Where Soldiers Lie: the Quest to Find Australia’s Missing War Dead

Many people argue that Australia’s unaccounted-for war dead should rest in peace wherever they fell. Yet many thousands are not lying in dignified graves. Instead, their unidentified remains lie mangled in mass burials, or alone and forgotten under an isolated stretch of a former battlefield. It is only through the painstaking work of a small band of ‘bone hunters’ - dedicated investigators and scientists - that the mysteries of the nation’s war missing can be solved.

Some 35,000 Australian soldiers and airmen are still Missing in Action from the wars of the 20th century. Where Soldiers Lie, by bestselling author Ian McPhedran, tells the moving story of the dedicated ‘bone hunters’ who employ painstaking detective work and cutting edge science to solve the mysteries of Australia’s missing and bring solace to their families and the veteran community.

From the jungles of Vietnam and the decade-long search for the ‘missing six’, to Korea, Papua New Guinea and the sombre battlefields of the Somme, Flanders and Fromelles, McPhedran follows the small, determined band of investigators and scientists on their missions to locate and identify our nation’s unrecovered war casualties.