But more often they saw it through its grisly aftermath: human bodies savaged by shells, bullets, shrapnel, trench foot, gangrene, mustard gas, typhoid or shell shock.
The book shows the damage done to bodies and souls by shells, bullets and iron fragments, and the frantic struggle to mend the broken.
I also visited the OMAR Mine Museum, which displays hundreds of Soviet-era personnel and anti-tank mines, along with an arsenal's worth of mortar shells, bullets and cluster bombs, a testament to the brutality of the Soviet occupation.
One gallery shows the personal possessions of soldiers, including objects that had been carved and shaped from war materiel in the trenches: erotic reliefs cut in the brass casings of shells, bullets turned into salt shakers, musical instruments carved from found wood or bent from metal remnants.
One participant stated that her persecution started when she was six years old, describing, "I saw so many things happen when we were running - mortar shells, bullets coming down like rain…" Other participants described, " Every time I heard the Burmese were coming I ran.
I was on my way to one, when I went to the other, and I was walking through shell casings, bullets, spent bullets in the street.
The scars of war were obvious as we drove along the road to Karma - from bullet-riddled, abandoned houses, to trenches and sandbags, and empty shell and bullet casings scattered across the tarmac.
The documents, about 900 pages, list shell casings, bullet fragments, pipe bombs and debris found by investigators.
In a number of countries, markings on a shell or bullet are photographed through a microscope and compared with information in national databases.
Zinc was a vital component of brass in the shell and bullet casings of British munitions, but the Germans worked throughout the war, even when some of their friends elsewhere were interned.
