Visited the park dedicated to the Royal Newfoundland Regiment's loss at the French town of Beaumont-Hamel.
On July 1, 1916, at the start of the battle of the Somme, the Newfoundland Regiment went over the top with 22 officers and 758 men. Within 20 minutes, all the officers and 658 of the men were killed or wounded. The next day, 68 men answered the roll call.
The monument was dedicated in 1925.
I then went over to the Somme American Cemetery at Bony France.
1,844 soldiers from the 1st Infantry Division, the 27th Infantry Division and the 30th Infantry Division are buried here. It is on the actual battlefield of the battle for the St. Quentin Canal in October 1918.
Three recipients of the Medal of Honor are buried here. Four sets of brothers (including two brothers killed on the same day in 1918), five nurses who died in the war. The chapel contains the names of 333 missing in action (including one MIA whose body was actually uncovered in 1955, and was identified using dental records, and buried in the cemetery).
Colonel Bolling (after whom Bolling Air Force Base is named) is among the MIA.
The Frenchman who works for the American Battle Monuments Commission loves visitors and is happy to show them around. The US government brought next of kin over to France in 1920, showed them where their dead family members were buried, and asked them whether they wanted them to remain in France or be brought home at government expense. 60% wanted their dead repatriated.
Sobering day, but a beautiful day in northern France. The vicinity of the Somme has little Commonwealth and French military (and even some German military) cemeteries and monuments every half mile dotting the countryside dedicated to the lost in the carnage.
The American dead were consolidated after the war in just a few larger cemeteries.
