Unknown Soldiers: The Story of the Missing of the First World War

by Neil Hanson

The First World War was a conflict of unprecedented ferocity. After the last shot was fired and the troops marched home, approximately three million soldiers remained unaccounted for. An unassuming English chaplain first proposed a symbolic burial in memory of all the missing dead; subsequently the idea was picked up by almost every combatant country.

Acclaimed author Neil Hanson focuses on the lives of three soldiers — an Englishman, a German, and an American — using their diaries and letters to offer an unflinching yet compassionate account of the front lines. He describes how each man endured nearly unbearable conditions, skillfully showing how the Western world arrived at the now time-honored way of mourning and paying tribute to all those who die in war.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, World War I, War, Military History, Military Fiction, World History

474 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2005

About the author

It's been a long and winding road... since graduating with a degree in philosophy (now that's useful...) I've been by turns plasterer's mate, holiday camp redcoat, ice cream salesman, exhibition organiser, art critic, rugby league commentator, freelance journalist, editor of the Good Beer Guide, owner of the highest pub in Great Britain and - finally! - a full-time author. It may not be an ideal career path, but it's given me a wealth of experiences that I draw on constantly in my own work.

I'm the author of over 50 published books. Under my own name I usually write narrative non-fiction a.k.a. popular history (though my sales figures suggest that it's never quite as popular as I'd like it to be...), but I have also written a serious novel, a few thrillers, two screenplays, travel writing and even a play-script for a musical as well. And in my day job as a professional "ghostwriter" I've written over forty other books, including a New York Times Number One best-seller.
I've spoken about my work at lectures, writers' festivals and other events all over the world and, when not writing, I'm often to be found riding my bike in the country around my home on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales.

Reviews

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second half of this book won it a fourth star. I've read so many books (maybe too many) about WW1 that much of the first half was not new to me. However, the second half regarding the building of the Cenotaph in London and the creation of the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior in Westminster was fascinating. Many times I was moved to tears, not just by a nation in mourning, but by the individual losses. The woman who lost a husband and all her sons. A child placing flowers at the Cenotaph and believing it was a beautiful garden just for his father.

Of the 3 individual missing warriors Hanson chose to focus on, the life and death of Alex Reader was most touching to me. My Grandfather's brother was also killed on the Somme and like Alex Reader was one of the missing, his body never recovered. It was touching to discover that Alex Reader's name is on the same monument at Thiepval in France as my Great Uncle.

A very fine book.

[Susan Liston · Rating 5 out of 5]

This took me ages to read because I could only cope with a few pages at a time, it was that upsetting. I've read plenty about the trenches before but this was something else again. We follow two different soldiers, one British, one German through the war. Towards the end they add in an American pilot, but he doesn't last long enough to get as attached to as I did to the other two. I thought that knowing going in that none of them survived was a bummer, but if I hadn't known, and had it just sprung on me, my reaction would have been scary to contemplate. As utterly disturbing as the level of detail in this book is, its a stunning achievement, everyone should read it. (and if you are of the female gender, don't waste time trying to spark even the tiniest glimmer of understanding of the male brains that come up with this shit, it's not remotely possible)

[Juliette · Rating 5 out of 5]

'An English officer came across with a white flag and asked for a truce from eleven o'clock to three to bury the dead. The truce was granted, it is good not to see the corpses lying out in front of us any more. The truce was moreover extended. The English came out of their trenches into No-Man's-Land and exchanged cigarettes, tinned meat and photographs with our men, and said they didn't want to shoot any more . . . . Suppose the whole English army strikes and forces the gentlemen in London to chuck the whole business!'

I am emotionally exhausted after reading this book. I thought I knew about the First World War -- the war to end all wars. I know the date that the Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated and the day the first shots were fired. I know who fought whom. In theory, I know about trench warfare and gas attacks. I know about the Somme. I visited the tomb of the Unknown Warrior in Westminster Abbey and said a prayer for him.
I didn't know nearly enough to say I knew anything about the war.
Hanson used letters from the men who fought in First World War to write The Unknown Soldier. Indeed, the book is more of a quilt: large patches of narratives from the warriors (to use the contemporaneous term) that Hanson stitched together. It's one thing to know about the tactics and the history, and it's completely different to read what the men endured and what they hoped after the war. At times, I had to stop reading because the tears in my eyes made it impossible to continue.
To be sure, the book is heavily anti-war and indicts the governments (both Allied and Central) for whom the soldiers fought. However, since most of the book is told by the men in the trenches and the airplanes, I can't fairly consider this a fault of the book.

The coffin was placed on the bars laid across the open grave, sited in front of the West Door, squarely 'in the pathway of kings, for not a monarch can ever again go up to the altar to be crowned, but he must step over the grave of the man who died that his kingdom might endure.'

[Asha Stark · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most informative, and heartbreaking books I've ever read.

Unlike many non-fiction accounts of war/conflict, Neil Hanson manages to write in a very engaging and, for lack of a better word, 'interesting' manner. I certainly learned a lot from this book, and especially regarding the men and women who lost someone- or someones- during the first world war.

It was particularly sad to read of how little was thought of soldiers by the English king at the time, how they were effectively spat on by their public school officers, and how in the end, millions of lives are nothing when it comes to saving face politically.

[Alison · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me a while to read this book as I did have to stop to check my understanding of some of the mind blowing numbers. It really brought home the slaughter and unimaginable conditions.

I found the second half of the book fascinating. It dealt with the cenotaph and the first ‘Great Silence’ and the Unknown Warrior. There was a lot that was new to me. I will visit the tomb again with a lot more understanding of the what this meant to widows, children and parents of those ‘unknown’.

[Graceann · Rating 5 out of 5]

When it comes to writing narrative non-fiction, very few authors are as talented as Neil Hanson. In Unknown Soldiers, he takes the stories of three fighting men of WWI, and tells their stories. He doesn't "choose sides" or seem to have an agenda, other than support for men who were stuck in a thankless situation.

The German, British and American soldier all died within sight of one another, albeit at different times, and their burial sites are unknown to this day. Even now, French and Belgian farmers find bones (among other remnants of War) dating back to the conflict, and nobody will ever know to whom these remains belong. In this tightly-written 357 pages, Neil Hanson attempts to pay tribute to the sacrifice of the Unknowns, and he is wholly successful.

If you want to know how idiotic and short-sighted the leaders were (on all sides), you'll find it here. If you want to know how gruesome it was in the trenches and in No Man's Land, it's here. The quotes are scrupulously noted in the back of the book and the research is seamlessly woven into a compulsively readable story. These are not faceless cannon-fodder, but men with families, lives and futures ripped away from them. For these three, there are many thousands more unnamed - this book is a fitting eulogy for all of them.

[Mark Wardlaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an engaging, personalised and intensely moving encounter from World War One. I do not think I have read a better description of the horror experienced by soldiers in the squalid death ridden, rat infested trenches of the First World War.
Through Neil Hanson’s excellent prose you can sense the tension from this turbulent time; for example, the risk of death or mutilation going through a soldier’s mind before he goes over the top. He is someone’s son, brother, husband, father, friend...…
Then there is the anxiety of worried relatives at home. Will the next letter be his last? You feel the pain and sorrow for grieving relatives. In particular for those where a body was not identified; something now taken for granted with DNA analysis. Relatives need closure in grief.
You also experience the catharsis in being freed to mourn for those who could identify their loss with the Unknown Soldier buried in Westminster Abbey. A truly beautiful solution to unite a grieving traumatised nation that sacrificed so many young men. An excellent book.

[Mr Michael R Stevens]

Incredible Story

This book was in my Christmas List, I didn't get it so I bought it myself and I'm glad I did. This book tells an incredibly important story centred around three combatants from three different nations all three with "No Known Grave". The research of the three is incredibly detailed, their lives, the battles they were involved in, their deaths and the aftermath.
The book then goes on to explain how the populations of the combatant countries drive the Remembrance commemoration including in England the building of the Cenotaph and the funeral of the Unknown Warrior.
I urge you to read this story.

[Mr Michael R Stevens · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was in my Christmas List, I didn't get it so I bought it myself and I'm glad I did. This book tells an incredibly important story centred around three combatants from three different nations all three with "No Known Grave". The research of the three is incredibly detailed, their lives, the battles they were involved in, their deaths and the aftermath.
The book then goes on to explain how the populations of the combatant countries drive the Remembrance commemoration including in England the building of the Cenotaph and the funeral of the Unknown Warrior.
I urge you to read this story.

[Anita · Rating 4 out of 5]

Before reading this book I had a very limited understanding of the First World War and what it entailed. This was a fascinating read, and I loved the way the war was explained through the stories of soldiers from different countries, including Germany. "The Unknown Soldier" was rivetting, personal, touching, and informative. I recommend it to anyone who wants to find out what it was like for those poor men in the trenches, and where and when and why it all happened.

[archive ☄ · Rating 4 out of 5]

i crumpled into tears so many times while reading this, and so ferociously, that it startled even me, the weeping willow..... what an extraordinary act of remembering this book is. we love you alec 💔

[Peter Corrigan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The beginning epitaph is strong enough but Mr. Hanson never falters throughout. I have read many military books...often with slight sense of guilt. Should I even try to be recreating this in my mind? Understanding this? The horror of WW1 is transcendent. Mr. Hanson does an outstanding job of making that known to any reader who dares venture there. It should be required reading as another reviewer has said. It seems like WW1 made all things possible that followed. Civilized nations that could send millions into that and for what? The war aims were so pitifully small and deceitful. The aftermath is beautifully handled. I thought I would get bored with the details of the ceremonies to the Unknowns...but it was ultimately more meaningful and made the book great. The tableau from France and then in London on 11 November 1920 is amazing...he recreates every hymn and the incredible impact on the populace. Truly it should have ended all wars. I only wish we could have seen what the defeated did...of course by then Austria-Hungary was gone and Russia Bolshevik. Did they ever create an Unknown Soldier for those suffering peoples?

[Voyt · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you want to know....
POSTED AT AMAZON 2011
..why we in North America have Remembrance Day/Veteran's Day and why so many countries erected Tombs of Unknown Soldiers, read it.
It is impossible to say "I enjoyed this book" for obvious reasons. Brutality and massacres of soldiers during WWI was unprecedented and to such extend that people were losing theirs religions. Read about masses of men moved to the slaughter endless waves, bridged the wires and filled the trenches with dead and dying. This book is the most terrifying testimony to the relentless effect of an unbridled militarism and insane explosion of the lowest human emotions.
Neil Hanson's masterpiece has two parts: first of course about the war and trenches. But the second part gives the history of graves, tombs, cenotaphs and monuments dedicated to those who perished, quite often without knowing for what.
This history is truly sad and presents very well humans' complex and twisted nature.
'Unknown Soldier' should become an obligatory text for perusal in high schools.

[Debbie Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this to learn more about WWI. What a tragic and pointless war! I cried several times.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

excellent research! a valuable contribution to scholarship about "the Great War"

[Therese]

Per AHS custodian John

[Stephen Bond · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome

Simply the best book I have ever read on World War One. Sadness, Anger, Humour all in the correct quantities

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found it heavy going at times (though that may just be the realities if finding time to sit and read anything when juggling a young family). navigating through the different war offensives and the initial events following the end of the war such as the families difficult attempts to identify their loved ones was in some ways repetitive (i dont intend to be dismissive of the experiences if those individuals or wvwnts as a whole but i feel the same significance of events could have been portrayed in fewer pages) but the subject matter meant it was very much worthwhile persisting to the end . A truely valuable history to familiarise yourself with. Really appreciated the representation of individuals from both sides of the conflict. the latter chapters of the book focusing on the cenotaph and Westminster abbey were very engaging and much easier to read, largely due to appreciation of the men whose personal experiences you have followed in in the 1st half of the book.

[Miranda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was one of the best books I've ever read for trench warfare and the firsthand accounts of the infantry soldiers.
Even though I knew all three of the main soldiers were going to be killed by the end of the book, I couldn't help but get attached to them and feel the loss their families felt when they passed on.
I think Mr. Hanson did a terrific job of picking the three different soldiers (German, English & American) to tell the story.
I learned a lot and would recommend this to any WWi enthusiast.

[Virginia]

Very detailed story of WWI. Author takes 3 soldiers (British, German, American) following them through the war. The historical descriptions of the Trenches and actual Battle methods is very graphic, and hard to read very much at a time. But the understanding it provides for the horror of that war makes it all worth it. The end portion tells the story of the Dr. who came up with the idea for the "unknown soldier" graves, and gives special details about the ceremonies in England as well as France and the US. This book taught me so much.

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Trench warfare details: Not for the faint-hearted or weak-of-stomach. I read it to learn about the Tommy and the Gerry (not so interested in the Yank). I was a bit disappointed that the end of Herr Hub's life was the end of the German side of the unknown soldier story, when there was a large amount of information included about subsequent commemoration efforts on the parts of the British and the Americans. But the book was still very informative.

[Shaun Major · Rating 4 out of 5]

As other reviewers have noted it was the second half of this book hat lifted it to the height of the extraordinary. The construction of remembrance in the west after the Great War is extraordinary and the lengths those countries went to to commemorate the fallen and how heavy the fried sat on the world in the decade that followed. A similar depth to the postwar German perspective would have been extremely interesting and would have earned the book a fifth star.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

A remarkable account of three men who gave their lives for causes that they believed in. They each represented 100's of thousands of men. Their horrific fates were described with clarity and provided a very different account of the WW1. The emotional outpourings following the war and the placatory role of the crown and government were fascinating.

[Glyn Bartholomew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing book, brings home the reality of the trenches and tells lots of new and frightening information. Mostly covers the Somme Offensive in graphic detail from both sides and in the air and the story of the Unknown Warrior.

[Joyce Kotze · Rating 4 out of 5]

The history of how the remains of one soldier who died in the Great War was chosen and gave to nation to remember their dead who had no known grave. well told and with sympathy. On Remembrance Day we all take him as our own.

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing. Such a wonderful representation of the missing from the first world war.

[Kara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really great so far, just very heavy. Will go back to it one day.

[Terry · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was just an outstanding, mesmirizing book !

[Jason Pastor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating. The section where they deal with the selection of the unknowns is moving as well as highly informative.

[Colette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bought this for my dad and, as often happened, he loaned it to me after he read it. It helped me to understand the horror my grandfather experienced at the age of 16 in France.