-
FREE MEMBER
NO Posting or PM's Allowed
'03 Springfield Picture of the Day-Dday, 1 year later
-
06-21-2009 09:24 AM
# ADS
Friends and Sponsors
-
Advisory Panel
I wonder what happened to the bodies buried on the beach? My Dad was in one of the later waves and was picked for Graves Registration. He says he spent days tagging bodies, removing and bagging personal items, and transporting the bodies to mass graves dug on the beach by bulldozers. Surely by now the tides would have unearthed those so interred. He said there were no crosses, just a sign designating the mass grave sites. He said any identifiable body was buried with a tag attached, which if I remember correctly, were made of aluminum which probably didn't last long in that seawater environment.
One side note: When they found a set of or a dog tag(s) absent a body, they declared that person KIA. I wonder how many mistakes were made. He also says it was the worst job he ever had - bar none.
Looks peaceful.
Jim
*********************************
"Me. All the rest are deados!"
67th Company, 5th Marines 1st Sgt. Daniel "Pop" Hunter's response to 1st Lt. Jonas Platt's query "Who is your Commander"?, Torcy side of Hill 142, Belleau Wood, 8:00 am, 6 Jun 1918.
Semper Fidelis!
-
The Following 5 Members Say Thank You to Jim Tarleton For This Useful Post:
-
-
FREE MEMBER
NO Posting or PM's Allowed
Jim,
I was there for the 50th Anniversary, june 1994. The German
cemetary had both individual and mass graves,muted brownish crosses and markers, the US had the white crosses we're familiar with, and some marked Unknown. I believe anyone buryed on the beach was reinterred at the various main cemeterys.
The German Military Cemetery at La Cambe
Today a visit is not just an exercise in walking around headstones. It is the largest German Cemetery in Normandy containing over 21,000 burials and dominated by a huge mound containing the remains of hundreds
Last edited by CapnJohn; 06-22-2009 at 08:19 AM.
-
FREE MEMBER
NO Posting or PM's Allowed
From what I remember of My Normandy visit in 1995, I am sure that the standard for German burials was at leat 4 soldiers per grave. I have a picture of "Tank Ace" Michael Wittman's Grave and 3 other soldiers, hopefully his crew, basically it was " how many people can we bury here?'
Bye the way, German students come every summer to take care of their graves. Something I think we should adopt for our kids
Armorkav
Register To Reply
