Unknown soldier. After World War I (1914-1918), officials of the Allied countries found that the bodies of many soldiers killed in battle could not be identified. The governments of Belgium, Britain, France, Italy, and the United States decided to honor the memory of these soldiers. Each government chose a symbolic unknown soldier, buried the remains near the national capital, and built a monument in honor of the soldier. Belgium placed its unknown soldier in a tomb at the base of the Colonnade of the Congress in Brussels. Britain buried its unknown soldier in Westminster Abbey. France buried its unknown soldier beneath the Arc de Triomphe in Paris and keeps a flame always burning over the grave. Italy's unknown soldier lies before the monument to Victor Emmanuel II, the first king of a united Italy, in Rome.