‘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

Controversial ‘Battle of the Somme’ footage: authentic or staged? On the 109th anniversary of the ‘Battle of the Somme’, we are again reminded of perhaps the most iconic footage of the Great War. A cameraman seemingly captures the exact moment British troops climb from their trenches on 1 July 1916 and advance through a hail of bullets toward the German trenches. On 10 July civilian filmmaker Geoffrey Malins returned to London with 8,000 feet of film. The completed documentary, which ran for 77