‘Carnage on the Somme’: the story behind this tragic footage. On 1 July 1916 the British and French launched their summer offensive in the Somme region. On the first day, the British troops suffered 57,000 casualties, with 19,000 killed, and 35,000 wounded. This iconic footage from the 1916 documentary film ‘The Battle of the Somme’ has become synonymous with the battle’s carnage. That year, millions of cinema-goers watched the film. Its maker Lieutenant Geoffrey Malins recalled filming the resc

146K views · 1.4K reactions | Original Film Footage : Battle Of The Somme 1916 : Part 1 #battleofthesomme | History In Your Hand | Facebook

The Somme: ‘we hope to do great things …’ At 7.30am on 1 July 1916 an uncanny silence fell across the Somme battlefield. To the men waiting to go over the top, it felt like a surreal anticlimax. Lieutenant Asquith paced along the trench, telling his men, ‘It’s a walk over.’ The illusion did not last. Within moments, the quiet was shattered. The battlefield erupted into chaos. By nightfall, the British Army had suffered approximately 57,500 casualties on the first day of the Battle of the Somme.

51K views · 601 reactions | Discover facts about the Battle of the Somme and see how the site has changed since 1916 with footage from The Battle of the Somme film overlaid with shots of the same locations 100 years on in a poignant reminder of the impact of war. | Imperial War Museum London | Facebook