set 45

[TakeNoPrizners]

That's a really hot scenario, timgotshot. Soldiers follow orders, even if it's a suicide mission. They accepted the likelihood of a short life span when they joined up. Embracing death is part of their warrior ethos, though of course they aspire to kill at least a few of the enemy before they're blown away and hit the mass grave with their buds. Dog tags have always fascinated me, because they're both a pop cultural symbol of a macho identity and ID for the guy's corpse. Dog tags say "I'm a soldier, trained to kill," and "I'm a soldier, ready to be killed." Similar to your idea about the certainty of impending combat death, military history records campaigns in which men in beleaguered units were advised by their sarge or C.O. to take a tag off their neck chain and put it in one of their boots, where it was less likely to be destroyed when the guys get shot up or blown to pieces as they expected. In the scene you envision, when the fodder charges from the trench and gets mowed down, the helpful "DEAD" markers they distributed among themselves beforehand will let the mortuary affairs guys (aka "the ghouls") know which casualties to pull the dog tags off of.