First World War.com - The Western Front Today - Courcelette Canadian Memorial

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The Western Front Today - Courcelette Canadian Memorial
Updated - Sunday, 8 September, 2002

Sited nearby both the Tank Corps Memorial and the Pozieres Mill Australian Memorial, the Courcelette Canadian Memorial is sited on the Somme battlefront near Pozieres.

The memorial design - an octagonal block of Canadian granite - is the standard Canadian memorial for the Western Front save for the pylons at Vimy Ridge and the Brooding Soldier at St Julien (the latter in the Ypres Salient).

Courcelette village featured in the initial use of tanks (along with Flers) in the Battle of Flers-Courcelette on 15 September 1916 as part of the ongoing Somme Offensive. The 2nd Canadian Division successfully expelled German forces from Courcelette on the opening day of the battle (with the assistance of a tank).

References:
Before Endeavours Fade, Rose E.B. Coombs, After the Battle 1994
Major & Mrs Holt's Battlefield Guide - Somme, Leo Cooper 2000

"Suicide Ditch" was a term used by British soldiers to refer to the front-line trench.