Just before zero hour and the attack on Thiepval, 26 September 1916

Photograph by Lieutenant Patrick Robert Koekkoek, Royal Engineers, World War One, Western Front (1914-1918), 1916.

On 26 September, four British and Canadian divisions attacked Thiepval after a concentrated barrage by 800 guns. While the Canadians made progress north-west of Courcelette, 18th Division advanced under a creeping barrage and then fought its way up the heights and through the village only to be held by machine gun fire from the ruins of an old chateau. This resistance was overcame with the help of a tank and trench mortar. After vicious hand-to-hand fighting the attackers gained control of most of Thiepval.

One of 188 copy photographs taken by Lieutenant Patrick Robert Koekkoek, Special Brigade, Royal Engineers.