were only 68 survivors. Almost the entire regiment was wiped out in its
first 30-minute battle. The rest of the British forces didn't do much better.
Of the 120,000 who went over the top, 19,000 were killed and 38,000 were wounded.
The first assault of the Somme was a bloody disaster.
Over the next two months at Pozieres, Delville Woods and other locales of minor
tactical advantage, battles would claim thousands of lives. Although Canadians
(Newfoundland was not yet part of Canada) had yet to enter |
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the maw of the Somme, that would change in the fall of 1916.
In early September, the Canadian Corps moved from Ypres, Belgium, to the Somme,
replacing the 1st Australian Corps and units from New Zealand who were fighting
near Courcelette. The Canadians marched to their new posting through the town
of Albert where a statue of Virgin Mary leaned precariously from a shattered
church town. The superstition was that when the Virgin fell, the war would end.
Ironically, the statue |
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Canadian soldiers returning
The
frontline of the Somme, from which these soldiers are returning, was a septic
swamp that mixed moments of terror with days and uncomfortable boredom. |
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