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Story:Carnage at Beaumont Hamel

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The enemy's fire was effective from the outset, but the heaviest casualties occurred on passing through the gaps in our front wire, where the men were mown down in heaps.

Newfoundland Regiment War Diary, July 1, 1916. [LAC MG 40 G1]

Canadians at the Somme

The date July 1, 1916, has come to symbolize the horrors of trench warfare, and troops from Newfoundland and Labrador suffered the most. The 1st Newfoundland Regiment, one of the four battalions of the British 29th Division's 88th Brigade, were assigned to take the third enemy line with a battalion from the Essex Regiment. They were told to expect little opposition.

At 7:30 a.m. on July 1, after a week-long bombardment of German positions, the Allies began their massive counter-assault as the first of 60,000 men began advancing into "No Man's Land" along the British 4th Army's 24-kilometre front. This marked the first day of the Battle of the Somme, one of the bloodiest days of the entire War.

Newfoundland Regiment Officers Before the Battle

The entire operation proved to be an unmitigated disaster. The British CO, Sir Aylmer Hunter-Weston, who had been British commander in the Gallipoli campaign in 1915, made the mistake of firing off two mines earlier than planned (two and ten minutes prior to the infantry assault), thereby warning the Germans opposite him of his impending attack. So the Germans not only knew of the planned assault, but the earlier Allied artillery siege had missed many of its targets.

Most German defenders had easily survived the bombardment. Now they began raking the front with machine-gun, artillery and rifle fire. Thousands of Allied troops were gunned down in the pockmarked craters between the two lines of trenches. By nightfall, more than 57 000 Allied troops were killed, wounded, or missing, the highest casualty rate ever suffered by the British army.

Destruction of a Regiment

At 2 am, the 1st Newfoundland Regiment completed a five-hour march to the trenches. At 8:45 am they were ordered in to support the 87th Brigade. The Essex Regiment was delayed by clogged trenches and at 9:05 a.m., the Newfoundlanders started their advance near the tiny village of Beaumont Hamel. To reach the enemy's trenches they had to march down a gentle slope and cross 900 metres (over half a mile) of exposed open ground, in broad daylight. No Allied artillery fire covered them.

German Shell Explodes at Beaumont-Hamel

Each man carried more than 25 kilograms of food, supplies and ammunition. Few made it even as far as the Allied barbed wire. The zig zag lanes cut in the barbed wire the night before were a death trap for the troops, and they were expected to move in parade-ground formations through these gaps in the wire. The enemy just set the sights of the machine guns on the gaps and fired, mowing the men down in waves. Those who made it to "No Man's Land" could see across another 500 metres (547 yards) of exposed slopes to the German first line of defence.

Barbed Wire at Beaumont Hamel

It was a killing field. Very few Newfoundlanders survived for long in the hot hail of machine gun bullets. Of the 801 men who went 'over the top' that morning, only 69 returned to answer the roll-call. The dead numbered 255, 386 men were wounded and 91 were recorded missing. Every officer who went forward was either killed or wounded.

Shortly after 10:00 a.m., the British attack was called off. Despite some initial successes, the day's objectives had not been achieved. Total British losses for the day were 57,470 men, of which 19,240 were fatal. No unit suffered heavier losses than the Newfoundland Regiment. On that morning, the Newfoundland Regiment suffered 684 casualties, of whom 310 had been killed or were missing. It was one of the highest casualty rates of the war, and the single greatest military disaster in their history. The Divisional CO later wrote 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.

Despite the carnage, hardly any ground was captured that day. Nevertheless, General Douglas Haig, the commander, remained obstinate and inflexible. He insisted that the attack continue. And it did so for the next 141 days.

The Battle of the Somme will rage for five months, with well over a million casualties on both sides, and no victor. On June 7, 1925, Earl Haig opens the Beaumont-Hamel Memorial Park, dedicated to the memory of those Newfoundlanders who died during the battle. A statue of the Noble Bronze Caribou Stag stands on the highest point overlooking St. John's Road, the British support trench at Beaumont-Hamel; it was sculpted by Basil Gotto, and is the emblem of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment. Inscribed on three bronze tablets located at the base of the monument are the 814 names of those members of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, the Newfoundland Royal Naval Reserve and the Newfoundland Mercantile Marine who died at the Battle of the Somme and have no known grave.