No Comfort

Today we toured several cemeteries to observe not only the graves but also the way in which the fallen soldiers are remembered by their differing countries. The British Commonwealth cemeteries are very formal, white and elegant (as odd a description as that may seem). I was quite fond of the understated German cemeteries, with their shady groves and ground plaques. The French had rows of crosses (with a few exceptions for those of other faiths) which had an appeal though we didn't have much time to explore the differing aspects of their cemeteries.
What struck me the most though, was not the graves and the mass amount of death (though the last was certainly incredible) but the amount of annonymous graves that to me drive home the destruction of this particular war.

The Commonwealth cemeteries have thousands of stones just like these that have no name or date simply the inscription "A Soldier of the Great War." We've been told that some cemeteries are composed of up to 70% of graves these annonymous graves. It seems so awful that there could have been so many unidentified dead. I think that the pointlessness of the millions of deaths is summed up well by the words inscribed on the wall of the Tyne Cot Cemetery museum, written by the fiancee of a fallen soldier:

Jen Fink