REGISTRATION OF GRAVES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25305, 16 August 1943, Page 5

REGISTRATION OF GRAVES

UNIT WORKING IN DESERT (N.Z.E.F. Official News Service) CAIRO, Aug. 11. Among the minefields, shell-holes, and battered slit trenches of the El Alamein line a small group of New Zealanders has been working for nearly a year finding and' registering the graves of Allied soldiers who died in the four months’ fighting across those arid rock-strewn slopes. The work of this unit is to search the battleground for known, but often hurriedly marked, graves of soldiers killed in action, and to comb the area for scores of men listed as missing after each major attack. Unexploded bombs and grenades and miles of thick minefields ana booby traps have added danger and difficulty to the task to an extent that the registration unit’s casualties are now officially shown under headings usually given only to men killed in battle. The New Zealand graves registration unit commenced work before the El Alamein battle ended, and now it has covered all the major battlefields along the line, and in five months has registered some 1700 graves. As its work now takes it into little-known areas below the line it becomes increasingly difficult. Often with only a rough compass bearing to guide them the men search miles of windswept sand to find a single grave. They go into the midst of uncleared minefields and consider their dangerous task well worth while if they can find a few names for removal from the “ missing ” list.

Several times recently they had narrow escapes from mines set with trip wires. One of these, which exploded near Miteriya Ridge while the unit was working across the area, left a crater which could have hidden a truck. Sometimes old mines explode without being touched, and it is thought that this is caused by the heat of the desert summer.

This grave-registration work is a preliminary task. The care of war graves will be continued by the construction of large cemeteries where the dead from the various units will be concentrated ar.d their graves tended by the Imperial War Graves Commission.