The 1st July marks the beginning of the Battle of the Somme, one of the most important battles of the First World War. The losses incurred on just this day were terrible: some 57,000 British and Commonwealth soldiers were made casualty including 19,000 killed; the French suffered 20,000 losses. Never had Great Britain and its allies from the Commonwealth been involved in such a conflict and never had they experienced such a military catastrophe. When the battle came to an end in late November 1916, more than one million French, German, British and Commonwealth soldiers had been killed, wounded, reporting missing or captured.