09/21/2026
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Courcelette, the Somme (1916)
In September 1916 the Canadians arrived on the Somme, and the little village of Courcelette became one of their first great battle honours. It was here, on the 15th, that tanks rumbled into action for the very first time in history β and here that the Canadian Corps began to earn its fearsome reputation as shock troops.
The 13th Battalion came into the line in the days that followed, taking over shattered front trenches amid the endless mud, shellfire and salvage of the Somme. It was the deadliest battlefield they had yet seen β a grinding, industrial slaughter measured in yards. But the Canadians took their ground and held it.
Courcelette was a proving ground. The men who survived it carried its lessons forward β to Vimy, to Hill 70, to the Hundred Days.
Source: War Diary, 13th Canadian Infantry Battalion, LAC.