Discovery Channel - Finding the Fallen (2005)

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Discovery Channel - Finding the Fallen (2005)

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At the end of the Great War, nearly two million soldiers were missing, presumed dead. Almost 90 years later, the bloody battlegrounds of France and Belgium are surrendering their secrets. Beneath the farmlands lie the unknown and the unclaimed dead… This series follows the dedicated team of archaeologists, forensic experts and historians known as No Man's Land as they seek to find, recover and identify the fallen of the Great War. Each episode in this complete five-part Discovery Channel series focuses in riveting detail on one archaeological dig at the site of a single significant battle of the Great War.
From the Belgian town of Ypres - where the team discover evidence of the very first trenches of the conflict - to the infamous German stronghold at Serre in Northern France, join the fascinating search using the latest battlefield archaeology and forensic techniques to recover and piece together the identity of those lost in the maelstrom of a long ago war. Other battlefields visited are Loos, the site of a hellish underground battle in 1915, Beaumont Hamel on the Somme and Passchendaele, where in 1917 the battlefield was transformed into a vast sea of liquid mud that swallowed up so many lives… A team of archaeologists, historians and forensic experts is working to identify unknown soldiers and finally lay them to rest. Finding The Fallen is a documentary series that follows the work of this team as they move through time and across the battlefields of France and Belgium, releasing the fallen and their stories of courage and sacrifice from the mud of the First World War battles in which they fought and died.

Part 1: Ypres 1914 -The First Trench
Beneath the farmland of Northern Belgium lie graveyards, the final resting place of the fallen of the First World War. At Ypres, our team excavate the past, a shovelful at a time, to preserve the memories of the shattered lives that ended here. They discover evidence of the first trenches of The Great War—mere scrapes of earth that would evolve into complex lines of trenches that if placed in a single line would encircle the Earth. In the process they unearth the partial remains of three German soldiers from the 213 Reserve Regiment, who fought and died here. Retracing on foot and by train the very steps these soldiers took in the Autumn of 1914, members of the team uncover a massacre of civilians in a small Belgian town.

Part 2: Serre 1915 - Brothers in Death
Serre in Northern France was an infamous German stronghold in the Great War. Thousands died here, many of them buried where they fell. Three soldiers are discovered. One is British but a lack of material evidence prevents identification. The other two are German, discovered with tantalizing clues as to their identity. One soldier took into battle a touching souvenir of home, a pictorial shoe polish lid. He also broke a cardinal rule of war by scratching his name on his i.d. tag. The partial name and the keepsake allow a positive identification. The other was found with a matted lump of paper. Using real world "CSI" techniques, a lost document is restored and gives up a name and a place. In the end, enlisted man and officer- brothers only in death—are reburied together in a military cemetery, sharing a single stone.

Part 3: Loos 1915 - the Underground War
Tunnels and craters in the heart of a French coalfield hide horrors from the First World War. More than 50,000 British soldiers were killed or wounded here in a hellish battle that moved underground. Our team of archaeologists, historians, and forensic experts is here to excavate the lip of a gigantic crater that was created by a massive underground explosion. They discover a mass grave and, within the burial site, clues to one of the fallen soldiers, a German from Bavaria. A simple uniform button, a regiment number on an epaulette, and a postcard inside a music book, lead to the identity of this soldier: a gifted violinist named Leopold Rotharmel turned warrior in the German unit that would later be called the Storm Troopers.

Part 4: Beaumont Hamel 1916 - the Wounded
Our team of archaeologists, forensic experts and historians travel to the front lines of the Battle of the Somme, a sector known as Beaumont Hamel, looking for the truth of what happened that day. They uncover medical supplies lead to the location of what may have been a front line medical post – a hub of chaos on that fateful day. And it is here that the team makes a stunning discovery: it's only a single button. But it's a button that could only been worn by one soldier on the morning that marked the commencement of the Battle of the Somme: the Regimental Medical Officer. This find sets the team off on a journey to uncover the life of one Dr. William Bunting Wamsley, a Methodist doctor from Northern England who also spent time working in China at Methodist missions.

Part 5: Passchendaele 1917 - Drowning in Mud
In Northern Belgium lies the site of the infamous battle of Passchendaele, fought in 1917, a place where man and beast drowned in a churning sea of mud. As the team unearth the remains of a complex trench system, they discover one of the first modern wristwatches– a technological innovation that was born of war. Forensic investigation reveals letters are etched onto its strap – a discovery that launches a journey to identify its owner, a soldier, one of the Fallen. The search leads to John Humphrey England, a Second Lieutenant under the Welsh regiment, who died in the mud of Passchendaele July 31 1917. But this quest has a twist in the tail.

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Discovery Channel - Finding the Fallen (2005)

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Discovery Channel - Finding the Fallen (2005)

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Discovery Channel - Finding the Fallen (2005)

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Discovery Channel - Finding the Fallen (2005)

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