egafd.com

With Armistice Sunday almost here (although Gallipoli Day is more poignant down here) this book started me thinking about the war dead.
WWI and II resulted in military cemetaries in many parts of the world. But when did it become more habitual for the bodies to be brought home. And we all know what resulted from the news coverage of US soldiers arriving back on their home soil in bodybags during the Vietnam war.

Mart

I personally see no point in bringing bodies back home - visiting a pirce of stone in a geaveyard is a bit of an empty experience. The person lives on in your memories, not in a box in the ground. I've been to Arlington, out of interest - and it makes you think by the sheer scale of the place, but it's just another tourist destination for some.

There are no hard and fast rules about this or many defining moments, however there are certain distinctive national traditions. Many of these became more defined in the Great War.

The Germans tended to use mass graves, often converting large craters on the battlefield for this purpose, normally marked with one large memorial. In recent years there have been attempts to identify and bury individuals in marked graves. The sheer scale of the mass graves has often made this impossible. One mass grave at Vimmy Ridge was thought to contain 5000 graves but attempts to exhume it were given up after over 20000 bodies had been removed.

The French, on home soil, normally tried to repatriate the body to the home village. This was not always possible due to factors such as the state of the remains; gas contamination or simply the soldier?s home was in occupied territory. Initially soldiers were buried close to where they fell then removed to mass cemeteries in peacetime. These cemeteries normally have no relation to the geography of the battles where the solders fell.

The USA tends to repatriate the fallen either to the family or the Arlington national cemetery, before the great war the USA did not participate in a major overseas conflict. During the World Wars the fallen were normally buried in a similar custom to the French, since then repatriation has become the norm.

The British and Commonwealth forces have historically buried there dead as close as possible to where they have fallen in battle. In France and Belgium they are very distinctive, they are normally smaller than other nations and there are more of them. By looking at a French map that indicates Commonwealth war graves the ebb and flow of the war is traceable by their position. Also due to the age of empire, British and Common wealth war graves are found around the world, normally well maintained by locals with the non political assistance of the Common Wealth war graves commission. Since the first Gulf war repatriation has become the norm, especially due to the use of a professional army and lower casualties.

There are many exceptions to these customs often due to military necessity at the time or the significance of the battle, such as the Normandy war graves or as in the first Gulf was Saudi Arabia?s unwillingness to accept non-Muslim remains.