During the Battle of Neuve Chapelle in World War I, the battlefield was littered with the corpses of slain German and French soldiers who had stood shoulder to shoulder. The corpses of both soldiers appeared to be reconciled, having been killed and defeated in the battle zone.
The Battle of Neuve Chapelle (March 10-13, 1915) was the first major engagement of British troops on the Western Front of World War I. British forces were defeated by French troops in Artois, France. British troops broke through the village of Neuve Chapelle in the Artois region of France, but were unable to capitalize on their victory. British casualties numbered about 13,000, while the Germans were accompanied by about 14,000. At the same time, French troops attacked Vimy Ridge on the Artois Plateau. The British forces attacked from the north, while the French threatened the Germans from the south. The French attack was halted when the British could not relieve the French troops. After the Germans failed to counterattack with casualties, the British forces consolidated the areas they had already occupied and halted any further attacks.
On the front lines of the battlefields of World War I, the diverse nature and condition of soldier corpses meant that the subsequent final treatment of soldier corpses varied greatly.
Some identifiable, soldier corpses were buried close to the front lines. In the battlefields near the rear of the front line, while holding trenches, included the bodies of soldiers killed by snipers or artillery shell explosions. Soldiers' bodies were searched from collapsed mines, trenches, trees, and dugouts. Soldiers began to withdraw, but died of their wounds while in their battalions or brigades. Soldiers were identified by comrades, privates, and officers.
The bodies of some not easily identifiable soldiers were buried in cemeteries and burial grounds near the front lines. They were killed or died due to wounds from the attack. This includes soldiers whose bodies could not be removed because the place where they were lying was set on fire. Eventually, when the battle is over, the bodies of the soldiers are buried, if possible. This includes soldiers who marched from the front lines and were killed, and their bodies are identified by the rest of the army. Identification was censored by soldiers who did not know the deceased, through documents, tags, or other physical means.
Some soldiers are unidentified when their bodies are completely damaged and their bodies are nonexistent or their identification papers are lost. Fragments of the soldier's body, when found, would be buried if possible. After the war, top-secret information on the battlefield reduced the total number of missing persons, but the bodies of many soldiers have yet to be found.
Thousands of small burial grounds were created on or just behind the battlefield. The bodies of the soldiers were often damaged by artillery fire. Many of the bodies were overtaken first by the advancing enemy and later by the Allies pushing again to the east. As the ground was shelled, plots were destroyed and the location of many registered graves became unclear.
