Battle of Thiepval Ridge

The Battle of Thiepval Ridge was the first large offensive mounted by the British Reserve Army of Lieutenant General Hubert Gough during the Battle of the Somme and was designed to benefit from British Fourth Army's Battle of Morval by starting 24 hours afterwards. Thiepval is a village on a spur dominating the Ancre valley, although the front for the Battle extended from the Schwaben Redoubt to Courcelette.

The objective laid down by British Commander Douglas Haig was to push the Germans off of the high ground of the Thiepval Ridge including the heavily fortified Stuff, Zollern and Schwaben redoubts. The Thiepval attack was to be followed by an attack astride the Ancre River, to create an unfavourable salient position for the Germans to the north of the attack zone. The battle was to be waged by four divisions of the British II Corps under the command of Lieutenant General C.W. Jacob and the Canadian Corps commanded by Lieutenant-General J.H.G. Byng. It was anticipated that II Corps would have a harder task, as the Germans they faced were in original trench positions that the Germans had built before the beginning of the Battle of the Somme and repaired throughout the battle. II Corps was supported by six of the eight available tanks and most of the 230 heavy guns and howitzers and 570 field guns and howitzers available for the attack.