Tim Birch Posted 19 February , 2003 Share Posted 19 February , 2003 I am re-reading "The War the Infantry Knew" so may be boring forum members over the next week or so with snipits I am picking up on the second reading, and which I had overlooked the first time round! One interesting comment during the very severe weather conditions experienced in the trenches in early 1917 was that the troops became so cold that some of them started pinching the wooden crosses from graves so as to use them for firewood. Yet another reason which contributed to-wards graves becoming unidentified. Tim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew P Posted 20 February , 2003 Share Posted 20 February , 2003 Hi Tim The same thing happened at Gallipoli after it was evacuated. The Turk soldiers & perhaps civilians removed the crosses for firewood or building material. Luckily all the graves had been plotted so in 1919 the Graves Registration Units were able to identify many of the graves on the battlefield. C.E.W Bean describes some of this in his book 'Gallipoli Mission'. Cheers Andrew Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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