The First World War was the first conflict on an industrial scale in history. The new weapons used by the warring armies caused millions of death. Many bodies of soldiers were completely destroyed because of the artillery explosions or because they died in no man’s land, and their comrades were unable to venture out to recover their bodies because of the sustained enemy fire. The British thought of a name for these soldiers whose bodies were either never found or never identified: they are called the missing.
72,200 of those were registered for the Battle of the Somme alone (1 July-18 November 1916). Today two British researchers, Pam and Ken Linge are studying them.