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Here‘s story to be read, and re-read every Canada day:
The Royal Newfoundland Regiment at Beaumont-Hamel
July 1st, 1916
In less than a half-hour, it was all over. The Commanding Officer, who from a support trench had watched the destruction of his Regiment, reported to Brigade Headquarters that the attack had failed. Afterwards the Divisional Commander was to write of the Newfoundland effort: "It was a magnificent display of trained and disciplined valour, and its assault failed of success because dead men can advance no further."
The casualties sustained on the opening day of the Battle of the Somme totalled 57,470, of which 19,240 were fatal. No unit suffered heavier losses than the Newfoundland Regiment, which had gone into action 801 strong. When the roll call of the unwounded was taken next day, only 68 answered their names. The final figures that revealed the virtual annihilation of the Battalion gave a grim count of 255 killed or dead of wounds, 386 wounded, and 91 missing. Every officer who went forward in the Newfoundland attack was either killed or wounded.
The Opening Day, Battle of the Somme, 1916
It was at Beaumont-Hamel on July 1, 1916, the opening day of the Battle of the Somme, that the Newfoundland Regiment fought its first engagement in France - and its costliest of the whole war. The Regiment was one of four battalions of the 29th Division‘s 88th Brigade.
Promptly at 7:20 a.m. on July 1, a huge mine under the enemy‘s front trenches opposite the 29th Division‘s left flank was fired ten minutes before the beginning of the barrage on the German First Position and the start of the infantry‘s advance. Almost immediately, the assaulting battalions of the 87th Brigade were in serious trouble. The barrage moved forward on an inflexible, pre-arranged schedule. German riflemen and machine-gunners, protected from the shelling by the steep banks of the "Y Ravine", emerged from their deep dugouts and shelters. The lines of advancing troops were lifted from the enemy‘s front trenches as the Germans directed a withering fire. At the same time, a number of German heavy guns, which had escaped the British counter-battery fire, began shelling the 29th Division‘s positions catching the follow-up companies as they climbed out of their trenches into the open. As the 87th Brigade‘s attack melted away, the 88th Brigade was ordered to move forward and to attack the enemy‘s front line.
From their starting position in the British support trench known as St. John‘s Road, the Newfoundlanders had to cross some 230 metres of fire-swept ground before they reached even their own front line. As they made their way through zigzag lanes previously cut in the British wire, casualties came with increasing frequency. Those of the leading companies who finally emerged into No Man‘s Land could look down an incline to see for the first time the barrier of the German wire more than 550 metres away. It was a wonder that any man could remain unhit more than a minute in the inferno of fire that swept across the exposed slopes. Nevertheless, holding the parade-ground formations prescribed for assaulting infantry by the General Staff as best they could, the thinning ranks plodded steadily forward. Halfway down the slope an isolated tree marked an area where the enemy‘s shrapnel was particularly deadly. Called "The Danger Tree", its twisted skeleton has been preserved and still stands at the spot where many a gallant Newfoundlander fell on that tragic July day.
Newfoundland Beaumont-Hamel Memorial
The largest of the battlefield parks established in memory of Newfoundlanders who fell in the First World War is at Beaumont Hamel, nine kilometres directly north of the town of Albert.
In Beaumont-Hamel Memorial Park, who was officially opened by Earl Haig on June 7, 1925, the monument of the great bronze caribou, emblem of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, stands on the highest point overlooking St. John‘s Road and the slopes beyond. At the base of the statue, three tablets of bronze carry the names of 814 members of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, the Newfoundland Royal Naval Reserve, and the Mercantile Marine who gave their lives in the First World War and have no known grave. In the lodge which houses the reception room for visitors to the Park, a bronze plaque, unveiled in 1961 by the Hon. Joseph Smallwood, then Premier of Newfoundland, lists the Battle Honours won by the Royal Newfoundland Regiment and pays tribute to its fallen.
The park is one of the few in France or Belgium where the visitor can see a Great War battlefield much as it was. The actual trenches are still there and the visitor can appreciate something of the terrible problem of advancing over such country. Today however, flocks of sheep from nearby farms graze over the grassy, shell-pocked slopes.
The Royal Newfoundland Regiment at Beaumont-Hamel
July 1st, 1916
In less than a half-hour, it was all over. The Commanding Officer, who from a support trench had watched the destruction of his Regiment, reported to Brigade Headquarters that the attack had failed. Afterwards the Divisional Commander was to write of the Newfoundland effort: "It was a magnificent display of trained and disciplined valour, and its assault failed of success because dead men can advance no further."
The casualties sustained on the opening day of the Battle of the Somme totalled 57,470, of which 19,240 were fatal. No unit suffered heavier losses than the Newfoundland Regiment, which had gone into action 801 strong. When the roll call of the unwounded was taken next day, only 68 answered their names. The final figures that revealed the virtual annihilation of the Battalion gave a grim count of 255 killed or dead of wounds, 386 wounded, and 91 missing. Every officer who went forward in the Newfoundland attack was either killed or wounded.
The Opening Day, Battle of the Somme, 1916
It was at Beaumont-Hamel on July 1, 1916, the opening day of the Battle of the Somme, that the Newfoundland Regiment fought its first engagement in France - and its costliest of the whole war. The Regiment was one of four battalions of the 29th Division‘s 88th Brigade.
Promptly at 7:20 a.m. on July 1, a huge mine under the enemy‘s front trenches opposite the 29th Division‘s left flank was fired ten minutes before the beginning of the barrage on the German First Position and the start of the infantry‘s advance. Almost immediately, the assaulting battalions of the 87th Brigade were in serious trouble. The barrage moved forward on an inflexible, pre-arranged schedule. German riflemen and machine-gunners, protected from the shelling by the steep banks of the "Y Ravine", emerged from their deep dugouts and shelters. The lines of advancing troops were lifted from the enemy‘s front trenches as the Germans directed a withering fire. At the same time, a number of German heavy guns, which had escaped the British counter-battery fire, began shelling the 29th Division‘s positions catching the follow-up companies as they climbed out of their trenches into the open. As the 87th Brigade‘s attack melted away, the 88th Brigade was ordered to move forward and to attack the enemy‘s front line.
From their starting position in the British support trench known as St. John‘s Road, the Newfoundlanders had to cross some 230 metres of fire-swept ground before they reached even their own front line. As they made their way through zigzag lanes previously cut in the British wire, casualties came with increasing frequency. Those of the leading companies who finally emerged into No Man‘s Land could look down an incline to see for the first time the barrier of the German wire more than 550 metres away. It was a wonder that any man could remain unhit more than a minute in the inferno of fire that swept across the exposed slopes. Nevertheless, holding the parade-ground formations prescribed for assaulting infantry by the General Staff as best they could, the thinning ranks plodded steadily forward. Halfway down the slope an isolated tree marked an area where the enemy‘s shrapnel was particularly deadly. Called "The Danger Tree", its twisted skeleton has been preserved and still stands at the spot where many a gallant Newfoundlander fell on that tragic July day.
Newfoundland Beaumont-Hamel Memorial
The largest of the battlefield parks established in memory of Newfoundlanders who fell in the First World War is at Beaumont Hamel, nine kilometres directly north of the town of Albert.
In Beaumont-Hamel Memorial Park, who was officially opened by Earl Haig on June 7, 1925, the monument of the great bronze caribou, emblem of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, stands on the highest point overlooking St. John‘s Road and the slopes beyond. At the base of the statue, three tablets of bronze carry the names of 814 members of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, the Newfoundland Royal Naval Reserve, and the Mercantile Marine who gave their lives in the First World War and have no known grave. In the lodge which houses the reception room for visitors to the Park, a bronze plaque, unveiled in 1961 by the Hon. Joseph Smallwood, then Premier of Newfoundland, lists the Battle Honours won by the Royal Newfoundland Regiment and pays tribute to its fallen.
The park is one of the few in France or Belgium where the visitor can see a Great War battlefield much as it was. The actual trenches are still there and the visitor can appreciate something of the terrible problem of advancing over such country. Today however, flocks of sheep from nearby farms graze over the grassy, shell-pocked slopes.
