Battle of
the Somme1917
July 1stn is
canada but for many Newfoundlanders it is a tragic
day in history, 801 officers and men were lead to fight tin he
battle of the Somme, Beaumont-Hamel, France. Now it is a
memorial day for the families in Newfoundland who lost someone
close .
That morning
801 solides were aordered to advance over the top, and out on
to No Man's Land toward the enemy position. As they advanced
they got the heavy bombardment of machine gunfire upon them.
Within a half hour, 233 men were killed,386 were unable to
serve because of injuries,and 91 went missing, leaving 68 out
of 801 soliders to answer roll call the next
morning.
Below is a
time line of the occurances of the Battle of
Beaumont-Hamel:
-
7:20
am, mine at Hawthorne ridge exploded
-
7:30 am, the Inniskilling Fusiliers, South Wales
Borders, Royal Fusiliers and Lancaster Fusiliers attacked.
They were decimated by enemy
fire
-
8:05 am the supporting battalions of the kings own
Scottish Borders, Border Regiment, Middlesex Regiment and
Dublin Fusiliers went 'over top' to meet the same
fate
-
8:40 am NL regiment was ordered to move, order was
contaminated
-
9:15 am the regiment was ordered to move at once. The
officers and the men advanced across no man’s
land
Unfortunatly, the Newfoundlanders were the only ones
advancing over No Man's Land, so at the time they has the full
force of the German's fire on them.(So it was all over in 30
min.)Some may have got near the German trenches, but most were
shot down as the crossed the battle field, many near the
'Danger Tree' that was a gap in the British barbed
wire.
(below is a picture of the Danger
tree)
Quote
1088
Pte.Ron Dunne
"
I got up out of the trench, the boys wre
falling on either side untill there were only two of us left.
He got it, he was killed. Then i git it. I got two bullets in
me. I dropped. Blood was comomg out of me. I thought they saw
me go sown. I stopped the blood as best i could. The sun was
pouring down and they were shelling, the German's were. I was
there all day and night. Sunday came.I lived through Sunday
but when the sun went down i gave up. I said my prayersand i
seen my momas far as i knew, but i knew she wasn't there. They
picked me up and I don't know who. I don't know how i got
to the hospital were they operated and took the metal out
o fme."
And in honour of the brave and couragouse
men who faught in the Beaumont-Hamel there are
the monuments placed around the world. one in Beaumont-Hamel, another
in Newfoundland, another in france and lastley there is
also one in Belgium
Below is a picture of the Danger tree, in
the Middle of No Man's Land
Over the top-over the top of their trenches
No
Man's Land- was the battle fied of Beaumont-Hamel, it
seperated the german's land from the British.
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