“If hell is as bad as what I have seen at Courcelette, I would not want my worst enemy to go there.” This capability struck fear and caused some Germans to surrender at the mere sight of them. Still, tanks were able to roll over barbed wire and trenches while firing machine guns and artillery. The rest were either disabled by shellfire, mechanical failures or stuck in an obstacle.
Only one of the tanks reached its objective during the battle. Also assigned to each tank were five infantrymen tasked with the removal Each tank was run by an officer and seven men. Six “land cruisers,” as they were then called, entered into history’s first major tank battle at Courcelette (an additional tank was kept in reserve).Īlthough slow, plodding and difficult to move, the large and imposing tanks were an effective psychological weapon against the Germans. The Canadians also went into battle with the latest attempt to break the trench deadlock: the tank. To end before charging across no man’s land and into enemy guns, the Canadians walked behind a “creeping” artillery barrage that steadily advanced across German lines - keeping enemy soldiers in their dugouts - until the Canadians were on top of enemy Rather than wait for their army’s artillery bombardment Two innovations helped the troops in their assault. On 15 September, three divisions of the Corps launched an attack on German lines to capture the ruined remains of the small village of Courcelette.
On the first day of fighting alone, more than 57,000 British soldiers were killed or wounded, including more than 700 soldiers of the First Newfoundland Regiment ( see Battle of Beaumont-Hamel).Īs a result, the Canadian Corps, then stationed in Belgium, was moved south to help with the fighting in the Somme valley. Somme OffensiveĪllied commanders were desperate for reinforcements after a summer of futile fighting and the heavy casualties suffered during the 1916 Somme offensive in northernįrance. Soldier and war artist Louis Weirter witnessed Canadian troops' capture of the village of Courcelette, during the Battle of the Somme, in September 1916.
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