Evening journal., 1914-09-26
GFueSOme Tales From
the European Battlefield

Nale is usually tag with number
corresponding with the number oppo-
site his name on his company and
regimental rolls Many also have the
number Of the regiment on the tag
The tags of the officers usually are of
aluminium and besides the number.
have the name and rank. sometimes
also the home address. Some of the
privates also have replaced the COM
mon tin tag with an aluminium one.
purchased themselves at soc each,
upon which is stamped name and ad-
dress and regiment besides the re-
quired number.
After the battle. when the Germans
find their dead, the collar on each
shirt ia opened, the string cut and the
tag taken and sent to headquarters
for identification. There the books are
opened and fallen" together with the
place of fight or battle is written op-
posite the name and number of the
dead soldier
At Liege, probably for the first
time in German wars, death obliter-
ated distinction in rank For the first
time so far as ! can learn, German
officers and common soldiers were
buried in the same trench.
1t has always been the rule-a sort
of unwritten law-that every fallen
officer should have a separate grave
and not be buried i'm the common
trench. To a large extent this is still
done, especially with officers of higher
rank than captain. But the unprece-
dented mobility and rapid advance of
the German army into Belgium and
France made this extremely difficult
A commissioned officer, a vol
unteer. 5S years Of age, who COM
manded a buriel squad at Liege, told
me there was not time to take much
pains in burying. The tags are now
removed from the fallen. watch
money, etc, taken to be sent to the
relatives, the bodies-uniform and all
wrapped with their blankets and
laid in rows side by side in the
trench.
The fallen of the enemy are not
buried i'm the same trench. but are
placed together in a separate trench.
Even in death there shall be no
brotherhood between thosee who
fought and took each others lives
The uniforms are taken from the
bodies of the enemys fallen and laid
on top of the grave as a means OF
identification TO friends. If they
wear tags they are removed.
The officer with whom I talked
said that the many separate graves
of officers, as had been shown after
1870, proved troublesome to land
owners. 1t has been decided, there
fore, wherever thought best to bury
officers with their men.
One of the best of the urgent sides
of the battlefield in this war is the
thorough manner i'm which the Ger
mans "clean up" the field after a
battle. It is not only the natural
sense of "Orderliness" which is so
characteristic of the German char
acter. but there is method and pur-
pose. That is, the battlefield shall
reveal no tales.
Il shall give nothing from which
a conclusion can be irawn as ia
/ losses or any other information
/ Everything is removed as if a rag
picker had gone over the field. There
is little trace of graves from the size
of which conclusion might be drawn
as to the number buried. The future
belongs to the living not the dead
seems to be the motto.
On the German side of battlefeld'
I have visited and from the many ]
have talked with who have beer
over other battlefelds in Belgium anC
France | have always heard the sam,
/ observation, However fast the Ger,
mans advance, they leave a "clean-uI
squad" In sharp contrast to this
are the sections Of the battlefield,
over which the French fought. The,
are simply Uttered with guns. knap
sacks, blankets, etc. Everyone o.
these things is a sign readable b,
the trained officer.
At the last analysis, &c is the meta
tag" with a number-the symbol o
human life-of a soul sent out il
this carnage. IL represents thu
"ashes" of the battlefield. It is tn,
reverse side Of the glory medal o
war.
Nothing I have seen so far in thi
war-the wretchedness Of the prison
ers, the misery in the path of tn
war. the suffering of wounded, tn
stencil arising from Fort Loncin, tn
men manned for life, has no impres
sed me. so saddened me, as this littl'
metal tag.