Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1919-05-16

II
~ enty thousand in all-are
kANI being well cared for here
kS%&9I In Europe by q section of
the American expeditionary
force detailed to collect the bodies and
place them in military cemeteries.
Don't imagine for one minute that
this big undertaking Is a task that was
neglected while the war was In prog.
ress; that the Americans who fell
in battle were not inferred ION the
battlefelds. Some few cases have
been noted where bodies were found
unburied weeks after the fighting
stopped; but these cases are so few
that they cannot be taken into con-
sideratiOn.
What Is being done by the American
expeditionary force now in the way
Of caring for the dead Is the second
chapter. The bodies are being dis
inferred from battlefield graves and
carried to military cemeteries where
the mounds are arranged row on row
In even ranks, that In death they may
be as they were in llfe-shoulder to
shoulder. Above each grave cross
is placed. On the cross Is nailed
zinc Identification tag. giving the name
and regiment. Around each cemetery
a substantial fence is erected. Above
each mound Is a small replica of the
Stars and Stripes.
What chapter three of the story will
be remains to be seen. Congress will
probably authorize the return of all
bodies requested by the mans family.
Yet even If such ruling Is put into
effect, thousands of American graves
will remain in Europe for the reason
that many families will prefer--as did
the Roosevelt family--to allow their
dead to remain here for their final
sleep.
In Seven Countries.
And they are resting in peace today
in seven European countries: England,
Scotland. Ireland. Germany, Russia.
Italy, Luxembourg, but mainly In
France near the sectors where the
American boys did their valiant and
telling work in finishing up the Ger
man army.
England has two American ceme-
terles: one at Liverpool with 624
graves and the other at Magdalen
Hill. Winchester, with 800 graves.
In Scotland there are 600 graves.
mainly of victims of the Tuscania els
aster.
Ireland has 80 graves, and there are
graves in Italy. Russia, Luxembourg,
and small American cemetery mr.
Coblenz. where large detachment Of
the American army of occupation is
stationed in Germany proper.
1t is the Graves Registration
Service" that has charge of classifics-
ton of the American dead In Europe.
More than 1000 soldiers were assigned
to duty in this service which is a
branch of the quarermaster's corps.
They not only take up the dead in the
battle zones. but have searched all of
France to find the few bodies that es-
capped notice and were left unburied
during the days of actual warfare.
From frozen dugouts, from ruined
houses shattered by shell fire. and
thousands of isolated spots the bodies
were recovered. France in the war
zone. was literally combed and eombed
again in order that none be left.
Through the ArgOnne forest, for ex-
ample, the worst fighting of the final
weeks of war took place In thickets.
Every square kilometer In the Argonne
has been covered by the searching
parties,
France as a whole has been divided
into 10 areas through which the
"Graves Registration Service" works.
There are three advanced sections and
nine other areas, which include base
and intermediate sections and the dis
trict of Paris.