The First World War created a unique situation for the recovery of the dead in war. For the first time the public demanded that the mass casualties received by a citizens army should be marked and respected. But how was this vast operation to be mounted, and how were the cemeteries in France and Belgium created? In our latest episode we are joined by Peter Francis from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission who discusses body recovery and burial, the organisation that made this huge task possible, and how bodies were identified both in the past and today.

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