Student Tour Blog

Written by Clare Vike

On the morning of May 27th, our group left the farm in the picturesque countryside of France and drove to the site of the battle of Beaumont-Hamel. It was here we were given a VIP tour by Parks Canada. We experienced walking through the preserved trenches of this portion of the overall Somme Offensive of 1916. Seeing just how close together the trenches were, yet still understanding that the back lines could not see what was going on in No Man’s Land clarified the issues of communication we had previously read about. It was here the 1st Newfoundland Regiment faced their darkest day. In just a few minute walk for us in 2025, the regiment was decimated in 1916. While stranding next to their farthest point, ‘Danger Tree’, we were told of the cost this attack. Just 68 men from the regiment responded to roll call the next morning. The rest of the regiment of 801 Newfoundlanders were killed, missing, or wounded. Their names on the caribou monument, overlooking the battlefield their spot of remembrance in France.

The next day we visited Notre Dame de Lorette and walked among the fallen. There were many mass plots of unidentified soldiers. While they remain unidentified, I find comfort in the fact that they are not alone and lie together. Brothers in life and brothers in death. The more recent installation of the Ring of Remembrance next to this site portrays the name of the missing in alphabetical order, all nationalities and religions together, remind me that peace in death transcends all earthly matters, for while they fought each other on the battlefield, they find peace and fraternity in death.