A documentary about the newsreel footage that cameraman Geoffrey Malins shot of the first few days' fighting of the Battle of the Somme in July 1916, during the First World War. He was allowed extensive access to the trenches at the front line, as what would nowadays be termed an 'embedded journalist'. His footage, edited into a feature-length film, were shown as a propaganda film and seen by an estimate 20 million people back home - half the British population at the time.