Book Review: Unknown Soldiers

The First World War was a conflict of unprecedented ferocity that unleashed such demons as mechanized warfare and mass death in the twentieth century.

After the last shot was fired and the troops marched home, approximately three million Soldiers remained unaccounted for. Some bodies were found, but they bore no trace of identification. Many more men had been blown to smithereens or had simply vanished from the battlefields where as many as hundreds of deadly shells had fallen on every square yard.

An unassuming English chaplain first proposed a symbolic burial of one of those Unknown Soldier 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 aviator - using their diaries and letters to offer an unflinching yet compassionate account of the reality of fierce battle on the front lines. He describes how each man endured nearly unbearable conditions in the trenches and in the air and relates what is known about their deaths on the battlefields of the Somme, within gunshot sound of one another. He delves into their familial ties, the ideals they expressed in their letters. He brings to life the combatants who perished without a trace, 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.

The tales of the three young men killed in their prime are told with a good blend of humanity and history. The impact on their families is addressed as well. The detail is amazing, and I felt like I knew these guys and might have been sitting with them as they wrote their letters.

I believe this is one of the best books on the First World War, capturing some of the histories of the war, its beginning and much of the human toll the war took in the numbers of killed, maimed and otherwise traumatized by the mechanized killing over four long years.

For me, this is one of the most powerful and moving books I have read in a long time and I highly recommend it not only for the information it contains but also for the reality it presents.

Readers Reviews 
Neil Hanson has done a superb job of research and writing in this powerful book on the hundreds of thousands of men with 'no known grave'. A haunting and grim tour of the trenches told in the words of three men, one a Briton, a German and an American flier - all victims of the war and none found a known grave. The letters that were incorporated into the text and the writer's gripping style makes this a hard book to put down as it features many little-known facts of the 'missing', their families and their personal connections.
~Ironmike

Outstanding! I got to know each of these men. I liked them. I mourn the shadows they left behind. Each man deserves his time in this book. Well Done, Author, Well done!
~Sally Quick

This is a fascinating book. It is by turns sad, gross, uplifting, and a constant reminder of what can go wrong. While some may find the details a bit overwhelming, they are part of the whole, and for me, could not be left aside. The author crafted a memorial to this era, and to this war.
~ Catherine L. Johnson

This is an excellent non-fiction account of three Soldiers who are buried in no known graves. The three men are brought back to life through their letters home and their accounts of the war. The author has put a human face on the many thousands of men whose bodies were never recovered from the battlefields of France. The story of the German soldier is of interest because we are not exposed to many such stories from the other side of the front line. The book also contains a great deal of information on the conduct of the war, much of it new to me. I highly recommend this book.
~Bill Miller

This was an excellent book, well researched and beautifully written. I felt I knew each of the Soldiers-Paul, Alec, and George-and I grieved at their deaths and the waste of their young lives as though they were my own sons and not just men who died over ninety years ago.

I was fascinated by the History surrounding the burial of the Unknown Soldier, the building of the Cenotaph and indeed the story of the first Remembrance Day.

I highly recommend this book to any who want to learn more about this period in history.
~Harriet E. Cuming

Hanson painstakingly details the efforts to recognize the many thousands of unidentified Soldiers strewn about the hillsides of Flanders and northern France. Descriptive detail is given to the final memorials for the Unknown Soldiers at the Cenotaph, the Arc de Triomphe, and America's own Tomb of the Unknowns, as well as scores of other memorials recognizing those "unknown but to God". Hanson also closely follows the heart-wrenching efforts of Grace Seibold, George Seibold's mother and the Gold Star Mothers who took their anguish to their own graves of not knowing where their sons' bodies lay interred.

Hanson concludes his work with an exhaustive 100 pages of notes and bibliography. I can say with unwavering certainty that this book is, in my humble opinion, Pulitzer material. I have read many books of Pulitzer notoriety that pale in comparison to this magnificent work. This is an extraordinary and exhaustive account that will forever change your understanding of the Great War.
~Monty Rainey

About the Author
A full-time professional author for over twenty years, Neil Hanson is the author of a series of popular histories, hailed by critics as 'astonishing', 'brilliant', 'haunting', 'extraordinary', 'marvelous', 'superb', 'superlative', 'a triumph', 'a masterpiece' and ranked by one critic alongside 'Siegfried Sassoon, Robert Graves and other immortals. 

As an anonymous 'ghostwriter' and 'manuscript doctor', Neil has also written or rewritten over forty other books, including a New York Times No.1 best-seller. 

He has written and broadcast for national media on three continents and lectured and delivered workshops all over the world.

A former Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Leeds Trinity and York St John Universities and now an RLF Consultant Fellow, Neil has helped hundreds of undergraduates and school students to improve their academic writing.

For a complete list of his books, please go the following site: https://www.thriftbooks.com/a/neil-hanson/351244/