‘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