Discovery Channel - Finding the Fallen (2005) Part 1 Ypres 1914 The First Trench

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.