Burying your enemy's dead?

After battles and regular cambat after one side advanced what happened to the dead of the other side? I know in the east they were left to rot but what happened in the west after Normandy?

How did it work from both the Allied and Axis side?

 

Did not the deseased emeny soldiers from both sides were strip of there belongings?
Not just there watches and guns and boots but also the clothes,some times strip naked!
I have read this before,but i do not know what they actually did to the deased bodies!

 

For the most part they were buried. The bodies bloated and started to smell. I know that bodies were also looted, but mostly from enemy soldiers. Many have stated they felt bad looting from soldiers from the same army.

 

My guess is that the enemy dead were put into mass graves.

La Cambe German Cemetery, Normandy

The German war dead from the Normandy campaign were scattered over a wide area, many of them buried in isolated or field graves - or small battlefield cemeteries. In the years following WW2, the German War Graves Commission, Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge, decided to establish six main German cemeteries in the Normandy area, with the one at La Cambe started in 1954. During this period the remains of more than 12,000 German soldiers were moved in from 1,400 locations in the departements of Calvados and the Orne.

In total there are 21,222 German soldiers commemorated here, of which 207 unknown and 89 identified are buried in a kamaradengraben (or mass grave) below the central tumulus.

 

Google is your friend:

Quartermaster World War II History - graves registration/Mortuary services
Army Mortuary Affairs History Page
1945 US Army WWII Graves Registration Manual 62p. FM 10-63
WWII Grave registration
etc.

Most other Armies reasonably well covered on-line.

?
Naturally, it's good practice to occupy ground littered with disease-infested corpses?
Outside of any chivalric, Humane, or decent treatment of enemy dead, there is always a strong case for hygiene.

~A

 

I get the general impression it depended on the theatre, the time, and the sides involved. The war in North Africa was almost a "gentlemanly" campaign, there were relatively few accounts of atrocities on prisoners etc. and both sides often buried enemy dead with almost the same reverence as for those of their own side. In recent wars Korea, Vietnam and up to today, American war dead are sent home whenever possible for burial but in WW2 for all sides, this was usually, simply not done. Shipping space was simply too valuable and casualties so enormous it was usually not practical to waste transport on the dead when a wounded soldier could be sent back instead. Thus it became common practice on most sides to simply bury their own dead near where they fell. I have read many true life accounts of the war from all sides but there is usually little to be found on treatment of enemy dead - depending on how desperate the supply situation was at the moment, the enemy dead were very often looted of their boots and other valuables (and normally enemy dead were routinely searched for papers, maps, and other items of possible intelligence value, anyway.) I have read a few accounts of Germans burying Russian dead if the tactical situation permitted, often being ordered to by their leaders - probably for sanitary reasons if for no other. But once searched, enemy dead had no military value so often they were in fact, simply left there - since on a battlefield there are usually more important things to do than worry about dead enemy.

 

Well, the fighting men would most unlikely be the ones burying the dead. Its like that saying "For every front line soldier, there are 9 who support him". There would be some sort of group (previously mentioned I think) who would take care of burying the dead.

Certain situations would probably call for frontline soldiers to bury the dead, but in the Pacific I doubt this was possible in most places due to the Jungle and Terrain.

The Japanese in some instances were known to eat the dead due to lack of food.

 

When my uncle was KIA in Eatern France, his body was burried in a temporary cemetery in Holchenfeld. He was there untill 1947. My Grandma made the choice of having him interned overseas " with his friends". I have a copy of his IPDF files. He is at the St. Lorraine Cemetry next to another Cannon Company buddy klled with him that same day.

 

Speaking of looting from soldiers from the same army. I know a militaria dealer who just purchased from the Son of a now deceased WWII Vet-who sold him close to 100 1939 Iron Cross 2nd classes. The dealer still has some of these left for sale on his site.

Anyway, the man who "acquired" all of these Iron Crosses, took them off Soldiers killed in battle. This guy was in some sort of Medical Evac unit-what role exactly-I dunno? Anyway, he took every Iron Cross off the dead that he could get his hands on. Pretty sick if you ask me but, I suppose that taking things would always be a temptation-no matter where it comes from?

 

100 iron crosses...I'm assuming that all of those were worn by corporals or higher. Meaning that this man probably went through at least a thousand or more dead.

 

What I´ve read and seen on the net auction sites taking victory trophies from the dead enemy soldiers was a usual hobby of soldiers. Anything that could be taken would be removed.

 

Quite right KAI-Petri- The lugars were the most common to be taken by Allied Soldiers.
The Germans took from the deacesed allies were medic equitment and food and also Allied helmets (Britsh and American)

 

Thanks for all the info everyone.


Von Poop, im sure that if you were in such a situation as in the East that you could care less about the dead from your enemy. Its not like you would willingly sleep near them anyway. I recall reading a book about how Russian civilians looted German bodies at the battlefields and left them there, it was only many years later that they were buried properly.

Heck, skeletons are still being found in Russian forests today.

 

My now deceased paternal uncle had "liberated" a beautiful Marsch Kompass from a German officer while at the Remagen Bridge area. He was in the Combat Engineers (291?), and was in the group who built and crossed the Rhine on a pontoon bridge. He was also in the detail which fished the bodies of his buddies out of the water when the Ludendorf finally collapsed.

After that he was wounded by a mine on the east of the Rhine, when one another guy was attempting to clear exploded. He was shipped back to Great Britain and put in hospital for a time, and was there when the ETO was over. He wasn't shipped home immediately after he had healed up, but sent back to Germany to help repair the battle damage post-war. He ended up with most of his souveniers from this time-period. Germans were trading anything of value to GIs, and he sent a bunch of stuff home before he had enough "points" to go home himself.

 

as always, google usually has the answer.

 

Here's how the French burid 5 the emeny nazi Soldiers! Pretty respectful from the French after what they had gone through with the Nazi;s!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/worldnew...-soldiers-killed-D-Day-discovered-France.html

If link won't work,please goggle this-russian forest,german skeletons ww2. 3rd link!
It's a must see picture!

 

Heidi,

the link posted does not work... and I couldn't find the pic based on what to search through google any other suggestions?

 

Sorry! This one will work!
russian forest,german skelitons ww2,2nd link than the 1st link (the wrong spelling is actually right)

 

At least 100 EKs. Also, anyone of any rank could earn and wear them. If I can figure out how to post some photos from my collection that I have on CD-ill post quite a few pics I have showing anyone from Schutzen to at least Hauptmann, who had just been awarded and were wearing their EKIIs.

Forgot to add, that unfortunately-the dead that he went through-were soldiers from the same Army he served in.

 

Though this has happened from time immemorial, there's a very goulish aspect to this. I suppose it gets down to some personal moral code and I have no idea what the "rules" were during WWII, nor where they stand now.

A weapon you can use? Sure, why wouldn't you? A trophy of a piece of uniform, weapon (decorative or functional) or military decoration? Pretty much the same thing, I guess. How about a watch, a wedding band or other personal items on the deceased? Well, I think it's starting to get questionable somewhere around this point. What about those who dug gold dental fillings out of the decedents and who knows what else? I was pretty shocked when my dad told me about some of these things he observed and how he wondered how these people could live in their own minds after desecrating the dead? Or how they would someday face their Maker? Sorry to digress, but this is a sad reality on the human condition and among things we probably shouldn't forget of the horrors of war.

In response to the original question, man figured out long ago you can't leave dead bodies laying around. It's an intense breeding ground for rapidly communicable, deadly disease like typhus, plague, etc., appreciated even before people had a concept of infectious disease. It quickly becomes an untenable solution based on the nose alone. I think lots of different scenarios unfolded in WWII. The well-supplied armies had their mortuary services to clear secured areas. Victorious conquerors along the way employed a combination of their own support services and forced labor of locals. Sometimes locals were left to their own labors to bury their dead and remaining enemy decedents when the army(ies) had quickly moved on.

I do think there is something very human and touching about forces burying the enemy dead with respect. I think the extringencies of war and how one views one's enemy must play a role. Historically, funeral pyres were utilized, but I don't know if or how often that happened in WWII.