A.E.F. Slain Soon To Be Taken Home

1920

Board To Remove Bodies Arrives In England

All Dead That Can Be Moved Are to Be Sent Back When France Permits

LONDON, England, Jan. 1. — Extensive plans for the wholesale removal of the bodies of America's war dead to the United States will be put into operation in England and France this week.

Fifty-one members of the graves registration service arrived at Southampton on board the Martha Washington. Some members of the expedition will remain in England to supervise the work of removing the bodies of Americans who died in England, while the others will proceed to France, where they will start similar operations.

26,096 Buried in Great Britain

According to the statement of Major Whipps, mortuary officer with the American forces in Great Britain, 26,096 American soldiers were buried in Ireland, Scotland and England. The bodies of only two members of the American Navy still remain buried in English soil. The others were transported home shortly after the armistice. In France there still are 600 Naval dead, whose bodies will be taken home as soon as technical objections can be overcome.

According to American Naval officers in London, France finally has granted permission to the United States to remove both the dead sailors and soldiers.

Heretofore only in exceptional cases have the bodies of soldiers been sent back to the United States. A recent Army order, however, is said to contain instructions to the effect that all bodies not buried in the actual war zone are to be prepared for shipment to America.

The organization, composed partly of Army officials and partly of civilians, which will superintend the removal of the bodies, will be divided into three sections. One section will be stationed in England, a second section in France, and the third will be assigned the work of gathering the bodies buried in Belgium, Germany and Italy.

Some to Be Left Behind

It is not regarded as possible or desirable to send home all the bodies. Those that are left in Europe will, however, be gathered into one cemetery. The Argonne Cemetery, located at Romagne-sur-Montfaucon, in the heart of the region where the A. E. F. made its biggest fight, has been suggested as the site of the permanent A. E. F. Cemetery. There are 21,000 Americans interred there now.

The hardest work will be in removing the bodies of the war-swept areas, it is expected. Identification will be exceedingly difficult in many cases where large numbers of men were buried close to the battlefield.

The cost of the removal of bodies to America will be approximately $1,000 each. Owing to the shortage of railroad equipment in France, Army auto trucks will be used to carry the bodies from their present locations to the ships at Brest.