But what if some of these men could be found?
Military Historian Norm Christie believes he knows the whereabouts of forty-four of these missing men. They lie in an old German mine crater deep under what is now a farmer’s potato field, which is due to be built over by an industrial estate. The mass grave is known as “CA40”. Searching for Vimy’s Lost Soldiers is a documentary special, which follows Norm Christie and his team of geophysicists, bomb disposal officers, and forensic investigators on a mission to locate and recover the men of CA40.
The bodies of the 44 men were reported to have been re-buried in a local military cemetery at the end of the war, but Christie has discovered that this never happened. Christie reveals how he discovered that CA40 is missing, deciphering clues from 100 years ago. He convinces local town councils and farmers to allow an investigation. The search won’t be easy. CA40 lies beneath one of the world’s deadliest battlefields, full of unexploded high explosive and poison gas shells. Original trench maps reveal there are many craters. Which is CA40?
The families of the 44 soldiers, along with Christie, are now on a mission to find the missing men and give them the proper commemoration they deserve – before they are lost forever.