The village of Courcelette is situated 10km northeast of Albert on the D929 Albert to Bapaume road. 

Courcelette was the scene of very severe fighting during September and October 1916.

As a part of a larger assault on September 15, 1916, Courcelette was to be attacked by the Canadian Corps of the Reserve Army.  The village and the ground beyond it including the notorious German Regina Trench were to become to the Canadians what Pozières was to the Australians.

When the Canadian Corps moved from the Ypres Salient to the Somme River region at the beginning of September 1916, its first major action was the Battle of Flers-Courcelette - a two-army assault launched by Sir Douglas Haig on September 15.

In the offensive that began at dawn, the Canadian Corps assaulted on a two-kilometre front near the village of Courcelette.  Advancing behind a creeping barrage (a tactic only recently adopted by the artillery), the infantry was aided by the ‘new engine of war’, the armoured tank, which frequently threw the enemy into complete confusion. 

Just outside Courcelette is the Canadian Memorial which commemorates a number of actions by the Canadian Corps from September to November 1916. 

The most notable of these was the capture of the Regina Trench – the longest trench built by the Germans on the Western Front. 

The commune and the village of Courcelette were the scene of very heavy fighting in September 1916.

The Regina Trench after which this cemetery is named was a German fortification captured for a time by the 5th Canadian Brigade on October 1, 1916. 

Adanac Military Cemetery was named by reversing the name ‘Canada’.

Private James Clelland Richardson of the 16th Battalion Canadian Infantry (Manitoba Regiment) was killed in action 9 October 1916 aged 20.  He was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross and is buried in Adanac Military Cemetery. 

Stump Road Cemetery contains the graves of 239 soldiers from United Kingdom and 24 from Canada who fell in the period July 1916 to February 1917.  There are 50 unknown graves in the cemetery and many of officers and men of the 18th Division. 

Grandcourt Road Cemetery contains the graves of 389 soldiers from the UK and one from Canada.  There are 108 unknown graves and a special memorial has been erected to one soldier from the UK known to be buried there. 

Mouquet Farm occupied a highly strategic position between Thiepval and Pozières.  During fierce fighting which raged for months the original farm was completely destroyed.  The farm was rebuilt after the war.