How did my Grandfather die at Ypres?

[mikejduk]

No one seems to have answered your question about why some soldiers have no known grave. This is because they were either buried when the shells threww tons of earth into the air and buried them or they were literally blown away by shellfire. This is one of the reasons the old soldiers never talked about it to anyone other than a fellow survivor. How do you describe seeing your mates vapourised?
They do have a memorial though. Every name inscribed on the Menin Gate is a soldier with no known grave. There is a ceremony every night when they are remembered. There are also memorials at the CWGC (Commonwealth War Graves Commission) burial grounds of men who fell in that area but have nothing to bury.
As for still searching for bodies, well I think that whenever bones are discovered then every effort is made to discover who they are and then they are buried in the CWGC burial ground, or if they trace any family and they want to bury them then they are brought home and the headstone is a CWGC one and the grave will be looked after by CWGC.
Hope this helps

Many thanks for your response.

I can better understand the horrors of the western front and bodies becoming untraceable after watching a YouTube video about digging up the trenches of WW1.

I have had Steve from the PWGC advise me that some of the memorial plaques are falling in to such deterioration that they are becoming illegible. I think a drive should be made for such plaques to be replaced. We must never ever forget the enormous sacrifice that was made by these men. And as the main plaque describes their memory in perpetuity they should all be maintained.

Mike Dickinson

[backriver]

I am new to this forum and the above post explained to me why my granddads body was never found he died 25th September at the battle of Loos 1914.we do know his name is on a commemorative plaque in that area .so thank you for that

[timbo58]

I did hear it was up to 45% of all casualties have no known grave (like 4 of my own ancestors at Tyne cot) I also heard a possible reason for this -they were buried very close to the front line in temporary graves either just on a spot of likely land or in a local churchyard and when those places were shelled again the bodies were lost forever identification-wise however they had already recorded them as being killed.

I did have a question asked recently about records for those who deserted but were not 'caught' and thought it may have been more than possible that they may well have ended up on the red cross 'missing' lists or being presumed dead?