Outbreak of war of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment in Egypt, September 1915|alt=A soldier in uniform sitting on a camel posed in front of the Great Sphinx of Giza During the First World War Newfoundland was a largely rural
Dominion of the
British Empire with a population of 240,000 people, and not yet part of
Canada, having, along with the
Imperial fortress colony of
Bermuda, been left out of the 1867
confederation of the other colonies of
British North America to form the Dominion of
Canada (the
Colony of Newfoundland had become the
Dominion of Newfoundland in 1907). 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 army organization since 1870, enough men soon volunteered that a whole battalion was formed, and later maintained throughout the war. The first recruits in the regiment were nicknamed the "Blue Puttees" due to the unusual colour of the
puttees, chosen due to the shortage of dark
khaki woolen material on the island. The blue puttees were quickly abandoned when the first five hundred reached England in October 1914. The headquarters for recruiting and training was supplied by the
Church Lads' Brigade, as was the nucleus of the command structure. In fact, the first man to enlist was also a member of the CLB.
Bermudian-born Sir
Joseph Outerbridge, who had been the Commanding Officer of the CLB from 1890 to 1894, was the Vice President of the Patriotic Association of Newfoundland, which raised and maintained the Newfoundland Regiment, two of his sons serving in the regiment on the Western Front. 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 Division in support of the
Gallipoli Campaign.
1st Battalion Gallipoli On 20 September 1915 the regiment landed at Suvla Bay on the Gallipoli peninsula, where the British
VIII Corps,
IX Corps and the
Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) had been attempting to seize control of the
Dardanelles Strait from
Turkey since the first landings on 25 April. At Gallipoli the 1st Newfoundland Regiment faced
snipers,
artillery fire and severe cold, as well as the
trench warfare hazards of
cholera,
dysentery,
typhus,
gangrene and
trench foot. Over the next three months thirty soldiers of the regiment were killed or mortally wounded in action and ten died of disease; 150 were treated for frostbite and exposure. Despite the terrible conditions, the Newfoundlanders stood up well. When the decision was made to evacuate all British Empire forces from the area, the regiment was chosen to be a part of the
rearguard, finally withdrawing from Gallipoli with the last of the
British Dardanelles Army troops on 9 January 1916. 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 in the 29th Division, went into the line in April 1916 at
Beaumont-Hamel. Beaumont-Hamel was near the northern end of the 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 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. 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 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.
After Beaumont-Hamel , December 1918 Although significantly under strength, the Newfoundland Regiment continued to see service and after taking on reinforcements was back in the front line on 14 July near
Auchonvillers. On 17 July the 88th Brigade was transferred to a quieter portion of the Western Front. In the weeks and months following the attack, the surviving officers wrote letters of condolence to families and relatives in Newfoundland. A period of recovery coupled with additional reinforcements eventually helped the regiment return to full strength. Six weeks later they were beating off a German gas attack in
Flanders. Subsequently, they distinguished themselves in a number of battles: back on the Somme at
Gueudecourt in October 1916; and on 23 April 1917, at
Monchy-le-Preux during the
Battle of Arras, where they lost 485 men in a day but checked a German attack. In Flanders during the
Third Battle of Ypres the battalion attacked on 16 August at the
Battle of Langemarck and on 9 October 1917 the battalion formed the left flank of 29th Division's attack as part of the
Battle of Poelcappelle. In November 1917 at
Masnières-
Marcoing during the
Battle of Cambrai the regiment stood its ground although outflanked and in April 1918 stemmed a German advance at
Bailleul. Following a period out of the line, providing the guard force for General Headquarters at
Montreuil, they joined the 28th Brigade of the
9th (Scottish) Division and were in action again at
Ledegem and beyond in the advances of the
Hundred Days Offensive, during which one of its youngest soldiers,
Thomas Ricketts, was awarded the Victoria Cross. He is the youngest army combatant to be awarded the
Victoria Cross.
Other battalions In addition to the 1st Battalion mentioned earlier, the Royal Newfoundland Regiment raised two additional battalions during the war: the 2nd (Reserve) Battalion and the 3rd Battalion. The 2nd Battalion primarily served as the main overseas training unit for new recruits before their deployment with the 1st Battalion. It also functioned as the holding battalion for soldiers who returned to Britain due to medical reasons. The 2nd Battalion spent the majority of the war in Scotland, most famously at
Ayr. The 3rd Battalion was the title given to the recruiting and training unit based in St. John's, and was the administrative home of new recruits before embarking overseas, as well as being the formation responsible for home defence. Thus, soldiers recruited in Newfoundland and Labrador were posted first to the 3rd Battalion, then the 2nd, and finally with the 1st. In addition to its three battalions, the Royal Newfoundland Regiment played a part in the administration of the Newfoundland Forestry Corps. Formed in 1917, the corps was a uniformed
pioneer unit stationed in Scotland tasked with supporting the British war effort by providing much needed timber for the war effort. Volunteers were clothed in khaki uniform and wore the distinctive
Caribou cap badge of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment. In addition, some wounded officers and enlisted ranks from the 1st Battalion whose wounds prohibited them from combat service were posted to the Forestry Corps in command positions.
First World War honours Governor Davidson strongly felt that the Newfoundland Regiment deserved special recognition for its actions during the battles of
Ypres and
Cambrai. His request to the British government to add the prefix Royal to the regiment's name was granted and
George V bestowed the regiment with the prefix in December 1917. This was the only time during the First World War that this honour was given and only the third time in the history of the British Army that it has been given during a time of war. == Second World War ==