Courcelette Memorial

The Courcelette Memorial is a Canadian war memorial that commemorates the actions of the Canadian Corps in the final two and a half months of the infamous four and a half month long Somme Offensive of the First World War. The Canadians participated at the Somme from early September to the British offensive's end in mid-November 1916, engaging in several of the battles-within-the-battle of the Somme, including actions at: Flers-Courcelette, Thiepval Ridge, the Ancre Heights and the Ancre as well as a small role in provinding relief to their Australian comrades in the final days of the Battle of Pozières. In these battles they launched attacks on positions and places like 'Sugar Trench' and 'Candy Trench' around the village of Courcelette and 'Regina Trench' and 'Desire Trench' in valleys with nicknames like 'Boom' and 'Death Valley' to the north of the village.

The battles on the Somme were the first in which all four divisions of the Canadian Corps were used in the Great War in the same battle (though all four were never used simultaneously at the Somme) and at its end on the 18th of November it had cost the Canadians over 24,000 casualties. However, the efforts of the Canadians on the Somme were noteworthy inasmuch as they ultimately captured all of the objectives assigned to them, (though not always on the original timeline) a feat that few other British forces who fought on the Somme could claim. This fact helped cement the Canadian's reputation as fierce and elite fighters and put them in line to face some of the toughest tasks assigned to British units for the duration of the war.