Remembering Beaumont-Hamel: A Letter from the Trenches

Today Newfoundlanders remember the advance at Beaumont-Hamel, fought on the opening day of the Battle of the Somme on July 1, 1916. The intent that day was for the Allies to destroy the Germans' defenses, including the lines of barbed wire protecting their trenches. However, the battle did not go as planned for the Allies and the Royal Newfoundland Regiment. Final battle figures revealed 233 men from the Regiment dead, 386 wounded, and ninety-one reported missing (and later assumed dead). Only 110 men from the Regiment remained unscathed after the battle. The casualty rate for many battalions was over fifty percent; for the Newfoundland Regiment, it was eighty-five percent.


A 12-7; Memorial Day Parade, St. John's [July 1, 1924]
Courtesy of: The Rooms Provincial Archives.

The following is an excerpt from a letter published in the Evening Telegram on July 28, 1916,written by Sergeant Arthur Herder (service number: 0-61/1863), who went over the top with the Regiment at Beaumont-Hamel. Herder, a lawyer from St. John’s, enlisted at the age of 33. While he survived Beaumont-Hamel, he was later killed in action:

As to the Regiment, it was magnificent. Every Newfoundlander ought to be proud of it. Its fighting spirit was splendid – that was to be expected; but the most astonishing thing was the absolutely perfect steadiness of the men, or rather boys, for I verily believe it was the youngest regiment, all through, in the Army. We had practiced the attack for about ten days, even to the minutest detail. Every private was instructed over and over again as to just what was expected of him. When the day came, the men carried out their order to the death, or till they were so wounded they could not proceed further. Moreover, they carried them out exactly, under a perfect hail of fire, machine guns, rifle, shrapnel and high explosives, not only from the front but on both flanks. The 1st Newfoundland regiment did very well, and we ought to all be proud of it.