Tag: Amiens

Above is Villers-Bretonneux Memorial, an Australian National Memorial, located across the back of the Villers-Bretonneux Military Cemetery. It commemorates the 10,796 Australians who died in France and have no known grave. We left Ypres and this is where we are now, making a few stops before arriving at Amiens, France.

We also stopped at Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial. Now Newfoundland-Labrador are a province in Canada, I just finished blogging about this province as we traveled there last year. But during the time of WWI, Newfoundland was not yet a province of Canada, it was a dominion of the British Empire. Newfoundland, at the time, had a total population of approximately 242000 people and more than 12,000 would serve in uniform. In case you’re curious, Newfoundland joined Canada as it’s 10th province in 1949.

The Newfoundland Regiment was a unit of the British Army and saw action in Turkey before being sent to France’s Western Front for the battle of the Somme. On one day of the battle, in less than 30 minutes, the Regiment had over 700 killed, wounded, or missing. This is the largest memorial, out of five, recognizing Newfoundlanders.

On to Ocean Villas and the Thiepval Museum………..next post………..