Beaumont Hamel - Virginia's Update

The official title of today's tour was - Canada Day! The first stop was Beaumont Hamel, one of the first battles of the Somme. In today's setting the birds were singing, there was calm and a feeling of life in the air, trees stood tall and were decked in green and a bright sunny day. Back to 1916, 3 out of the 4 things were not there, there were no bird brave enough to fly over the battle field unless they were carrier pigeons. The air was full of bullets from machine guns, mortar shells from artillery guns and dirt and shrapnel, the only tree standing was the danger tree, the tree that stood between the 2 trenches and miraculously stood against bombs and gun fire. Those soldiers who made it there knew they were going to die due to its position between two machine gun ranges. The brave Newfoundlanders who were sent to the front line at Beaumont Hamel by the British army because of mixed messages, they thought they would find glory honor and earn money to help their families at home. Unfortunately, the Germans had already fortified their positions with the use of natural formations.after 30 minutes the group of 1000 soldiers was reduced to just 100. After this defeat, the Newfoundland regiment rose and were successful in other battles, eventually earning the title of 'royal' from the British army. In November 1916 the 51st regiment of the Scottish army took the German line on Beaumont Hamel. Virginia








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