2017 Battlefield Tour Page 24

At Newfoundland Memorial Park at Beaumont Hamel is the preserved trench system from 1st July 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme.

It is dedicated to the Newfoundland Regiment, of 780 men who attacked only 110 survived unscathed, of whom only 68 were available for roll call the following day. The regiment had practically ceased to exist with a casualty rate of 80%.

In 1914 Newfoundland wasn’t yet part of Canada, it was still a British Dominion so it’s troops were attached to the British 29th Div, taking part in the Gallipoli campaign. In early 1916 29 Div were sent to France just in time for the Battle of the Somme. On 1st July along with 1st Bn Essex Regt, they were to attack the German positions at Y Ravine just in front of the German-held village of Hamel.

The Newfoundlanders were unable to reach their start point because the communication trench was blocked with dead and dying from the Essex Regt who had come under heavy shell fire. Their CO made the fateful decision to start the attack further back from a support trench. This meant that they were skylined and had a lot further to advance under machine gun and artillery fire. They only got halfway to their objective, a spot marked by the petrified remains of a tree known to the troops as the Danger Tree.

The German trenches at Y Ravine were eventually captured by the 51st Highland Div on 13 Nov 1916.

As well as the preserved trenches the impressive park contains three memorials, the 29th Div Memorial, the Newfoundland Caribou Memorial and the 51st Highland Div Memorial. In the second world war, the Germans ordered civilian contractors to take down the bronze statues of the Kilted Highlander and two lions. These were to be transported to Germany for melting down. The lions were taken down but the resistance tipped off London who sent planes on a regular basis to harass the contractors. They eventually removed the scaffolding and gave up.

There are three military cemeteries in the park, Y Ravine, Hawthorn Ridge no.2 and Hunters Cemetery which is unusual in that it is circular. 46 bodies of the Highland Div and the 63rd Royal Naval Div were buried in a mass grave in a shell hole.

Loll Ward