The Commission had also been mandated to individually commemorate each soldier who had no known grave , which amounted to 315 @,@ 000 in France and Belgium alone . The Commission initially decided to build 12 monuments on which to commemorate the missing ; each memorial being located at the site of an important battle along the Western Front . After resistance from the French committee responsible for the approvals of memorials on French territory , the Commission revised their plan and reduced the number of memorials , and in some cases built memorials to the missing in existing cemeteries rather than as separate structures .