Beaumont-Hamel Memorial Park
Also known as Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial , Newfoundland Memorial Park
Beaumont-Hamel, Departement de la Somme, Picardie, France
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Beaumont-Hamel was attacked by the 29th Division on 1 July 1916 and although some units reached it, the village was not taken. It was finally captured by the 51st (Highland) and 63rd (Royal Naval) Divisions on the following 13 November. The 29th Division included the 1st Battalion of the Newfoundland Regiment, as it was then called (at that time Newfoundland was technically independent and did not become a part of Canada until 1949). The attack on Beaumont-Hamel in July 1916 was the first severe engagement of the regiment, and the most costly. On the first day of the Battle of the Somme, no unit suffered heavier losses than the Newfoundland Regiment, which had gone into action 801 strong. The roll call the next day revealed that the final figures were 233 killed or dead of wounds, 386 wounded, and 91 missing. Every officer who went forward in the Newfoundland attack was either killed or wounded.
For this reason, the government of Newfoundland chose the hill south-west of the village, where the front-line trenches ran at the time of the battle, as the site of their memorial to the soldiers (and also to the sailors) of Newfoundland. Of the few battlefield parks in France and Belgium where the visitor can see a Great War battlefield much as it was, Beaumont Hamel is the largest. The actual trenches are still there and something of the terrible problem of advancing over such country can be appreciated by the visitor. The memorial itself stands at the highest point of the park and consists of a great caribou cast in bronze, emblem of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment. At the base, three tablets of bronze carry the names of over 800 members of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, the Newfoundland Royal Naval Reserve and the Newfoundland Mercantile Marine, who gave their lives in the First World War and who have no known grave. Within the Park are three British Cemeteries (Hawthorn Ridge No. 2, "Y" Ravine, and Hunter's) and two other Battle Memorials (those of the 51st (Highland) and the 29th Divisions).
Beaumont-Hamel was attacked by the 29th Division on 1 July 1916 and although some units reached it, the village was not taken. It was finally captured by the 51st (Highland) and 63rd (Royal Naval) Divisions on the following 13 November. The 29th Division included the 1st Battalion of the Newfoundland Regiment, as it was then called (at that time Newfoundland was technically independent and did not become a part of Canada until 1949). The attack on Beaumont-Hamel in July 1916 was the first severe engagement of the regiment, and the most costly. On the first day of the Battle of the Somme, no unit suffered heavier losses than the Newfoundland Regiment, which had gone into action 801 strong. The roll call the next day revealed that the final figures were 233 killed or dead of wounds, 386 wounded, and 91 missing. Every officer who went forward in the Newfoundland attack was either killed or wounded.
For this reason, the government of Newfoundland chose the hill south-west of the village, where the front-line trenches ran at the time of the battle, as the site of their memorial to the soldiers (and also to the sailors) of Newfoundland. Of the few battlefield parks in France and Belgium where the visitor can see a Great War battlefield much as it was, Beaumont Hamel is the largest. The actual trenches are still there and something of the terrible problem of advancing over such country can be appreciated by the visitor. The memorial itself stands at the highest point of the park and consists of a great caribou cast in bronze, emblem of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment. At the base, three tablets of bronze carry the names of over 800 members of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, the Newfoundland Royal Naval Reserve and the Newfoundland Mercantile Marine, who gave their lives in the First World War and who have no known grave. Within the Park are three British Cemeteries (Hawthorn Ridge No. 2, "Y" Ravine, and Hunter's) and two other Battle Memorials (those of the 51st (Highland) and the 29th Divisions).
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- Percent with GPS10%
Beaumont-Hamel, Departement de la Somme, Picardie, France
- Total memorials277
- Percent photographed71%
- Percent with GPS15%
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Beaumont-Hamel, Departement de la Somme, Picardie, France
- Total memorials41
- Percent photographed100%
- Percent with GPS27%
- Added: 27 Feb 2005
- Find a Grave Cemetery ID: 2137184
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