RichB
Well-known member
While the rest of Canada celebrates 01 July as Canada Day, Newfoundland observes Memorial Day at Memorials and Cenotaphs around the province in the morning. It was first observed on 01 July 1917 to recall the Royal Newfoundland Regiment's losses at Beaumont Hamel on the First Day of the Battle of the Somme, 01 July 1916. Since 1949 it commemorates all Newfoundland and Labrador war dead.
At 0915 hrs the Regiment left their trenches with orders to take the first and second lines of German trenches. As they breasted the skyline they were the only Allied troops moving on the battlefield and bore the full brunt of the German defensive fire. Within a half an hour 324 officers and men were killed or missing, another 386 were wounded. Survivors spent the remainder of the day trying to return to their own lines, some of the wounded having spent 17 hours crawling through the mud. At roll call the next day, only 68 men answered their names. The RNR had suffered 91% casualties of those that went over the top (10% of assault units were usually held back to rebuild). The only unit to take higher casualties that day were the 10th West Yorkshires, suffering 95% killed, wounded or missing.
In 1921 Newfoundland purchased the 74 acres over which the RNR had advanced. The site was officially opened in 1925 containing 4 cemeteries, memorials to the RNR, the 29th and 51st Divisions and is largely undisturbed from the wars end. It is one of only two National Historic Sites outside of Canada, the other being at Vimy Ridge,
Beaumont Hamel 01 July 1916
Rich
At 0915 hrs the Regiment left their trenches with orders to take the first and second lines of German trenches. As they breasted the skyline they were the only Allied troops moving on the battlefield and bore the full brunt of the German defensive fire. Within a half an hour 324 officers and men were killed or missing, another 386 were wounded. Survivors spent the remainder of the day trying to return to their own lines, some of the wounded having spent 17 hours crawling through the mud. At roll call the next day, only 68 men answered their names. The RNR had suffered 91% casualties of those that went over the top (10% of assault units were usually held back to rebuild). The only unit to take higher casualties that day were the 10th West Yorkshires, suffering 95% killed, wounded or missing.
In 1921 Newfoundland purchased the 74 acres over which the RNR had advanced. The site was officially opened in 1925 containing 4 cemeteries, memorials to the RNR, the 29th and 51st Divisions and is largely undisturbed from the wars end. It is one of only two National Historic Sites outside of Canada, the other being at Vimy Ridge,
Beaumont Hamel 01 July 1916
Rich
