Start Date: July 1, 2016
Our new temporary exhibit, The Somme: The Mechanization of War, tells the story of the Canadian soldier during a battle in WW1. The Battle of the Somme was a pivotal moment in history. The battle lasted five months (June 1st to Nov 18th, 1916) and resulted in over one million casualties with limited gains on all sides.
At the Somme, Field Marshal Haig and the British Command planned for a much-desired breakthrough by the Allied countries against German frontlines and supporting the French Army fighting for its existence to the south at Verdun. Reliance for success was placed on a sophisticated transport system for supplies and equipment, massive and powerful artillery support, agile Royal Flying Corps and finally, the well-equipped and determined British (and colonial) soldier who was the inheritor of over two hundred years of Empire. The British had also developed a secret weapon that they hoped would change the course of the war.
This exhibit opened July 1st and will run until late November 2016.
Special thanks to the following exhibit contributors:
- The Daly House Museum
- The Manitoba Automobile Museum
- The Naval Museum of Canada
- The Prairie Mountain Regional Museum
- The Transcona Museum