Handling of enemy dead during warfare...

I’ve read a lot of books and I’ve seen a lot of movies, but I’ve never come across anything directly regarding how the dead are/were handled during warfare. I’ve tried Goggling and have come up empty. When over-running the enemy, how were the enemy dead handled?

I’m currently reading “Rumor of War” by Phil Caputo. At one point in his tour of duty in Vietnam, he functioned as the Casualty Officer. Essentially what he did for his Marine Division was keep track of the dead and wounded tallies of both the US and Vietnamese casualties. He related a few incidents where VC bodies (or parts of bodies) were “dragged” back to HQ in Danang to prove the body count. Upon validation the bodies were dumped into a mass grave and buried.

It seems Vietnam is sort of a special case though. There wasn’t a “front” like WWI or WWII or Korea for example. Mostly guerrilla warfare.

Specifically, when advancing into enemy territory an army certainly couldn’t pause to bury the dead of the enemy. At least not right away. For example, the Allies advancing towards Germany after D-Day in WWII. Or the German’s invasion of Poland. Or the advances (back and forth) on the Eastern Front. How about during the Battle of the Bulge?

The marines have long stated that they’ll never leave one of their own behind. Clearly that isn’t always possible.

In WWI with the stalemated trench warfare I assume most of the dead were behind one’s own front lines (or nearly so). Soldiers would certainly take care of their own dead with respect. Other than that, was it always just mass graves? Was care ever taken to try to identify enemy dead?

What about the American Civil War? To go back further, what about say, the Crusades? Or the Peloponnesian wars?

Does anyone have first-hand knowledge? (well, not about the Crusades or Civil War of course. ~grin~)

How about war and death at sea? That has to be the worst. I have read about quite a few burials at sea and find a burial at sea much sadder than a burial in a graveyard. Not to mention all those who died in the water and never received any burial.

Many of the British war cemetaries in Normandy also contain German graves. They are looked after by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in the same way ( and to the same high standard ) as the British graves. In this instance all men are equal in death.

Burial at sea ritual:
http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq85-1.htm

How the dead are treated during a war depends on a lot of things.

As already pointed out, in a charge or heated battle or retreat you’re not going to stop and form a burial detail. The bodies remain where they fall until the fighting is over. Whether they are buried with respect or further mutilated depends on the the attitude and customs of the victor. Europeans and Americans tend to bury all bodies. I once heard on a PBS documentary (so take it with a grain of salt) that Zulus after battle disembowled the enemy dead to release their spririts, so, if true, their belief system viewed disembowlment as a sign of respect whereas their British enemies saw it in a completely different light. And certainly, bodies can be mutilated from anger, revenge, hatred, and various other emotions.

In a prolonged and heavy battle there have even been instances where corpses were piled up to provide a shield for the living from bullets and other artillery. The dead in this case may be enemy dead - or your own fallen comrades-in-arms. It’s a desparate tactic for a desparate situation. Again, after the fighting the deceased may be treated any number of ways.

In the past, war dead were typically buried where they fell, there being no practical way to transport many dead bodies back home. There might be exceptions for military leaders, but preservation across an ocean voyage or other long duration trip was always a problem. Now, with air travel and refrigeration, not to mention improved embalming practices, bodies can be preserved longer and transported quicker, allowing many dead from wealthy nations to be transported back to relatives. Dead soldiers from third world countries, however, still dead to stay in the vicinity of a battlefield.

I’d say the battle losers are more likely to end up in a mass grave than the winners, but it could happen to either. Sometimes, it’s more important to dispose of rotting remains quickly, to preserve the health of the living, than to be methodical about sorting out the dead.

I believe that whichever side won a particular battle, and was left in control of the field when the other side retreated, buried the dead of both sides, usually in temporary field graves for later re-interment if possible. At Gettysburg, for example, most Union dead were re-interred at cemetaries near the battlefield, while most Confederates were re-interred in the South. If both sides were forced to withdraw, it was left to the local civilians to see to burial - or not. I recall photos of the Chancellorsville battlefield taken a year later showing the skeletal remains of Union troops that had never been buried.

I believe you are right Colibri, and when POWs were taken, they were given the burial detail. No cite to post, but I believe this went on during WWII also.

During the Gallipoli campaign, there was actually official cease-fires called to allow each side to bury their dead.

Of course, if they’re Muslims, you bury 'em with a pig.

Here’s a modern day scenario (which would most likely happen):

In the USAF, Services squadrons are in charge of handling remains. They have morticians that process bodies, and prepare them for airlift back to the US. In SW Asia (i.e. Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, etc.) remains would be airlifted to Rammstein AB in Germany, then Dover AFB, Delaware, and finally to wherever the next of kin happened to be. On the Pacific side of things, they’d most likely be sent through Okinawa and then through Travis AFB in California.

What about interrment on the field? If there needed to be mass graves, Civil Engineers (which I am a part of) would use their heavy equipment (i.e. graders, front end loaders) to excavate whatever land was necessary, and then cover it back up. The Engineering flight would survey the site, get accurate locations (if possible) of remains, and then would mark and note it accordingly.

But that’s the Air Force. Can’t speak for the other services. . .

Tripler
I just hope to God it doesn’t get that far.

Unfortunatly, I think is is going to. YMMV :smiley:

During WWI bodies in no-man’s-land could be left out for a very long time indeed. Otherwise it was down to burial details and truces with a shallow internment with some quicklime till the remains could be moved to a proper site.

The Zulu also believed that the ghost of a man would haunt his killers unless they were ritually cleansed. I don’t think the disembowelment was so much in respect as self defense, so his spirit could make it to the ceremony and be put to rest. ‘The Washing of the Spears’ is an excellent account of the Zulu-European conflicts.

Looks like during the Normandy invasion, we buried the dead from both sides.

http://www.qmfound.com/crosses.htm

The Battle Of Stone’s River took place here in Murfreesboro, Tewnnessee. We have a National Cemetary in our community, just adjacent to the battle site.

Mostly individual gravesites, but some contain 5, 10 or even 25 men who could only be identified as “Union Soldier: Name Unknown”.

No Confederates are buried there.

Instead, the 150+ year old Evergreen Cemetary was used for Rebel troops.

Today, there is a marked mass grave. In addition, there are some individual graves, mostly locals who fought in the battle, & a few senior officers who were buried separately.

In both cases, wives & even children of the deceased who died later were buried in these cemetaries, respectively.

It is very disturbing to see the grave of a little girl, aged 6 years, among all the military tombstones.

Thanks to everybody for your responses. The link provided by bump regarding the experiences of the WWII Graves Registration soldier was particularly interesting.

Regards,
Shodan

My Grandfather, who served as a truck driver during the Second World War with the British Army described the burial procedure as such.

He deliver ammunition to a forward point. At that point, after unloading, his truck would be loaded with bodies. He would then drive to a burial area where a bulldozer would have carved out a trench. He would back his truck into the trench and the bodies would be unloaded. An officer would take one of the dogtags from the body and record where the body was. He would then drive off and go clean out his truck and the bulldozer would back fill the mass grave. The whole procedure was done with maximum haste.

This was a very unpopular job for him because of the emotional stress and at made a mess of his truck.

He also made the comment that bodies would not nessarily end up where grave stones were latter put.

Kipper, do you know if your Grandfather handled the casualties from both sides?