1st Battalion, Royal Newfoundland Regiment
Battle of the Somme
In France, after Galipoli, the regiment regained battalion strength in preparation for the Battle of the Somme. The regiment, still in the 29th Division, went into the line in April 1916 at Beaumont-Hamel. Beaumont-Hamel was near the northern end of the 45-kilometre (28 mi) front being assaulted by the joint French and British force. The attack, originally scheduled for 29 June 1916, was postponed by two days to 1 July 1916, partly on account of inclement weather, and partly to allow more time for the artillery preparation. The 29th Division, with its three infantry brigades, faced defences manned by experienced troops of the 119th (Reserve) Infantry Regiment of the 26th (Württemberg) Reserve Division. The 119th (Reserve) Infantry Regiment had been involved in the invasion of France in August 1914 and had been manning the Beaumont-Hamel section of the line for nearly 20 months prior to the battle. The German troops had been spending a great deal of their time not only training but fortifying their position, including the construction of numerous deep dugouts and at least two tunnels.
The infantry assault by the 29th Division on 1 July 1916 was preceded ten minutes earlier by a mine explosion under the fortified Hawthorn Ridge Redoubt. The explosion of the 18,000-kilogram (40,000 lb) Hawthorn Mine underneath the German lines destroyed a major enemy strong point but also served to alert the German forces to the imminent attack. Following the explosion, troops of the 119th (Reserve) Infantry Regiment moved from their dugouts into the firing line, even preventing the British from taking control of the crater as they had planned. When the assault finally began, the troops from the 86th and 87th Brigade of the 29th Division were quickly stopped. With the exception of the 1st Battalion of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers on the right flank, the initial assault foundered in No Man’s Land at and short of the German barbed wire. At divisional headquarters, Major-General Beauvoir De Lisle and his staff were trying to unravel the numerous and confusing messages coming back from observation posts, contact aircraft and the two leading brigades. There were indications that some troops had broken into and gone beyond the German first line. In an effort to exploit the perceived break in the German line he ordered the 88th Brigade, which was in reserve, to send forward two battalions to support the attack.
It was a magnificent display of trained and disciplined valour, and its assault only failed of success because dead men can advance no further.
Major-General Sir Beauvoir De Lisle referring to the Newfoundland Regiment at Beaumont-Hamel
At 8:45 a.m. the Newfoundland Regiment and 1st Battalion, Essex Regiment received orders to move forward. The Newfoundland Regiment was at St. John’s Road, a support trench 230 metres (250 yd) behind the British forward line and out of sight of the enemy. Movement forward through the communication trenches was not possible because they were congested with dead and wounded men and under shell fire. Battalion Commander Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Lovell Hadow decided to proceed immediately into an offensive formation and advance across the surface, which involved first navigating through a series of barbed wire obstacles. As they breasted the skyline behind the British first line, they were effectively the only troops moving on the battlefield and clearly visible to German machine gun positions. Most of the Newfoundland Regiment who had started forward were dead within 15 minutes of leaving St. John’s Road trench. Most reached no further than the Danger Tree, a skeleton of a tree that lay in No Man’s Land that was being used as a landmark. So far as can be ascertained, 22 officers and 758 enlisted were directly involved in the advance. Of these, all the officers and about 658 other ranks became casualties. Of the 780 men who went forward only 110 survived, of whom only 68 were available for roll call the following day. For all intents and purposes the Newfoundland Regiment had been entirely destroyed, the unit as a whole having suffered a casualty rate of approximately 93 percent. The only unit to suffer greater casualties during the attack was the 10th (Service) Battalion, Prince of Wales’s Own (West Yorkshire Regiment), attacking west of Fricourt village.[
