Flers & Gueudecourt (Battleground Europe) - Softcover

Flers is of course best remembered for the first use of tanks in modern war. But the battles at Flers and Gueudecourt were also memorable as forming part of the last great advance of the British Army in this slogging match that was the Battle of the Somme in 1916.

An otherwise unknown French village on World War I's Western Front earned a permanent place in military history in 1916 when it became the site of the world's first tank battle. A handful of the newly developed armored vehicles were committed to a Canadian offensive in the area. The Germans were taken by surprise by the armored monsters, but most of the tanks were soon immobilized by their faulty engines, and the tank as a decisive weapon still lay in the future. This detailed and heavily illustrated then-and-now guide to the battle covers the little-known Canadian participation in the action and the present-day Tank Corps Memorial, a place of pilgrimage for tankers of all nations.