It is a battle that has become synonymous with the futility of war.

More than one million men were casualties over 141 days at the Battle of the Somme, an offensive by the British Army in the summer of 1916. Expected to be over quickly, it lasted until the middle of November.

When it was launched, it had the double purpose of trying to break the German lines through a massed assault and also providing enough of a diversion to the German command structure to prompt pulling troops from Verdun.

Canadian soldiers were spared the horrors of what the media of the time called "Haig's meat grinder", where there were 1.4 men wounded, injured or killed for every inch of ground gained, until September of 1916. The Canadian Corps was placed at the north end of the line along the Somme front, where they prepared for their first taste of the violence of the summer offensive.

The Canadian Corps was tasked with the capture of the town of Courcelette. More of a village, it was a key point in the German line and had previously been a point of focus for the British Army.

On September 15th, the Canadian Corps answered the shrill blast of the whistle and went over the top. In that one day, they advanced to the town and captured it. In total, the Canadians advanced two kilometres. That was the largest advance in any one day at the Battle of the Somme.

The Canadians were helped by the debut of Landships, which are now known as tanks. The monstrous beasts of machines were unreliable. Of the 49 planned for deployment, only 32 made it, and of those, seven didn't start. The tanks were an integral part of the plan on September 15th, though, as they assisted the Canadians in capturing the town of Courcelette and putting them into a favourable position for the assault on the Regina Trench, a German line that was a thorn in the side of the allies.

The Regina Trench was eventually captured after another two months of combat. The Canadian Corps were the ones to do it. As a result of their contribution at the Battle of the Somme, the Canadians became known for their ability to get the job done, when others had failed. The reputation was formed for the Canadians to become the 'sharp end of the stick' during later actions.

The Canadian contributions at the Somme aren't as well known as those of Ypres, Vimy or Cambrai, but they were still a major factor in the eventual results of the war.

The Canadian Great War Project, which is digitizing the records of men who fought in the First World War, has completed about a quarter of their task: entering in the names and records of more than 600,000 men who fought for Canada in World War One. At the time of this writing, there were few records of those from the local area who died in the Battle of the Somme. Unlike other installments of this series, we don't have a long roll call at the end to honour those who fell in battle. Rest assured, we still honour the memories of those who did, even if we don't know their names.

Pte. Robert McIntyre Davidson (Meteor, SK) d. September 16, 1916

Pte. Albert Edward Johnson (Weyburn, SK) d. September 16, 1916

Pte. Joseph Daniel McGillivray (Weyburn, SK) d. September 15, 1916

 

Files from an article published on discoverweyburn.com in 2014