Battle of the Somme - Beaumont-Hamel, Picardie, France - Battlefields on Waymarking.com

This particular battlefield park represents one small geographic segment of the Battle of the Somme. On the opening day of the battle (1 July 1916), five divisions of the French Army (led by Ferdinand Foch) and thirteen divisions from the British Empire (Douglas Haig and Henry Rawlinson) attacked the German Second Army (Fritz von Below), along a line 26 km in length. Millions of soldiers were involved. More than one million were wounded or killed.

The Battle of the Somme lasted more than four months and included many separate, noteworthy battles: Battle of Albert, Battle of Bazentin Ridge, Battle of Fromelles, Battle of Delville Wood, Battle of Pozières, Battle of Guillemont, Battle of Ginchy, Battle of Flers–Courcelette, Battle of Morval, Battle of Thiepval Ridge, Battle of the Transloy Ridges, Battle of the Ancre Heights, and Battle of the Ancre.

This particular memorial park is a tribute to the Royal Newfoundland Regiment (led by Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Lovell Hadow, battalion commander), a regiment that was nearly decimated during thirty minutes on 1 July 1916. The regiment lost more than 800 of its battalion strength of 1000 soldiers.

In 1916, Newfoundland was still an independent state, Britain's oldest colony. Within four decades, Newfoundland would give up its independence to join Canada. In 2016, the memorial and battlefield park is a national historic site of Canada.

Together, this memorial near Beaumont-Hamel and the Canadian memorial at Vimy Ridge contain nearly 80 percent of all conserved battlefields from the First World War.

Name of Battle: Battle of the Somme Name of War: First World War Entrance Fee: 0.00 (listed in local currency) Parking: N 50° 04.340 W 002° 38.850 Date(s) of Battle (Beginning): 07/01/1916 Date of Battle (End): 11/18/1916

Visit Instructions:
Post a photo of you in front of a sign or marker posted at the site of the battle (or some other way to indicate you have personally visited the site.

In addition it is encouraged to take a few photos of the surrounding area and interesting features at the site.

Recent Visits/Logs:

Date Logged Log User Rating   05/26/2019 Lynx Humble visited it