The soldiers graves..

Before I began a war story I shall honor all who died in World War 2. "The soldiers graves are greatest preachers of peace" written on stone at cemetery. It is the resting place for all German war dead that taken part in a battles and who still being found in the northern part of Ukraine. The volksbund estimates roughly 40.000 victims.

Most of German war dead have been identifyed and have names on their graves. It is because each German army man had metalic tags with indentification number that made of two halves. (photo on left) When soldier died, one half have been sent to death registration buro and other always remained with the body.

Soviet authorities didn't come up with this smart idea and each soldier carried a plastic tube. (shown on right photo) They were supposed to put a note in the tube with their names, but out of some reason when you find such tubes, they mostly empty. May be soldiers have been superstitious or may be just didn't care of what will become after they died.

Tubes have not been hermetically sealed and this days, if someone is lucky to find a tube with a note and will try to retrieve it, then only ashes come out.

In this way, most of Soviet war dead can not be identified. They burried on mass graves, which often located on nearest cemeteries or at the places of battles. We call them a graves of unknown soldiers.