WWI Mass graves are now being excavated

[Hellshade]

Of possible interest to all of us WWI buffs:

 

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/05/04...aves/index.html

 

/salute

Hellshade

[UK_Widowmaker]

Good show!... I hope they Identify as many aspossible, and give their remains the burial they deserve

[scouserlad13]

Dont you think its a bit too soon though? I mean, i saw something like this on a prgramme where they dug up remains of WW1 battles to see what they could find. I just think its too soon to dig up the bodies. I mean its good that they are going to try to identify who died there, but its going to be a hell of a job. And whats the point in digging people up only to have them burried on the same site again?

 

This is just what i think, i dont know if anyone agree's though

[UK_Widowmaker]

Actually I do agree with you.

 

Perhaps a memorial on the site would be more fitting?

[Creaghorn]

Dont you think its a bit too soon though? I mean, i saw something like this on a prgramme where they dug up remains of WW1 battles to see what they could find. I just think its too soon to dig up the bodies. I mean its good that they are going to try to identify who died there, but its going to be a hell of a job. And whats the point in digging people up only to have them burried on the same site again?

 

This is just what i think, i dont know if anyone agree's though

 

 

IMHO the worst thing what might happen to someone is to be forgotten. if the 2nd generation after you doesn't know you even existed, than your whole life was for nothing. everybody who had to fight for a cause, a stupid cause like WW1 or good causes like wars to regain freedom, deserves to have a grave. to have a name on it. on those mass graves there are often not even numbers. nothing. i wouldn't like to be a number of 300000 others. i would like for the next generations of my familiy to know who i was and what i did and what happened to me. not only in wars. generally one must not be forgotten after just a few decades. and with diggings like that the poor soldiers can get their respect and honor they deserved.

[+Hasse Wind]

I mean its good that they are going to try to identify who died there...

 

That's probably the most important reason why this kind of work is done. It's been almost a century, but I know that for many families the knowledge that one or more of their members went MIA in the Great War can still be a disturbing thought and if their bodies are found and identified, it can be helpful psychologically.

 

And of course individual graves can be seen as more dignified memorials than old mass graves full of hastily buried unknown soldiers.

[Beanie]

That's probably the most important reason why this kind of work is done. It's been almost a century, but I know that for many families the knowledge that one or more of their members went MIA in the Great War can still be a disturbing thought and if their bodies are found and identified, it can be helpful psychologically.

 

And of course individual graves can be seen as more dignified memorials than old mass graves full of hastily buried unknown soldiers.

 

 

Agreed. My great grand father went missing during the Somme - he went over the top on the first day. Whilst we will never know how he died, at least if his body was found, he would have a marked grave.

[Bletchley]

Yes, if remains can be identified then the relatives/descendants can be notified. Like Beanie, my great-uncle died on the Somme in 1916 and is one of those simply named on the Thiepval memorial, with no grave or headstone. My grandmother, his sister, spent a long time after the war trying to gain any definite confirmation, or just more information, of his death. We are lucky, as my father persued this later in his life and we now know roughly where, when and how he died - but for many others, they are still just 'missing, presumed dead'.

 

Bletchley

[scouserlad13]

Fair enough, i can see that it would be a good thing. I didnt mean to be harsh in any way what so ever by the way.

[OvS]

Fair enough, i can see that it would be a good thing. I didnt mean to be harsh in any way what so ever by the way.

 

You're not being harsh at all.

 

I've been to the Flanders and Somme regions, and when you enter a cemetery, and see how many sites are 'Unknown but to God' it's really sad. If they can identify 200 of the 450, then that's 200 children that their familes have now found. Remember, they were mostly kids who lied to join the service thinking it would be 'fun'.

 

Hopefully they can identify them all.

 

OvS

[scouserlad13]

I hope so too, for all the families out there who have lost someone in the war

[Womenfly2]

This is great and so very sad at the same time.

 

I think as humans we need to feel a since of presents with family, friends and loved ones. We need to feel they are here, wither at home or a marked grave, we need to know where, its a feeling we need. It helps us to remember them an adds a purpose for our own life. Its a group bond we have had primitively from the beginning of time when we existed.

 

I know for myself, that it comforts me to know that my loved ones where put to rest and their presents are still part of this world.

 

Thanks for sharing this, sobering story.

WF2

[+Polovski]

I believe the French government has just given over a very nearby piece of land to the war graves commission to build a memorial for these men, still near the church where they currently are near.

[Cathy Howat]

The Australian War Graves Comission need to identify our Diggers because Fromelles is a largely forgotten battle here. It was a "scheme" that shoould never have been tried, and it cost a lot of good men who had survived Galliopoli thier lives. We are going to identify all of them and they will all be buried with full honors in a new cemetary. Incedentally if one of our lads had been abtter shot, he might well have killed a certain Gefreiter Hitler, A., @nd Bavarian Reserve Inf!

[+Olham]

Well, had they known then, what this Gefreiter would become later, they would have somehow managed to.

But as far as I know, Hitler was really wounded in WW1.

[Cathy Howat]

Well, had they known then, what this Gefreiter would become later, they would have somehow managed to.

But as far as I know, Hitler was really wounded in WW1.

 

I know he was gassed--so was my uncle Ted in 1916, he returned to duty but the effects of the gas, plus miner's lung killed him in 1932. He was my Dad's eldest brother, so I never met him. He served with the NZ Army (22nd Batt.). I lost four other relatives in that war, all on Mum's side of the family, 2 at Gallipoli--one is the first name listed on the NZ War memorial at Lone Pine Trooper A R Armstrong, Second Otago Mounted Rifles, My Great Uncle Arthur. He was working on a farm in Otago Province and did not travel back to Greymouth but enlisted there. The others died on the Western Front.

 

BTW It is now beleive that Von Richthofen was killed by an Aussie machine gunner

[+Olham]

Yes, I knew, Cathy. I wonder, if the guy was ever rewarded in any way?

Ans Australian soldiers did the burial service and the salute fire for him. Fine men they were!

Were the Australians ever rewarded by England in any form for their service?

[catch]

BTW It is now beleive that Von Richthofen was killed by an Aussie machine gunner

 

Vindication at last ! {private joke Cathy with some of our Canuck friends}. So you're involved with the Fromelles project ? Good job. I've been watching with interest over the last few months. I'm sure the Brit and Aussie relatives will be enormously grateful. Lest we forget.

[Cathy Howat]

Vindication at last ! {private joke Cathy with some of our Canuck friends}. So you're involved with the Fromelles project ? Good job. I've been watching with interest over the last few months. I'm sure the Brit and Aussie relatives will be enormously grateful. Lest we forget.

Not invovled, foloowing. I am Ex RNZAF former pilot. Now Aussie citizen, transferred to Inactive reserve RAAF if we ever get near WW3 I shall be liable to be recalled at my retirement rank (Air Commodore)--I was bumped 1 grade on the inactive list on Xfer

 

 

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.

[Cathy Howat]

AUSSIE SOLDIERS: They were always with the Kiwis a pain in the ass to the Poms. John Monash should have had the command in frnace. Read Monash-The Outsider Who Won A War. If you can get it the Aussie mini sereies ANZACS is excellent. It is region 4 so you would need anydvd to play it, I have it, if you have anydvd.......

 

JOHN MASEFIELD

''During the war the English suddenly became aware of a new kind of man, unlike any usually seen here. These strangers were not Europeans; they were not Americans. They seemed to be of the one race, for all of them had something of the same bearing, and something of the same look of humorous, swift decision. On the whole they were taller, broader, better-looking and more graceful in their movements than other races.

 

'Yet in spite of so much power and beauty they were very friendly people, easy to get on with, most helpful, kind and hospitable. Though they were all in uniform, like the rest of Europe, they were remarkable in that their uniform was based upon sense, not upon nonsense.

 

'When people asked, who are these fellows, nobody, at first, knew.

 

'The strangers became conspicuous in England after about a year of war. They were preceded by the legend that they had been "difficult" in Egypt, and that they had to be camped in the desert to keep them from throwing Cairo down the Nile. Then came stories of their extraordinary prowess in war. Not even the vigilance of the censors could keep down the accounts of their glory in battle. For themselves, they were a very modest company, whom sometimes one could hear singing to the tune of "the church's one foundation":

 

'Since that time, the Australian army has become famous all over the world as the finest army engaged in the great war. They did not always salute; they did not see the use of it; they did, from time to time, fling parts of Cairo down the Nile and some of them kept the military police alert in most of the back areas. But in battle they were superb. When the Australians were put in, a desperate feat was expected and then done. Every great battle in the west was an honour and more upon their banners.

 

'No such body of free men has given so heroically since our history began.'

[catch]

These strangers were not Europeans; they were not Americans. They seemed to be of the one race, for all of them had something of the same bearing, and something of the same look of humorous, swift decision. On the whole they were taller, broader, better-looking and more graceful in their movements than other races.

 

'Yet in spite of so much power and beauty they were very friendly people, easy to get on with, most helpful, kind and hospitable.

 

Yep ... {sigh} that's me in a nutshell :whistling: Convict blood . So besides following the amazing Fromelles project, are you considering OFF BH&H as a recreational pursuit or have you already got it ?