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"The carnage is just indescribable, we were literally walking over the dead bodies..." One of the most important commemorations of the First World War is taking place today, with ceremonies marking the start of The Battle of the Somme, which began on July 1st 1916 and lasted for five months. On the first day of fighting, 20,000 Allied troops were killed. At the end, more than a million on all sides were dead or wounded. Our Special correspondent Allan Little has been to northern France. (Photo: Gas-masked men of the British Machine Gun Corps with a Vickers machine gun during the first battle of the Somme. Credit: Getty Images).