Events in Canada and overseas to commemorate 80th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme at Beaumont-Hamel

Events in Canada and overseas to commemorate 80th
anniversary of the Battle of the Somme at Beaumont-Hamel

Commemorative ceremonies will be held in Newfoundland and France June 30 and July 1, 1996 to mark the 80th anniversary of a tragic battle involving Newfoundlanders in the First World War, Lawrence MacAulay, Secretary of State for Veterans, announced June 27.

In Newfoundland, various events involving officials of the provincial and federal governments as well as Newfoundland Command of the Royal Canadian Legion will be conducted in St. John's. Overseas, Fred Mifflin, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, will represent the Government of Canada at a special ceremony at the battle site.

Eighty years ago, on July 1, 1916, the Newfoundland Regiment was virtually annihilated during the Battle of the Somme at Beaumont-Hamel, France. On that fateful day, in less than 30 minutes, seven out of every eight members of the Regiment were either killed or wounded.

"For the Newfoundlanders, the Battle of the Somme at Beaumont-Hamel lasted less than half an hour. Yet, the news of the tragedy has remained etched in the memories of Canadians and particularly Newfoundlanders over the last 80 years," Mr. MacAulay said. "Practically every family on Newfoundland was touched by the losses. Almost a generation of its potential leaders was lost at Beaumont-Hamel and in subsequent actions during the Great War."

To mark the anniversary, a commemorative ceremony organized by the Newfoundland Command of the Royal Canadian Legion will be held June 30 beginning at 8:30 a.m. local time in St. John's at the Field of Honour at Mount Pleasant Cemetery, followed by a parade and a wreath-laying ceremony at the province's National Memorial. Participants will include the Lieutenant Governor of Newfoundland, His Honour Frederick Russell; Brian Tobin, Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador; Bonnie Hickey, MP for St. John's East; members of the Royal Canadian Legion and Royal Newfoundland Regiment; and veterans.

Also in St. John's, at 12:30 p.m. local time, the electronic versions of the First World War and the Newfoundland Books of Remembrance will be launched on SchoolNet by Bonnie Hickey, MP, on behalf of Industry Canada and Veterans Affairs Canada at the Caribou Memorial Veterans Pavilion. The First World War Book of Remembrance contains the names of Canadians who were killed during the First World War. Because Newfoundland did not join Canada until after the Second World War, Newfoundlanders who gave their lives in the two world wars, including those killed in action at Beaumont-Hamel, are listed separately, in the Newfoundland Book of Remembrance.

On July 1, 1996, Veterans Affairs Canada will conduct a commemorative ceremony at the Newfoundland Beaumont-Hamel Memorial in Beaumont-Hamel, France. Fred Mifflin, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, will address the gathering and lay a wreath on behalf of the Government of Canada. Mr. Mifflin is the MP for Bonavista-Trinity-Conception in Newfoundland and a retired Rear Admiral. HRH The Duke of Gloucester, GCVO, representing Britain, and Pierre Pasquini, ministre delegue aux Anciens Combattants et Victimes de guerre (Deputy Minister of Veterans and Victims of War), representing France, will also participate.

"July 1 is for us a day of joy and sadness," noted Mr. Mifflin, a native of Bonavista. "We rejoice in our national celebration as Canadians, but still mourn our brothers who fell 33 years before their island home joined Confederation."

A group from Newfoundland, led by the Arthur D. Reid, Minister of Municipal and Provincial Affairs for the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, will also attend the ceremony. This delegation will include Taylor French, President of Newfoundland Command of the Royal Canadian Legion, and Newfoundland students Carla Duggan, Christian Sparkes and Mark Johnson. The Newfoundland delegation will also be visiting other former battlefields and cemeteries where many Canadians are buried.

During the July 1 event at Beaumont-Hamel, wreaths will be laid by representatives of the Government of Canada, the Government of France, the Government of Britain, the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, the Royal Canadian Legion, the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, and the Canadian Armed Forces. The official flag party will consist of six members of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment. In addition, there will be a colour party consisting of 10 representatives of the Royal Canadian Legion, Europe.

By the end of the First World War, 6,000 men had served in the Newfoundland Regiment and at least one in five had given his life. In 1918, in recognition of the Regiment's battlefield contributions, King George V granted the addition of the title "Royal" to its name. Today, the Royal Newfoundland Regiment as a militia unit continues to participate in Canadian peacekeeping efforts.

Canadians can obtain more information on the Battle of the Somme at Beaumont-Hamel and the wartime contributions of Canadians by visiting the Veterans Affairs Canada Homepage on the World Wide Web at //www.vac-acc.gc.ca.

A backgrounder on the Battle at Beaumont-Hamel, as well as event itineraries, follow.

It has been called Newfoundland's saddest day. On Saturday July 1, 1916 at 9:15 a.m., the Newfoundland Regiment � part of the 88th brigade in the 29th British Division � went over the top in the first day of the Battle of the Somme near Beaumont-Hamel, France. That morning, 801 members of the Newfoundland Regiment left the relative safety and protection of a trench named St. John's Road. By 9:45 a.m. � a scant half-hour later � seven out of every eight members of the Regiment had been either killed or wounded. Two hundred and thirty-three were killed. Only 68 survived without serious injury. The Newfoundland Regiment had been virtually annihilated.

The Newfoundland Regiment had arrived at Marseilles in March 1916 after service at Gallipoli and Egypt and had entered the line in France for the first time on April 22. They arrived at the trenches of the Somme at 2 a.m. on July 1 following a five-hour march. Their objective � as part of a massive 100,000-strong Allied offensive along a 40- kilometre stretch of the Western Front called the Somme � was to take the third enemy line together with a battalion from the Essex Regiment. It was confidently assumed that this would occur some 70 minutes after platoons from the 87th Brigade set out at 7:30 a.m. to capture the first two lines of German fortifications at Beaumont-Hamel.

At 7:20 a.m. a huge mine was ignited that destroyed a German trench but also served to warn the enemy of the imminent attack. While the British artillery barrage methodically advanced 100 yards every two minutes, frontline German soldiers � who had been long forewarned of an infantry assault � emerged from well-protected dugouts to defend their positions, unleashing a barrage of machine gun and small arms fire against the advancing 87th Brigade. In the mistaken belief that the 87th had reached their objectives, at 8:45 a.m. the Newfoundland Regiment and the Essex Regiment were ordered to prepare to provide them with support. Their battle would last less than 30 minutes.

At 9:15 a.m., without support of the Essex Regiment, delayed because the forward trenches were clogged with bodies and debris, the Newfoundlanders set out alone across the 900 metres of exposed front. Immediately coming under enemy fire as they clambered out of St. John's Road trench, few made it to the beginning of the Allied barbed wire entanglements 230 metres beyond this starting point; fewer still progressed far enough to hurl bombs at the first line of enemy trenches another 550 metres away. With no one left to fight by 9:45, the attack ended.

Back home in Newfoundland, news of the tragedy arrived on July 13, nearly two weeks after the battle at Beaumont-Hamel. Almost every family on the island had been touched by the losses, a terrible toll which would continue to the war's end, depriving Newfoundland of many of its brightest and best. As a result, July 1 has become a day of deep emotion for Newfoundlanders.

A second major offensive was launched by the Allies at the Somme on September 15, 1916. The following month, the reinforced Newfoundland Regiment returned and distinguished themselves in action near Gueudecourt. When the brutal Somme campaign finally ended in November, the Allied forces had gained only 10 kilometres of ground at a cost of 600,000 casualties.

By the end of the Great War, 6,000 men had served in the Newfoundland Regiment and at least one in five had given his life. In 1918, in recognition of the Regiment's battlefield contributions, King George V granted the addition of the title "Royal" to its name. When Newfoundland joined Canada in 1949, the Royal Newfoundland Regiment was re-formed as a militia unit and exists to this day.

After the war, the Government of Newfoundland purchased property in France and Belgium to establish five battlefield parks. The largest of these is a 40-acre site located nine kilometres north of the town of Albert, France where the Beaumont-Hamel Battlefield Park was officially opened on June 7, 1925. At this site stands a great bronze caribou � the emblem of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment � which overlooks the site of St. John's Road and gazes defiantly in the direction of the former foe. At the base of the statue, three bronze tablets carry the names of 814 members of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, the Newfoundland Royal Naval Reserve and the Mercantile Marine who gave their lives during the First World War and have no known grave.

In the lodge which houses the reception room for visitors to the park, a bronze plaque, unveiled in 1961 by Premier Joseph Smallwood, lists the battle honours won by the Royal Newfoundland Regiment and pays tribute to its fallen. A representative part of the battlefield preserves in its original state the shell-pitted ground between St. John's Road and the Y Ravine across which the advance of July 1, 1916 was made. Even now, 80 years later, one can clearly see the overlapping craters created by enemy shelling. In the park, two small cemeteries, Hawthorne Ridge No. 2 and Y Ravine, contain the graves of many who fell on that fateful day.

Newfoundlanders are proud of their two First World War recipients of the Victoria Cross, the highest decoration for valour. Born in Little Bay, Newfoundland, Private John Bernard Croak of the 13th Canadian Infantry Battalion was awarded the Victoria Cross posthumously for most conspicuous bravery at the Battle of Amiens on August 8, 1918. Born in White Bay, Newfoundland, Private Thomas Ricketts of the 1st Battalion, the Royal Newfoundland Regiment was awarded the Victoria Cross for most conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty on October 14, 1918 at Ledeghem, Belgium.

For further information, visit the Veterans Affairs Canada Homepage at //www.vac-acc.gc.ca.

Communications Division 
Veterans Affairs Canada
June 1996                                 (version francaise disponible)


                            ORDER OF CEREMONY
        80TH ANNIVERSARY MEMORIAL DAY SERVICE IN ST. JOHN'S, NFLD
JUNE 30, 1996


08:30 hours -  
Wreath-laying ceremony at the Field of Honour at Mount Pleasant Cemetery (20 minutes).
Participants include Bonnie Hickey, MP for St. John's
East, members of the Royal Canadian Legion and Royal
Newfoundland Regiment, and veterans.

09:20 hours -  Parade forms up at Sergeants' Memorial.

09:30 hours -  
Parade to National Memorial begins, led by the Royal
Newfoundland Regiment Band.

10:25 hours -  Parade in place at National Memorial.

10:30 hours -  Vice Regal Party arrives.

10:31 hours -  Wreath-laying ceremony.

               Participants include the Lieutenant Governor of
               Newfoundland, His Honour Frederick Russell; the
               Honourable Brian Tobin, Premier of Newfoundland and
               Labrador; Bonnie Hickey, MP for St. John's East; members
               of the Royal Canadian Legion and Royal Newfoundland
               Regiment; and veterans.

11:30 hours -  
Parade moves west on Water Street to the Court House
where the Lieutenant Governor takes the salute.

12:30 hours -  
The electronic versions of the First World War and the
Newfoundland Books of Remembrance are launched on
SchoolNet by Bonnie Hickey, MP at the Caribou MemorialVeterans Pavilion.


ORDER OF CEREMONY
BEAUMONT - HAMEL - 1st JULY 1996



09:00 hours    -    Royal Newfoundland Flag Party, Royal Canadian Legion
                    Colour Party, piper and bugler are in position.

09:10 hours    -    Arrival of Government of Newfoundland and Labrador
                    Delegation and French Guests of Honour.

09:15 hours    -    Arrival of the Honourable Fred Mifflin.

09:20 hours    -    The Duke of Gloucester arrives.

09:30 hours    -    Address by the Honourable Fred Mifflin
                    Address by the M. Pierre Pasquini, French
                    Representative

09:40 hours    -    CEREMONY COMMENCES

                    PRAYERS
                    ACT OF REMEMBRANCE
                    LAST POST
                    ONE MINUTE OF SILENCE
                    LAMENT
                    REVEILLE
                    WREATH LAYING
                         (Hon. Fred Mifflin
                         The Duke of Gloucester
                         M. Pierre Pasquini
                         Arthur D. Reid)
                    BLESSING

10:00 hours    -    Ceremony ends