Posted on 07/21/2016 2:20:18 PM PDT by naturalman1975
The two world wars have long since passed, but for those employed to honour the dead, the task is never-ending.
At a factory in the northern French city of Beaurains, machines operate 70 hours a week to produce a constant, global supply of gravestones for the 1.7 million Commonwealth soldiers killed in the two horrific conflicts.
Although age may not weary them, the years continue to condemn their gravestones and they need to be replaced.
"Some of these headstones are 100 years old," the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's Peter Francis said.
"For us an illegible headstone is a brave man forgotten, and it's unacceptable."
The factory produces 6,000 gravestones a year.
They are shipped to 23,000 places in 154 countries, including Australia.
"It's always emotional when you come here," Camille Joly, the manager of headstone production, said.
"You have to remember, each one of these people fell and fought for freedom."
About 30 headstones are allocated annually to soldiers whose bodies have been newly discovered on the Western Front.
A stone was recently made for an unknown Australian soldier killed in World War I, who was finally laid to rest in an official ceremony in Belgium on Wednesday.
Another three will be buried at Pozieres on Saturday.
"The cemeteries should be reminiscent of an English garden," Gareth Hardware, who is in charge of horticulture for the cemeteries in Western Europe, said.
"We also select trees from the countries from which the soldiers fell, so Canadian maple, and Australian eucalyptus."
In most places, the end result is truly stunning.
Many of the men and women killed in the two world wars died far too young but thanks to this work, they will be remembered long after we are gone.
(Excerpt) Read more at abc.net.au ...
Interesting story.
I was in the Somme and Verdun in March with my son.
Was amazed by the job the Commonwealth Graves Commission does.
Truly a moving experience.
-- Binyon
There are videos of ISIS sympathizers destroying Aussie troops’ headstones in Libya.
Y’know, the Commonwealth troops that kept Libya from falling to the Nazis in WWII.
Touching story.
God bless the brave men who fell. And God bless those who are honoring their memory.
Brings a lump to my throat. Say what you will about the French, and all those other Europeans countries that we (Canada, in my case) fought on behalf of in two world wars, but they really respect our war dead, probably more than we do ourselves.
I know I have at least one great uncle who died in Ypres.
Drop the marble and cut them in GRANITE and you won’t have to replace them every hundred years.
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