Walking the Somme Newfoundland park Beaumont Hamel

One of the best sites on the Somme battlefield to walk the battlefield

Transcript

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Hello everyone and welcome to Peter Battlefield. If you can hear the birds in the background, I'm currently in a gypsy caravan on the Somme in the little village of Mentel Martinsar, where once a year I come and stay for a couple of days and walk the battlefield to the First World War. If you are interested in staying at this place, I couldn't recommend it highly enough. Regie and Regine will look after you and even teach you a little bit more about the battlefields. But I'm going to talk to you about one of the key sites that anyone who's visiting the Somme should go to. And if you're travelling with perhaps younger people or people who have no knowledge of the First World War, it's always a particularly good place to start. This is Newfoundland Park, near Bowent Hamel, a site where the Newfoundlanders, on the 1st of July 1916, would be completely obliterated in one of the bloodiest days in British military history, of course the first day of the Battle of the Somme. The Somme is over a large front of about 15 kilometres from the south where we meet we met up with the French fighting all the way north of the village of Sayre. But this particular spot in the middle will be the uh job of the 29th Division on that day. And today the site are some of the best preserved trenches and a preserved battlefield, perhaps that you could compare to perhaps Gettysburg or Clodden. This site is dedicated solely to the men of the Newfoundland Regiment, but there's a bit more history to them from there. I should of course say that others are remembered at this site, but when you enter it, the site and the land, the reason it's so well preserved, is it was bought by the people of Newfoundland. For those who don't know about Newfoundland, Newfoundland is a small island off the coast of Canada. But at the time of the First World War, and it wouldn't be until after the Second World War, that they finally be part become part of Canada. They would send only a small number of battalions, however, the Royal Newfoundland Regiment made up a large proportion of the male population of the island. They would serve out in Gallipoli to start off with as part of the 29th Division, and then by the summer of 1916, they'd find themselves on the Western Front. The Battle of the Somme is a history that many people will be aware of, but it's not just one day of the entire war, but here we can walk through that deadly day minute by minute. So, in between the roads between Hamel and Oceanvilliers, you'll see the flags and a large green park on your right hand side. There's perfect parking outside the front, and even in the car park, history is under your feet. You can see an outline where a communication trench once went across the road into Newfoundland Park. You cross the road, and if you go there within the business hours, you'll be met by young Canadian students. These college students will, or university, have to be Canadian and have to be bilingual. Many of them at the end of their education will come over and spend free months at here, at Newfoundland, and then at Vimy Ridge, two of the key Canadian sites on the Western Front. Have a word with them, chat with them, and you can even get a guided walking tour around the site. But for me, to have a quick chat with them because these young people are so far from home, just like those in the First World War. On the right hand side you'll find a visitor centre. This is an amazing little museum where you'll be greeted by more Canadian children, and also it's an ideal place to use the toilet and top of your water bottle. But it gives you the full history of the pre-war days of Newfoundland, going into one of the former fishermen's cottages and learning the history of the island before the men of Newfoundland were sent off. And then you'll get a rich potted history of the regiment, what they did out in Gallipoli, some of the personal stories, as well as what happened on that fateful day on the first of July 1916. The island of Newfoundland would never recover, and all those tiny little villages and fishing towns around the island would all be struck by this terrible conflict. 800 men would go into the fight, of which 732 were casualties. 266 of those would be killed. We then leave the visitor centre, and then you'll see around you you're surrounded by the outlines of trenches and shell holes from that battlefield. You walk around and you'll go past the 29th Division Memorial, the division in which the Newfoundland has fought with. We then make our way to the caribou. Now the caribou is the symbol of Newfoundland, and I always thought that the island looks like it, and that's why they used it as their national animal and their national emblem. Then, underneath the caribou, we have a memorial to the missing. Very similar to every nation during the First World War, they decided to have their own personal marks of their lost. There's just over 1,100 names on this memorial, and it covers all those of their merchant navy, their all naval reserve, and all those who died on the Western Front, and subsequently all other battlefronts the Newfoundlanders would be in for the entirety of the war. But this is the names of the missing. One of them was found not too recently, and he is one of my namesakes. Frank Lambert was located not too far from the city of Ypres, and about three or four years ago he actually received a proper burial and is buried in a new Irish Farm Cemetery, located not too far from the city of Ypres. You can then walk up the top of the caribou, and I do often have to tell school children who I take up there, remember where you are, this is a battlefield site, and for the love of God, don't ride the caribou. Once you've come down from the caribou, or actually whilst we're standing up here at the top here, we can look over the entirety of the battlefield. To our left hand side we have the Hawthorne Ridge crater, which we'll make a little stop at a little bit later, and then to your right you may just be able to see the T8 Val Ridge with the Teat Bow Memorial to the Missing on top there. We descend and then we're walking into those frontline trenches of the first of July 1916. Now kickoff time was at half past seven, and at twenty past seven the Hawthorne Ridge mine would blow up, and sadly that part of the battlefield would be a complete disaster. But more of that later. Men of the Essex Regiment and the South Wales borderers would be absolutely obliterated, and at half past seven the attack was nearly called off, and but the Newfoundlanders found themselves in the front line. They were clambering over the dead of the previous battle. At half past nine the whistles blew, and they made their way across No Man's Land. When you get to the end of this front line trench, you'll have a set of stairs, and in front of you you walk down the path going down the hill. Don't go left, you can come back that way a little bit later. We're now heading towards Y Ravine. We're walking across No Man's Land. And you can see one of the last relics of the battle. That is the danger tree. This was the only position with a where the barbed wire had been cut. One of the positions and people gathered around the top of that tree. And what's quite horrific is when you get to the tree you can see over into the gully towards Yravine, where the Germans had their machine guns positioned on top of it, and many would be cut down. It would be a complete failure for all of the 29th Division who were concerned. And sadly the bodies of those who died wouldn't be recovered until November. But we walked down to Yravine Cemetery. It's one of three cemeteries on the site, and I find it quite interesting. You'll notice the large number of congregation of unknown Newfoundlanders. This is because the Newfoundlanders had a particular type of shoulder title and uniform, which stuck out more than most, and all those months later they will be able to be identified of those of Newfoundland. You'll also see all the men of the different regiments who fought on that day as part of the 29th Division, as well as those of the 51st Highland Division, who would die on that fateful day. We then leave the cemetery and walk up the hill. Here we're in the behind the German front lines, and as you go around the corner you'll see a wooden cross of remembrance. Behind it we can look into a former quarry, which was taken over by the Germans. Here at this location, deep underground, when the troops in November 1916 would take it at the Highland Division, they found the Germans were living in luxury. They had burrowed into the hill and even had a cinema, and with comfy beds, electricity and running water. Now if you turn around you'll see a rather impressive memorial. This is the 51st Highland Divis Memorial. Those men on the 13th of November 1916 would firingly push through and mark the end of the Battle of the Somme. But their work would not be done on this field, as in for days later they would be recovering the bodies of those they'd found on the battlefield. And sadly many of those on that day would also lose their lives. Now you've got a choice here. You can either walk back to the car park or you can do an extended walk. You'll see a gate that leads out into the fields, and you can then walk up towards Hawthorne Ridge Cemetery and the Hawthorne Crater. But we'll cover that in another podcast. But otherwise, if you're walking back towards your car, you're going to walk past Hunter's Cemetery. This is not by any means a unique cemetery, however, the layout is different to those that many of us will see. You'll notice a cross of sacrifice in the centre, and as you walk around the edge of it, you'll see the graves looking outwards. This cemetery was created in that period of November 1916. We've got to imagine that they were burying the dead of the first July, and they had to bury them quickly. So the men were buried inside the shell hole, and they lay as they rest today. You then come to a larger cemetery. This is Hawthorne Ridge number two, and we can see two rows of neat graves, along with a couple of graves that added in 1918, but if we look at those two rows here, we can see that all these men are from the first line 1916, buried by the 51st Highland Division at the time. You then go back up the path and you'll return to the car park. These podcasts are only short, sharp, and sweet to give you an idea of these places to go to and perhaps inspire you to go on further trips.