Although each ceremony of remembrance is unique and special in its own way, our participation at the annual Beaumont-Hamel commemorative ceremony in honour of the members of the 1st Royal Newfoundland Regiment could be said to be rather routine. We spend the 30th June traveling to Arras, France where accommodations are arranged at the Barracks in a French Military Kaserne. We parade with a Legion Colour Party of members from our three Legion Branches in Germany on the 1st of July and return home the next day.

The Newfoundland Memorial

Today the grass covered peaks and valleys that characterize the battle field park at Beaumont-Hamel are but faintly reminiscent of the mortar torn trenches of July 1916. It was here that the 1st Newfoundland Regiment fought for the land in front of a rocky hilltop that is now marked by a bronze statue of a caribou the symbol of the Regiment. St. John's Road, which leads you around to the base of this magnificent monument, was once the trench from which the Newfoundlanders began their assault on 1 July.

Also contained in this park established by Newfoundland to commemorate its citizens who died in France and Belgium during the First World War are two cemeteries containing the graves of the known fatal casualties of the Somme campaign. As well, three bronze tablets at the base of the statue list the names of 814 Newfoundlanders who gave their lives while serving in the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, the Newfoundland Royal Naval Reserve or the Mercantile Marine and whose graves are unknown.

The Ceremony 2001

This year's ceremony was special in a number of ways. For several years, since Steve Austin was promoted in the Veteran Affairs Organization and moved back to Canada the Beaumont-Hamel Park had no director. Consequently the yearly ceremony to put it bluntly was in a chaotic mess. This year a new Director Ms. Arlene King who along with Steve's assistance finally got the ceremony back on track. In addition following the Remembrance Ceremony a new pavilion was opened on the grounds dedicated to the memory of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment. Finally it was a welcome relief that our Legion Colour Party was once again made to feel as an appreciated part of the ceremony.

Also in attendance at this years ceremony was an Honour Guard from the 1st Royal Newfoundland Regiment accompanied by the Regimental Band. The Bandmaster came and talked to us and presented every member of the Colour Party with a forget-me-not flower. The forget-me-not is the flower that Newfoundlanders wore at Ceremony of Remembrance prior to joining the rest of Canada and adopting the poppy.

The Battle of the Somme

On Saturday 01 July 1916, the opening day of the Battle of the Somme, the 1st Newfoundland Regiment was virtually annihilated at Beaumont-Hamel. On that fateful day in July 100,000 Allied soldiers, the Newfoundlanders among them, set out on the "Big Push", a colossal Infantry offensive along a 40-kilometer stretch of the Western Front called the Somme. It was expected they would smash through the German defenses and clear a path for the cavalry to advance to the channel coast.

Beginning soon after daybreak the attacking soldiers climbed out of their trenches and marched as ordered slowly wave after wave with bayonets held high. Each man was burdened with roughly 30 kilograms of equipment, including shovels, wire cutters and sections of bridges which when assembled would enable passage over the enemy's trenches. Very few made it that far.

The Germans had been long forewarned of an Infantry assault. To make matters worse the allied artillery siege, which had been aimed at the enemy throughout the preceding week, had missed most of its targets. It had not destroyed the enemy's heavy guns, the bulk of their formidable barbed wire defenses nor the deep dugouts, which concealed scores of platoons. The overburdened allied soldiers became easy targets for the readied German guns.

With the advancing forces was the sole Infantry Battalion from the Island of Newfoundland. The Newfoundlanders arrived in France in March of 1916 and on July 1st at 2 AM they completed a five-hour march to the trenches of the Somme. As part of the 88th Brigade in the 29th British Division the 1st Newfoundland Regiment was assigned a role with the second attack wave. At 0730 hours platoons from the 88th Brigade were to capture the first two lines of German fortifications at Beaumont-Hamel. Together with a Battalion from the Essex Regiment the Newfoundlanders were to take the third enemy line seventy minutes later. It was assumed they would face little opposition.

Little however went according to plan. A huge mine was ignited under a German trench at 0720 hours. Although it destroyed its intended target the blast also alerted the enemy of the impending Infantry attack. German soldiers prepared to defend their lines and their artillerymen countered by shelling allied grounds. It was at 0730 hours in the face of this military barrage the 87th Brigade embarked. At 0845 hours the Newfoundland Regiment and the Essex Regiment were ordered to provide them with support.

It was a terrible experience, the forward trenches were clogged with dead bodies and debris, the advance of the Essex Regiment was delayed and the Newfoundlanders were forced to cross 900 meters of exposed front independently. Few made it to the allied barbed wire entanglements, which was about 230 meters from their starting point. Those who did had to follow the zig-zag lanes between pre cut highlighted openings in the wire which were well covered by the enemy machine guns. If they managed to emerge through these gaps the men then discovered that at least 550 meters of open ground lay between them and the fully intact first line of German defenses.

Some of the Newfoundlanders progressed far enough to hurl bombs at the enemy trenches but most had been struck down long before this point. Many were killed at the start as they climbed out of their trenches. The battle lasted less then 30 minutes and little remained of the 1st Newfoundland Regiment their casualties' numbered more than 700, one third of, which were fatal. Every Officer that went into battle that day was either killed or wounded. Of the 790 Newfoundlers who went into battle that day only 68 were able to answer the roll call the next morning.

A support cadre plus the traditional ten percent of the total strength of the Regiment had been spared the mornings assault. In all 150 members remained of a Regiment that at its full strength had boasted more than 1000. Reinforced with 150 new recruits the Regiment transferred to the Ypres Salient.

Major General Sir Beauvoir de Lisle, Commander of the 29th British Division reported the efforts of the 1st Newfoundland Regiment: "It was a magnificent display of trained and disciplined valour, and its assault only failed of success because dead men can advance no further".

In Newfoundland the tragedy arrived on 13 July nearly two weeks after the battle at Beaumont-Hamel. Members of the clergy then began what seemed an endless succession of condolence visits.

For the British Army it was the bloodiest day of the war. They suffered 57,470 casualties while German dead and wounded totaled 8,000. Little ground had been gained and months of deadlocked fighting followed.

The Allies launched a second offensive at the Somme on 15 September 1916. The following month the Newfoundlanders returned to the region and distinguished themselves in action near Gueudecourt. The brutal Somme campaign finally ended in November. In the end the Allies had gained only 10 kilometers of ground at the terrible cost of approximately 600,000 casualties.

After the Armistice the 1st Newfoundland Regiment returned home and disbanded. More than 6,000 men had served in the Regiment during the First World War and at least one in five had given their lives. In 1918 in recognition of the Regiments battlefield contributions King George V granted the addition of the title of "Royal" to its name. Re-formed as a Reserve Militia Unit when Newfoundland joined Canada in 1949 the Royal Newfoundland Regiment still exists to this day.

It has been said that as a nation Canada came of age during the Great War. However, the life of Newfoundland was nearly extinguished almost a generation of its potential leaders was lost at Beaumont-Hamel and in subsequent battles.

Newfoundland has erected five impressive memorials - four in France and one in Belgium - to honour her warrior sons who gave their lives in the First World War. On battlefields whose names are closely associated with hard-fought contests in which the regiment played a glorious part, there stands a massive bronze caribou, gazing defiantly in the direction in which the Newfoundlanders faced the foe. The five battlefield parks are at Beaumont Hamel (near Albert), Gueudecourt (near Bapaume), Monchy-le-Preux (near Arras), Masnières (near Cambrai), and Courtrai (or Kortrijk) in Belgium.

This years ceremony at Beaumont-Hamel was at 1400 hours so we had the chance to attend the British Ceremony at The British memorial of Thiepval. Pillar of the German defense, the village of Thiepval was a well-protected fortress at one end by the marshes of the Ancre, and by many and very deep underground trenches. It is here that the British suffered the heaviest losses on 01 July when 20,000 men perished with a total of 58,000 being put out of the battle.

The memorial is here to commemorate the English offensive of July 1916. It bears the names of the 73,000 British of the third army that fell in the Somme from 1915 to March 1918 and who have no known grave. An imposing monument, visible from miles symbolizes the joint British and French army efforts in the battle of the Somme, but also in other theatre of operations in Asia and in Africa.

The cemetery that is attached to it contains 600 graves, half French, half British. They represent the million of dead of the British Empire and the even bigger losses of France and its colonies. It also contains burials of 10 Australian, 4 Canadian and a New Zelander.

On the monument, one can read: "For the world to remember the sacrifice of two million and half dead. Here has been united side by side soldiers of France and of the British Empire in an eternal comradeship."

Following this ceremony on the way to Beaumont-Hamel we stopped by the service at The Ulster Tower. Just as the trench warfare began in the Ancre valley. Thiepval was in the hands of the German regiment of the Würtemberg. It was attacked with success by the 36th Division (Ulster) on 01 July 1916, and in a few hours, more than 5,500 soldiers were put out of the battle. To remember this attack, a monument was erected; it is a copy of Helen's Tower at Clandeboye close to Belfast. The Irish monument of the battle of the Somme, is the memorial to all soldiers of Ulster who died during the Great War.