Hi Carman;
Your first question:
"General QUESTION: for the men who were listed as MIA, presumed dead and `remembered' on memorials like Vimy, were some of the MIA's actually POWS who were just never seen again? Or were MIA's men whose bodies were known to `be there' but were unidentifiable?"
For those that have no known grave and are named on the various Great War Memorials, of one kind or another, the simply answer is, for the majority of them, they were never seen again and their remains were never found or recovered.
Your second question:
"Why did they refer to WW1 as `The BIG ONE'? Becausse of the losses? The countries and numbers involved? All of the above?"
Before the Second World War of 1939-1945, the War of 1914-1918 was referred to as 'The Great War'. Simply put, it was the first war on such a grand scale and area of operations and combatants involved, that the world had every seen, coupled with this, was the advances made in the development of new types of weapons and munitions used, examples: tanks, mortars, gases, the airplane has an offensive weapon, all of these, the likes of which the world had never seen before. As an example of the losses incured, Canada's population in 1914, was approx. eight millon people, of which a total of 619,636 served in the Canadian Forces during the conflict. Of these, 66,655 lost their lives and 172,950 were wounded. One in every ten Canadians that served during the Great War, never came home.
I hope the above mentioned, may have answered your questions.
In regards to the Battle of Courcelette, 15th September, 1916, I have attached a map of the area concerned, without the assault trace, so you can see what was what.
Cheers
