page_title: Royal Newfoundland Regiment
section_title: After Beaumont-Hamel
hierarchical_section_title: Royal Newfoundland Regiment / Royal Newfoundland Regiment in the First World War / 1st Battalion / After Beaumont-Hamel
context_page_description: The Royal Newfoundland Regiment is a Primary Reserve infantry regiment of the Canadian Army. It is part of the 5th Canadian Division's 37 Canadian Brigade Group.
  Predecessor units trace their origins to 1795, and since 1949 Royal Newfoundland Regiment has been a unit of the Canadian Army. During the First World War the battalion-sized regiment was the only North American unit to fight in the Gallipoli campaign of 1915. Later in the war the regiment was virtually wiped out at Beaumont Hamel on July 1, 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme, but was rebuilt and continued to serve throughout France and Belgium until the armistice, serving as part of the British Army of the Rhine in 1919. Since 1916, July 1 has been marked as Memorial Day in Newfoundland and Labrador.
context_section_description: Although significantly under strength, the Newfoundland Regiment continued to see service and after taking on reinforcements was back in the front line on 14 July near Auchonvillers. On 17 July the 88th Brigade was transferred to a quieter portion of the Western Front. In the weeks and months following the attack, the surviving officers wrote letters of condolence to families and relatives in Newfoundland. A period of recovery coupled with additional reinforcements eventually helped the regiment return to full strength. Six weeks later they were beating off a German gas attack in Flanders. Subsequently, they distinguished themselves in a number of battles: back on the Somme at Gueudecourt in October 1916; and on 23 April 1917, at Monchy-le-Preux during the Battle of Arras, where they lost 485 men in a day but checked a German attack. In Flanders during the Third Battle of Ypres the battalion attacked on 16 August at the Battle of Langemarck and on 9 October 1917 the battalion formed the left flank of 29th Division's attack as part of the Battle of Poelcappelle. In November 1917 at Masnières-Marcoing during the Battle of Cambrai the regiment stood its ground although outflanked and in April 1918 stemmed a German advance at Bailleul. Following a period out of the line, providing the guard force for General Headquarters at Montreuil, they joined the 28th Brigade of the 9th (Scottish) Division and were in action again at Ledegem and beyond in the advances of the Hundred Days Offensive during which Thomas Ricketts became the youngest soldier of the war to win the Victoria Cross.
caption: Royal Newfoundland Regiment crossing the Rhine into Germany, 1918
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