During the First World War, Newfoundland was a largely rural
Dominion of the
British Empire with a population of 240,000, and not yet part of
Canada. The outbreak of the First World War in 1914 led the Government of Newfoundland to recruit a force for service with the
British Army. Even though the island had not possessed any formal military organization since 1870, enough men soon volunteered that an entire battalion was formed, and later maintained throughout the war. The regiment trained at various locations in the United Kingdom and increased from an initial contingent of 500 men to full battalion strength of 1,000 men, before being deployed. After a period of acclimatization in
Egypt, the regiment was deployed at
Suvla Bay on the
Gallipoli peninsula with the
29th British Division in support of the
Gallipoli Campaign. With the close of the Gallipoli Campaign the regiment spent a short period recuperating before being transferred to the
Western Front in March 1916.
Battle of the Somme . In France, the regiment regained battalion strength in preparation for the
Battle of the Somme. The regiment, still with the 29th British Division, went into the line in April 1916 at
Beaumont-Hamel. Beaumont-Hamel was situated near the northern end of the 45-kilometre 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, partly to allow more time for the artillery preparation. The 29th British Division, with its three infantry brigades faced defences manned by experienced troops of the 119th (Reserve) Infantry Regiment of the
26th (Wurttemberg) 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 infantry assault by the 29th British Division on 1 July 1916 was to be preceded ten minutes earlier by a mine explosion under the heavily fortified
Hawthorn Ridge Redoubt. The explosion of the 18,000 kilogram (40,000 lb) Hawthorn Mine underneath the German lines successfully 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 immediately deployed from their dugouts into the firing line, even preventing the British from taking control of the resulting crater as they had planned. When the assault finally began, the troops from the 86th and 87th Brigade of the 29th British 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, or 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 attack. At 8:45 a.m. the Newfoundland Regiment and 1st Battalion of the
Essex Regiment received orders to move forward. Movement forward through the communication trenches was not possible because they were congested with dead and wounded men and under shell fire. Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Lovell Hadow, the battalion commander, decided to move immediately into attack formation and advance across the surface, which involved first navigating through the British barbed wire defences. Most reached no further than the
Danger Tree, a skeleton of a tree that lay in No Man's Land that was being utilized as a landmark. So far as can be ascertained, 22 officers and 758 other ranks were directly involved in the advance.
The rest of the war After July 1916, the Beaumont-Hamel front remained relatively quiet while the Battle of the Somme continued to the south. In the final act in the Somme Offensive, Beaumont-Hamel was assaulted by the
51st (Highland) Division on 13 November 1916 on the opening of the
Battle of the Ancre. Within two days, all the 29th Division objectives of 1 July had been taken along with a great many German prisoners. The area of the memorial site then became a rear area with troops lodged in the former German dugouts and a camp was established in the vicinity of the present Y Ravine Cemetery. Until the
Battle of Amiens and the German withdrawal in late August 1918, the antagonists confronted each other over the same ground, although the only actions were those of routine front line
trench raids, patrols and artillery harassment. ==History==