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Thursday, November 10, 2016

Remembrance Day 2016


The battle of the Somme, WW1 was a tragic day for the  Newfoundland Regiment, fighting near Beaumont-Hamel in France.
This tiny self- governing country, (Newfoundland did not join Canada until 1949) sent 801 soldiers into battle on July 1, 1916. The next day, only 68 were able to answer roll call.
The Beaumont-Hamel memorial is perched up on a rocky promontory, suitably echoing  the country's nickname -"The Rock". There are other memorials to the Newfoundlanders and labradorians across Belgium and France.


Have a look at the CBC documentary, TheTrail of the Caribou, a depiction of how this war affected the people of Newfoundland for generations to come, and may even have played a part in making them a province in the Confederation of Canada, because so many young men had perished during this brutal war.


Read about of The Danger Tree : Memory, War and the Search for a Family's Past by David Macfarlane.