It's both fascinating and sad how quickly history can be forgotten and fade away. People like these men are important.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

My grandfather died 16th May 1915, Battle of Festubert. He has no known grave which saddens me. My father never got to know him as he was born a couple of months later.

As someone in this film, it’s nice to see another clip of it. The film dates from 2001, when Battlefield Archaeology did not really exist, there was no proper process and DNA was not taken or used to identify British soldiers. Sadly the soldier featured in this was not identified.

There's a Sadness to this . Finding relics from WW1 is  one thing. Uncovering those who lost their lives is Very different. R.i.P

Hats off to all these guys...sincere admiration for what you do.

My grandfather fought in WW1 and got mustard gassed.  He had lung problems the rest of his life.

It's just so sad seeing the remains like that, seeing how he must have collapsed.

Those soldiers were once little baby boys someone’s beautiful child. It makes me both sad and angry, God Bless their souls.

I don't think breathtaking is the proper word to describe a battlefield with the skeletal remains a soldier.

My grandfather was wounded, in Boezinge, 31/07/1917, Welsh Guards. They advanced from there up to Pilkem Ridge. So I’m not sure why they’d say there’s no fighting at Boezinge. Where these guys were digging is now a preserved monument, called The Yorkshire Trench, I’ve been a couple of times on pilgrimage to Ypres

The futility of war. What these men fought to preserve and protect is now given away for nothing.

I get emotional watching.  God bless those who died in all wars while trying to preserve the rights of others.

In Flanders fields poppies grow..... 🇨🇦 Thank you for your service and ultimate sacrifice. I'm so pleased we found you my brother ..... It's only fitting we have your name at some point and give you the full respect that you deserve. Remembered

Hopefully the soldiers will be properly buried and identified to living relatives.....

RIP Fusilier.
You did your duty.

A relative of mine died at Passchendaele and is on the Menin Gate.

I emailed Aurel Sercu when this first aired about 25 years ago thanking him for the work he and the Diggers do.

He emailed straight back. I think it meant something to him to be appreciated by a  relative of the missing.

WWI was a real, live thing that hung over the country when I was younger.

Soldiers who went missing in Flanders or the Somme or who came back, said nothing and died often left a hole that families struggled with.

And in a weird way I think the experience of this legacy could be more intense for those of us 2 or 3 generations removed than for those of the same generation or their children.

We never actually met the people who had died. If we met veterans we were too young to understand that they were more than just a scary, inapproachable old man who struggled with 'an injury they got in the war' and didn't say very much.
And stoic British culture, especially at that time, discouraged open discussion of emotion.

So we were left with the hole without having any sense of the person who had left it.

The work of people like the Diggers does contribute to an understanding of who these people were. I'm glad ordinary Belgians volunteer their time to do it.

I hope this Man was accorded proper military honors and re-interred in a WWI Cemetery.  It is the least we can do for him.

Thank you so much for doing what you're doing at these digs. Awful shame that these sights are being repurposed for commercial enterprise. But life goes on. May all of the soldiers who passed in that war rest peacefully. My grandfather died before I was born but he served in WWI. He did survive the war for another 20 years.

It's very disappointing to watch a video ends with no conclusion. Was he identified or not?