90th anniversary of Battle of the Somme

Today is the 90th anniversary of the beginning of the Battle of the Somme, one of the major and most protracted, though not decisive, battles of the First World War. Most of the forces involved were, on one side, British and French and, on the other, German, although Australian units, many of which had recently moved from what we now call the Middle East after the withdrawal from Gallipoli, also took part.

The Australian has an article "Thousands dead for a few metres of turf" by Patrick Walters (Inquirer p25 but not online) , which also mentions an exhibition at theAustralian War Memorial about the Australian army in France in 1916.
The BBC websitealso has information about today's commemoration and contains links to other sites with information about the battle.