As the Albert Bapom Road takes you through the heart of the Old Som battlefields,

you cross over the Posier's Ridge,

and over to your left is the small village, the village of Corsolet.

Here in 1916 the men of the Canadian Corps fought their first attack of the Great War

and here was once my home

where I lived on the old front line

this week we return to the Somme

For this 25th episode of the Old Frontline we're back in my spiritual homeland of the Somme,

and quite literally in a place where I used to live, the village of Corsolet.

Corsolet is the village right in the heart of the Somme battlefields.

It was swept up in the German advance of 1914, and for nearly the next two years, it became a base for units of the 26th Reserve Division.

This was a Wurttemberg units based around Stuttgart, and many of the troops from that region who served on the Sompath through Gorslet, going to and from the frontline areas at Laboiselle and Ovales and Chappval.

On the first day of the Battle of the Somme, as the fighting raged along the front line around Albaea,

German heavy artillery units were here assisting in the defence of the positions in this central part of the Somme battlefields.

And then two months into the battle on the 15th of September 1916 in what became known

as the Battle of Fleurs-Corsalette, the Canadian Corps under Lieutenant General Sir Julian Bing

attacked the village. This was the first time the Canadian Corps had taken part in an attack

in the Great War.

The Canadian divisions have been brought together to form this Corps.

Up until this point, they've been pretty much either on the defensive or just holding the line.

This was their first attack, and Corsolet was the first village liberated by Canadian troops in the First World War.

So it's quite significant from that point of view.

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