Battle of Mount Sorrel (1916)

On 1 June 1916 the Canadian Mounted Rifles battalions held the last part of the Ypres ridge in Allied hands, from Mount Sorrel to Hill 62, the top of a spur that stretched west into the Allied line between Armagh and Sanctuary Wood. It was vital ground, and the Germans, bent on distracting the British from their expected Somme offensive farther south, were determined to attack. At dawn on 2 June the German barrage fell with an unprecedented intensity. A German eyewitness wrote, “The whole enemy position was a cloud of dust and dirt, into which timber, tree trunks, weapons and equipment were continuously hurled up, and occasionally human bodies.” Shortly after noon, German troops advanced almost without resistance. Entire platoons and sections were killed to a man, and key ground was ceded. A clumsy Canadian counter-attack that day was defeated. An angry and frustrated Sir Julian Hedworth Byng, the British commander, ordered another one for the 3rd, which fared no better. On 12–13 June, Canadians retook the lost ground.