The Forestry Forum

I recently gathered some information about my great uncle, who was killed in WW1 and buried in the Somme US Military Cemetery in Bony, France.  He was with the 119th Regiment, 30th Division, and was killed on Sept 29th 1918.  I did some checking, and that unit was the spearhead on an attack on the Hindenburg line on that date, and suffered heavy casualties.  The Allied attack on the line succeded, and ultimately brought about the end of the war on November 11th.  My question:  Why were some of the American soldiers buried in France?  I wondered if the families were financely responsible for getting their soldiers back, or did the families ask to have their loved ones permently buried where they died?  I would have figured the soldiers would have been shipped back home at government expense.  The cemetery at Bony was  has more that 1800 identified remains buried there, and 333 unknowns.  Anyone know the facts?

 You may find the answer your looking for here. 5th Paragraph and beyond.
http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/1999/summer/gold-star-mothers-1.html

My Great Great Uncle Robert Vroman was killed in the Battle of the Argonne Forest in WWI and is buried in Belgium.

My great uncle Chauncey Yingst is buried in France.  Killed during WWI, but I don't know exactly where or which battle. He was taking messages from one place to another.   After the war, the government sent my great grandmother to France to go to the gravesite.  It was the gold star mother's program that is in the above link. 

I believe they also buried soldiers in Europe during WWII.  They didn't have the luxury of extra ships or airplanes to transport the dead. 

Mooseherder , Thanks for the link. That makes sense.   I imagine after more than a year, many families felt to exhume and rebury them would just open old wounds that had only started to heal.  Ron, look around abmc.gov.  You can search through the cemeteries listed and maybe find his grave listed, along with his date of death and his unit.  Maybe then you can google the unit and match up the date with what the unit may have been doing on that date.  I'll look around later if I have time.

Ron, I located your Great Uncle's information on abmc.gov.  He was a sergeant with the 2nd engineer regiment, 2nd Division, and died Oct 9th 1918.  Buried in the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery.  He likely was in the battle for the Bellaue Wood in June.  This link http://www.worldwar1.com/dbc/bigshow.htm tells something of what the regiment was doing at the time he was killed.

Thanks.  All the information that I remember came from my great uncle, who was his brother.  I do remember seeing a few pictures of the trip, and the flag that the mothers received.

Corley, Looks like this may be your uncle.  Robert C Vroman  18th regiment, 1st Division.  Same cemetery as Ron's uncle.  I tried to post a link, but it wouldn't work

The photo below is of my wifes grandfather Lt. Col M. Dube, Col F. W. Galbriath,
Maj E. C. McCreary, and Maj H. B. Lewis of the 147th Infantry, 37th Division one hour before an attack on October 14th, 1918.  On the back of the photo it reads:  "During this attack the 147th Infantry suffered 693 casualties, wounded and killed, out of 2955.  The assault was commanded by Lt. Col Dube.  The attack gained for the Americans 6 miles of enemy territory and much war equipment."  I researched it at one time and found that they lost that ground in the following days.  Lt Col Dube survived the war.  I have the picture in a frame that Was made by Isadore H. Dube in 1892, at the "Public Schools, Lowell, Mass".

That's him  Mom thought he was buried in Belgium too.