Just behind the front in France

[Skipman]

Just behind the front in France

Not the Croix de Guerre, but the cross of peace.

These rough-hewn crosses, in a cemetery at

the French front, were set by their comrades

above the mangled forms of thousands of poilus

who died in the trenches for the cause of freedom

and democracy. Cemeteries are only a little way

behind the trenches, . since there generally is

neither time nor transportation facilities to permit

the bodies to be carried into the interior.

Above the identified dead, the crosses bear white

numerals, but many of the graves contain nameless

heroes, the crosses above them bearing no

mark of identification.

Mike