WWI mass grave found
 

source: http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe...ex.html?hpt=C1

FROMELLES, France (CNN) -- An unknown World War I soldier was buried in Fromelles, France, on Saturday, the first of some 250 bodies recovered from a string of mass graves dating back to a bloody -- and largely pointless -- battle that claimed thousands of lives in a single night.

About 2,300 British and Australian troops were killed, and thousands more wounded, captured or left missing in action when they were ordered to charge into German machine guns on July 19, 1916.

Nearly a century later, the battle of Fromelles remains the deadliest 24-hour period in Australian military history, the country's minister for veterans affairs, Alan Griffin, said Saturday.

"The air was thick with bullets, swishing in a flat, criss-crossed lattice of death. Hundreds were mown down in the flicker of an eyelid," said British veterans minister Kevan Jones at the ceremony, citing survivor W.H. "Jimmy" Downing.

So many died that night that the British and Australians were unable to recover all their dead. German soldiers buried hundreds in mass graves.

The graves were rediscovered only in 2008, and last year the Commonwealth War Graves Commission took the lead on a project to recover and identify as many remains as possible.

The Commonwealth is an association of nations that once were part of the British Empire.

Excavations began in May 2009 and lasted until September. Meanwhile, a new cemetery, Pheasant Wood, was laid out near the site of the battle in northern France, near the Belgian border.

The soldier buried Saturday has not been identified, but DNA samples have been recovered from many of the bodies, often from the teeth, said Peter Jones, the DNA consultant on the project.

Some 800 people from Britain and Australia who think they may have a relative buried at Fromelles have provided DNA to try to help identify the bodies, he said.

But that's only half as many as the experts need, Jones added, since about 1,600 Commonwealth dead from the battle remain unaccounted for. The 250 bodies being buried at Pheasant Wood are among the 1,600.

DNA samples are not the only way to identify bodies, though, said Margaret Cox, the archaeological consultant to the project. About 6,200 personal artifacts were found alongside the bodies, which could help to identify them.

In addition to the expected military decorations, uniforms and buttons, Cox said, they include such heartbreaking items as a locket with a lock of hair, and a return ticket to Perth, Australia, left on the body of a soldier who never lived to use it.

Most of the remaining bodies will be buried over the next two months, with headstones being added starting in March for any victims who can be identified, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission said.

Those whose names cannot be determined will be marked by a headstone reading "Known unto God," the agency said.

The final body will be buried on July 19, the 94th anniversary of the battle.

Pheasant Wood is the first new cemetery to be built by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in nearly 50 years, said spokesman Peter Francis, calling the mass graves "the largest military find since the end of the Second World War" in 1945.

The commission is a nonprofit organization that commemorates the dead of both world wars from the British Commonwealth. Founded in 1917, it maintains graves and memorials at 23,000 sites around the world.

Glad these Soldiers were found and will be given proper burials. May they rest in peace.

Rest In Peace Soldiers!!

Thank you for your service, and your sacrifice!!

Everybody should consider visitng Verdun - the Ossary and the Trench of the Bayonets - and then ponder why we still have wars.

Richard's $.02 :munchin

I'm looking forward to that perfect day when all is accounted for....

Rest in Peace everyone, sleep well.

I really don't have to ponder. As long as humans want someone else's land and or power, to change or force religion on others, or just be humans, we will have war. Thus we will need warriors that will give their life to secure the freedom of others.

That is the biggest problem with liberal progressives, they do not see the evil in man, only through rose colored glasses do they see a perfect world of their making sans evil. :munchin

A symbol for lives lost in war....
 

In Flanders Fields
By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)
Canadian Army


In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Rest in Peace brothers, always.....jd

Rest in Peace, Warriors ...............:(

Big Teddy

Very well said, Sir.

May those recovered finally Rest-In-Peace.

Holly

Rest in peace brothers

Buck

Lay me down in the cold cold ground
where before many more have gone

When they come I will stand my ground
stand my ground, I'll not be afraid

Thoughts of home take away my fears
sweat and blood hide my veil of tears

Once a year say a prayer for me
close your eyes and remember me

Never more shall I see the sun
for I fell to a German gun

Lay me down in the cold cold ground
where before many more have gone

where before many more have gone.....

Written in memory of Sgt. Charles Mackenzie of the Seaforth Highlanders who was killed at the battle of the Somme in 1916.

Rest in God's Peace