The Battle Of Beaumont Hamel

1. The Battle Of Beaumont Hamel Riley Clark, Megan Chisholm, Carson MacNeil

2. The Royal NFLD regiment 1st Battalion Essex regiment 6th & 7th Battalion Black Watch (English) Commander: General Douglas Haig 26th Wurttemburg Reserve Division Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers Commander: Max von Gallwitz Who

3. Where • Beaumont Hamel is a small village in the north of France. • Was located on the front line of the Allied assault during the Battle of the Somme • By 1918 the village was almost completely destroyed

4. When • The assault was to begin at 7:30am July 1st 1916 • At 7:20 the 18000 kg Hawthorne Mine was detonated • 7:25 British Artillery open up on the German lines • The Newfoundland were situated in the St. John’s Road support trench, 250m behind the front line and out of sight of the enemy

5. The Advance • The detonation of the mine warned the Germans of the pending attack • They seized the crater and used it as a significant defensive position • 8:45 Royal Newfoundland Regiment ordered to support the advancing 87th Brigade • Essex regiment delayed by clogged trenches forces Newfoundland Regiment to advance over a half mile of exposed front, alone and with no cover from Allied artillery. • As the Newfoundland regiment left the trenches they crested the hill, making them the only visible troops on the battlefield • Those who made it to the front line were expected to advance in parade style movements through the barbed wire • They then had to cross 500m of exposed slopes to the German defensive line • The battle was over for the Royal Newfoundland regiment in less then a half hour

6. Devastation For Newfoundland • 801 men of the Royal Newfoundland assaulted the German lines • Only 68 returned unharmed • 91% casualties for the RNR • Effectively rendering the regiment all but useless • Nearly wiping out an entire generation of Newfoundlanders

7. The Danger Tree • The Danger tree is a tree located half way through no mans land • Originally used as a landmark for a Newfoundland raiding party in the days before the Somme • Artillery had stripped the tree of bark and leaves leaving nothing more then a shattered trunk • During the attack it was used as a rally point for the RNR • The Germans also used the tree as a land mark for sighting their artillery and machine guns

8. The Result • The battle was a devastating defeat for the Allied Forces • The Somme Offensive on a whole cost the British and French over 600,000 casualties • The British had suffered 19,240 dead, 35,493 wounded, 2,152 missing and 585 prisoners for a total loss of 57,470 during the first day of the Somme. • This accounted for 20% of the British force wiped out in one day.

9. Bibliography • http://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/memorials/ww1mem/beaumonthamel • http://www.theblackwatch.co.uk/index/first-world-war • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Somme • http://canadaonline.about.com/od/ww1battles/p/beaumonthamel.htm • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Newfoundland_Regiment • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Somme#First_day_on_the_Somme:_1_July