The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1919-04-04
$500 men LISTED
AMONG MISSING
Additional ldentifications Being
Made, Pershing Reports
RECORDS ARE STUDIED
Total For A. E. r. Compares With
10000 For British And
100000 For
French.

Il
ported to the War Department that
there are still $500 officers and men
Of the Expeditionary Forces listed as
missing. This total compares with the
British official figures Of 161,SO0 miss
ing and the French of 100000.
All of the $500 names have been re-
ported as missing in casualty lists
already published, the report said. Re-
interments of bodies from isloated
graves in the centralized cemeteries
is furnishing additional Identification
in number of cases, and for this rea-
son the records of the grave registra-
ton service are being carefully
studied.
REORGANIZATION of grave registration
reports and also of hospital records,
referred to by General Pershing, was
said by officials at the War Depart
ment to explain the killed in action"
'and wounded in action casualties
still appearing in the daily casualty
lists sent out by the department.
The British War Office, General
Pershing's report said, had adopted
the policy of considering rs weeks in
the case of an officer and 80 weeks
for an enlisted man as the length of
time after the man had been recorded
rs missing before death is presumed.
In the French army, he said, no def
mite period had been fixed.
mo accurate estimate of unreported
deaths can be given" said General
Pershing's report There are, how
ever, approximately $500 missing to
be accounted for, all of whom have
been reported to Washington as miss
ing. Refinement of bodies removed
from isolated graves to centralized
cemeteries is furnishing additional
identification of deaths hitherto report
ed as missing. This is especially true
of re-burials of bodies originally
buried by Allied units to which Amer
lean troops were attached, Identified
ton being either incomplete or inn
perfectly registered at interment.
Deaths of American soldiers in
French hospitals of which only meagre
and often incorrect records on file are
likewise disclosed by reburial of these
bodies resulting in complete identified
ton. Access to sites of prison camps
in Germany and to territory formerly
within enemy's lines is leading to dis
covery of many American graves and
Identification of casualties previously
reported as missing.
Each company or other unit of the
American Expeditionary Force have
heretofore been furnished a complete
list of officers and men carried as
missing up to February /. All units
are required to display such lists in
places accessible to members of com
mand for the purpose of securing cas-
ualty information from every possible
source. This expedient is resulting in
locating hitherto unknown graves and
identification showing present status
and whereabouts OF many battle casu-
Alties.
consideration should be given to
The IdcC tndL the metnOu OF warfare,
as well as the extent of terrain fought
over. lent exceptional differences to
{ discovery and burial of dead. Burial
parties frequently completed their mis-
sion under heavy fire and often the
work could only be done under cover
of darkness, thus making Identification
difficult and often impossible. Re-
burials are now furnishing means of
identification in great majority of
such cases.
For this reason grave registration
and chaplain reports are being again
investigated. A small percentage of
such reports investigated are proving
to be cases of American dead pre-
viously unreported as such. AS rapid
ly as Identification can be completed
from information originally filed or
subsequently obtained from every pos
sible source, correct present status of
each case is being reported by CABLE"