From "archaeologists in the trenches'' to modern-day enthusiasts of the rich engineering heritage, First World War archaeology keeps uncovering more and more hidden secrets. IT IS HARD to believe that 100 years separate us from history's bloodiest military conflict - the First World War. So fresh are the wounds, so relevant the implications, that it feels at times we can still discern a muffled cannonade of the First World War artillery. This feeling of the proximity of the conflict is particularly strong in Flanders and Northern France, the sites of its fiercest battles and the final resting place of millions of confused young men. Do we know all their names? Do we know under what circumstances they all died? A total of 640,000 Commonwealth soldiers perished at the Western Front, and 520,000 graves have been identified and lovingly maintained by the Commonwealth Graves Commission. Yet, 100 years after the war, there are still 120,000 soldiers (about 20 per cent of the overall number) who do not have known burial sites.
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