During the First World War, nations caused the deaths of their own soldiers in massive numbers by asking them to get out of trenches and run toward enemy trenches—where they were slaughtered by machine-gun fire.

Then these nations erected crosses to honor those who had "given their lives." Many of the crosses were erected before the end of the war 

Soldiers were sent to die in order to create memorials to the dead—to erect crosses to honor the dead.

More care was devoted to these crosses than to the lives of soldiers.