Throughout most of Canada, July 1 is celebrated for the founding of our country.聽聽聽
Canada was formed not through war, like the Revolutionary War that founded the United States, but through peaceful political compromise. For that reason, Canada Day is a joyous celebration of our nation and its peaceful creation.聽聽聽
However not all of our nation sees July 1 that way. In the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, July 1 is a day of sombre remembrance. When war was declared in 1914, the Dominion of Newfoundland, then a separate British Dominion and not a part of Canada, contributed hundreds of young men to Britain鈥檚 war effort.聽聽聽
On July 1, 1916, during the Battle of the Somme, the Newfoundland Regiment, some 800 strong, was to take part in the third wave to attack the German lines at Beaumont-Hamel. Although it is probably unfair to judge the actions of the commanders of that battle today, with the perspective and current historical knowledge, it appears that the battle of Beaumont-Hamel was badly mismanaged. 聽
There were two waves of soldiers sent to attack the Germans, whose emplacements and fortifications had totally withstood the Allied artillery barrage, and the Allied soldiers were slaughtered unmercifully. Regardless of those facts, the commanders chose to send the Newfoundland regiment 鈥渙ver the top鈥� to attack as a third wave. 聽
The previous barrage had virtually denuded 鈥淣o Man鈥檚 Land鈥� between the trenches, leaving the Newfoundland Regiment no protective cover. Even worse, the rolls of barbed wire used to fortify trenches had specific openings cut into them to allow the attacking soldiers through. The German machine gunners used those openings as aiming points. 聽
The Newfoundland Regiment valiantly followed the commands they were given, and within 30 minutes were almost totally annihilated. Contemporary accounts are harrowing, including one by Private James McGrath detailing 17 hours that he was stranded in No Man鈥檚 Land, and he was shot four times in that 17 hours trying to make his way back to his own trenches.聽聽聽
British General Aylmer Hunter-Weston is quoted, when referring to this attack by the Newfoundland Regiment, 鈥淭here were no waverers, no stragglers, not a man looked back. It was a magnificent display of trained and disciplined valour, and its assault only failed because dead men can advance no further.鈥澛犅犅�
Despite the valour and courage of the those attacking, the next morning only 68 members of the almost 800 answered roll call. A total of 386 were wounded and 324 were killed. This was one of the bloodiest days of the First World War, with a total of 19,240 British and Commonwealth soldiers killed and 38,000 wounded.聽聽聽
After the war the Dominion of Newfoundland purchased land at Beaumont-Hamel and erected a monument honouring its native sons killed and wounded in that war, which stands there to this day.聽
Newfoundland and Labrador joined Canada at the end of March 1949, again through peaceful political compromise. So on July 1, when we are all celebrating the founding of our country, let鈥檚 just pause for a moment and give a thought to our brothers and sisters in Newfoundland and Labrador and their remembrance of battles fought and those lost in those battles.聽聽聽聽聽
鈥淟est we Forget."聽
