that DNA samples would be taken from the human remains to provide the best chance of any possible future identification of the bodies.
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) took on the task of the exhumation and re-interment. The new military cemetery was constructed and the official dedication ceremony took place there in July 2010.
The “Missing”:
The difficult task for the graves registration services was increased by the nature of the fighting on certain battlefronts, such as the Western Front. The characteristics of siege and trench warfare on this battlefront meant that fighting often moved back and forth over the same ground.
Between battle actions the day to day survival in filthy holes or trenches dug in to the ground and the hazards of exploding artillery shells, snipers and grenades resulted in many casualties from sickness and wounds. Many casualties were lost in collapsed underground tunnelling operations to mine under enemy positions.
Conditions in the landscape often added to the number of casualties. Heavy, prolonged rain could turn the landscape into a sea of mud. Accounts by soldiers during the 1917 Battle of Passchendaele at Ypres (Belg: Ieper) tell of men drowning and disappearing in the waterlogged shell craters and deep, deep mud.
Graves and burial grounds situated in the area of a battlefront were often damaged by subsequent fighting across the same location, resulting in the loss of the original marked graves. Some bodies simply could not be retrieved from underground.
Added to this, the technical developments in the weaponry used by all sides frequently caused such dreadful injuries that it was not possible to identify or even find a complete body for burial.
These factors were generally responsible for the high number of “missing” casualties on all sides and for the many thousands of graves for which the identity is described as “Unknown”.
Cemeteries in the Ypres Salient:
www.greatwar.co.uk/places/ypres-salient-cemeteries.htm
Rolls of Honour and Finding a Grave:
For details about the various war grave agencies, memorials, rolls of honour and records available for researching those killed in WW1, and how to find a grave go to the page at:
Records for the War Dead of WW1-
www.greatwar.co.uk/research/military-records/ww1-war-dead-records.htm
"In Flanders Field" (J. McCrae)
YL.