Treatment of dead soldiers in world war 1?

Answer 1

To my knowledge they usually just left them for the rats. I suppose if there was a period of cease-fire, and they could get to the support trenches they may have been able to give them a simple burial, but the hassle was probably too great. I believe the only time they really ever buried the dead was when a major offensive had succeeded greatly, and they were free to collect their dead. When soldiers died in No-man's land, they were eventually buried under the mud, which created a problem due to the natural build up of gases which wouldn't be able to escape, thus, it was quite common that the aforementioned corpses would actually explode, adding yet more horrors to the war.

Answer 2

When many soldiers died they were just left to rot or be eaten by rats, or occasionally used to shore up trench walls. This was because often no one had time to move them , and not was going to risk going out onto no mans land to retrieve any dead bodies. Sad, but true. BUT V.C.s were awarded to men going out to try and bring back the dead and badly wounded, and padres were known to crawl out into No-Mans Land to sit with a dying man, especially after big events like those that took place in the famous Somme or Passchendaele offensives. Other men were unfortunately blown so thoroughly to bits by shells that there was no body left to bury or feed the vermin.

Unlike previous wars, however, the ( especially allied) dead of the Great War often had the site of their graves recorded in the hope that, were they not in an established cemetry, they could be found later, identified and properly laid to rest - This was especially true once the Imperial War Graves Commision was set up (see http://www.cwgc.org/content.asp?menuid=1&submenuid=4&id=4&menuname=History&menu=sub ) . It was also a landmark in respect of the ordinary soldier was commemorated by name either on a headstone or a Memorial to the Missing - and that ranks were not distinguished by type, size of headstone or font in which they were recorded.

Answer 3

Buried them. When bodies were recovered they were given proper burials. In some cases, mass graves were made, but mostly the bodies were interned individually. There are huge military graveyards all over Europe, for example, that contain the bodies of dead soldiers from both sides of the conflict.

Answer 4

they stacked them up in big piles and then burnt them:(.

Answer 5

the other british comrades used them as sand bags