Description
Mr. Gies recalls arriving at the front line and remaining static for the first month. After a German breakthrough at the Somme, his unit is sent to help repel them. In the ensuing action, four-fifths of his unit are either killed or wounded.
Transcript
And then I got to the front line, it was May 6th, 1916 and then from there on, off and on, we would be on this duty at night time and then you went to rest period and there we trained again and the Germans broke through on June 2nd, 1916 from the front line and so we force marched up to and tried to hold the line anyway and then on June 12th, we went up and took our, but with an awful lot of losses. We had five hundred and fifty, we came out with one hundred and twelve.
Meta Data
Heavy losses at the front
Medium
Video
Owner
Veterans Affairs Canada
War, Conflict or Mission
First World War
Campaign
Somme
Person Interviewed
Frederick Gies
Branch
Army
Units/Ship
71st Battalion
Duration
0:49