A war grave is a burial place for members of the armed forces or civilians who died during military campaigns or operations .
16-593: The Cassino War Cemetery is a war grave cemetery in the commune of Cassino , Province of Frosinone , 139 kilometres (86 mi) south-east of Rome, Italy . Of the burials, 289 servicemen are unidentified. Within the cemetery stands the Cassino Memorial which commemorates over 4,000 Commonwealth servicemen who took part in the Italian campaign and whose graves are not known. Whenever possible, these war memorials were placed within military cemeteries near
32-539: A foreign field / That is for ever England", is a patriotic poem about the possibility of dying abroad during a war. Brooke is himself buried in a war grave on Skyros in the Aegean Sea , having died while en route to fight in the Gallipoli Campaign . The War Graves Photographic Project , founded in 2008, aims to create an archive of names and photographs of all military graves and memorials from 1914 to
48-597: A small geographic area and consist of service members from the few military units involved. When it comes to the two World Wars, the large number of casualties means that the war graves can take up very large areas. For example, the Brookwood Military Cemetery in the UK is the largest of its kind in the country, with graves for more than 1,600 servicemen from the First World War and over 3,400 from
64-466: A total of 73 Civil War-Era National Cemeteries from 1861 to 1868. Final military honors are provided for qualified Veterans by volunteer veteran or National Guard details known as Memorial Honor Details (MHD), upon application by family members through their choice of mortuary handling the deceased. *Please note that the year listed is the official date of establishment listed by the VA. This may differ from
80-481: Is not limited to the occupier's death in combat but includes military personnel who die while in active service : for example, during the Crimean War , more military personnel died of disease than as a result of enemy action. A common difference between cemeteries of war graves and those of civilian peacetime graves is the uniformity of those interred. They generally died during a relatively short period, in
96-479: The East Yorkshire Regiment and was also a novelist, who disappeared after escaping from enemy captivity in 1943. War grave The term "war grave" does not only apply to graves : ships sunk during wartime are often considered to be war graves, as are military aircraft that crash into water; this is particularly true if crewmen perished inside the vehicle. Classification of a war grave
112-629: The Nationwide Grave-site Locator , which can be used to find burial locations of American military Veterans through their searchable website. The Department of the Army maintains two national cemeteries, Arlington National Cemetery and United States Soldiers' and Airmen's Home National Cemetery . The National Park Service (NPS) maintains 14 national cemeteries associated with historic sites and battlefields. The American Battle Monuments Commission , an independent agency of
128-610: The Second World War buried or commemorated at Cassino War Cemetery. From Canada, 194 servicemembers are honoured on the Cassino Memorial. One soldier memorialized on the cenotaph is Yeshwant Ghadge (1921–1944), who served in the 5th Mahratta Light Infantry in the British Indian Army . For gallantry against the enemy, Ghadge was awarded the Victoria Cross . Another is Dan Billany , who served in
144-578: The Second World War and covering an area of 15 hectares (37 acres). By contrast, Finnish war graves are generally small because the Finnish government decided following the Second World War that every dead soldier or service person would be returned to their home parish, meaning that virtually all Finnish churchyards contain a war grave. In Australia, the Office of Australian War Graves controls
160-758: The United Kingdom, 67 ship wrecks and all underwater military aircraft are "protected places" under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986 which imposes restrictions on their exploration and marine salvage . In Spain, war graves are protected by the Law 60/1962. In the United States, war graves are managed within the United States National Cemetery System and American Battle Monuments Commission . In Germany
176-702: The end of 1862, 12 national cemeteries had been established. Two of the nation's most iconic military cemeteries, Arlington National Cemetery which is under the jurisdiction of the Department of the Army, and Gettysburg National Cemetery , under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service , were established in 1864 and 1863, respectively. The National Cemetery Administration of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) maintains 148 national cemeteries as well as
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#1732780430690192-631: The executive branch, established by Congress in 1923, maintains 26 American military cemeteries and other memorials outside the United States. Twelve national cemeteries were established in 1862. A total of 34 were established during the Civil War from 1861 to 1865. Additional cemeteries were set up after the United States Civil War by Edmund Burke Whitman . Congress passed additional laws to establish and protect national cemeteries in 1867. The National Cemetery Administration lists
208-638: The maintenance of war cemeteries, plots, individual graves, post-war commemorations and battle exploit memorials. In the Commonwealth of Nations , the Commonwealth War Graves Commission is responsible for the commemoration of 1.7 million deceased Commonwealth military service members at over 23,000 separate burial sites in 153 countries. It operates through the financial support of six member states (United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India and South Africa). In
224-537: The present day from any nationality, although focus on Commonwealth soldiers. United States National Cemetery System The United States National Cemetery System is a system of 164 military cemeteries in the United States and its territories. The authority to create military burial places came during the American Civil War , in an act passed by the U.S. Congress on July 17, 1862. By
240-716: The state is responsible for the war graves. In addition to soldiers, victims of National Socialism and the GDR also fall under the definition of "war grave". Abroad, the German War Graves Commission (Volksbund deutscher Kriegsgräberfürsorge) takes over the care of German war dead. War graves are under legal protection and have permanent resting rights. The war grave sites are mostly integrated in civil cemeteries and can be found on almost all graveyards. Rupert Brooke 's 1914 poem, The Soldier – "If I should die, think only this of me: / That there's some corner of
256-523: The theatres of operations. During the Battle of Monte Cassino , Cassino saw some of the fiercest fighting of the Italian Campaign , the town itself and the dominating Monastery Hill proving the most stubborn obstacles encountered in the advance towards Rome. The majority of those buried in the war cemetery died in the battles during these months. As of 2012 there are 4,271 Commonwealth servicemen of
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