Today marks the 100 year anniversary of the Battle of the Somme, one of the bloodiest battles of WW1
Commemorations are being held in the UK and France to mark the centenary of the start of the Battle of the Somme.
The UK fell silent on the morning 1st July 2016 to mark the moment on 1st July 1916 when the battle began and the start of the bloodiest day in British military history. More than a million men were killed and wounded on all sides in the WW1 battle.
The Battle of the Somme, one of World War One's bloodiest, was fought in northern France and lasted five months, with the British suffering almost 60,000 casualties on the first day alone. The British and French armies fought the Germans in a brutal battle of attrition on a 15-mile front.
- 7 days of artillery bombardment of the German lines before the battle started, aiming to cut the barbed wire and destroy trench defences and artillery.
- 1,500,000 - Artillery shells fired by the Allies in that week, to little overall effect.
- 57,470 - British casualties on the first day.
- 19,240 - British first-day casualties who died.
- 60 % of British officers involved on the first day who were killed.
- 141 - Days the battle lasted, from July 1 to November 18.
- 419, 654 - official number of British dead, missing or wounded
- 1,300,000 - Approximate number of casualties on both sides
- 6 - Miles that British soldiers had advanced by the end of the battle.
- 49 - Victoria Crosses awarded for valour during the battle.
- 150,000 - Graves in the area cared for in more than 250 military and 150 civilian cemeteries in the Somme area by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
- 72,000 - Number of British and Commonwealth soldiers who died at the Somme with no known graves and whose names are recorded on the British memorial at Thiepval.
- This was the first battle where the new British invention the Tank was tested.
...Lest We Forget...