Newfoundland Memorial Park

The trenches at Newfoundland Memorial Park on the Somme battlefield. This really brought to life the feel of the battle. You could imagine the awful conditions of life in the trenches and see in the near distance the German front line. Some of the barbed wire that the British put around the trenches remained (and eventually led to a lot of our soldiers being tangled up in and killed). It was such a muddy battle, the soldiers carried about 2-4lb of mud on each boot, which slowed them down. The Germans were far more efficient, which led to so many lives being lost.

"The area has been maintained because of the significance to Newfoundland,Canada. The Newfoundland Regiment, which was part of the 88th Infantry Brigade within the 29th Division, attacked here on the 1st of July 1916, and suffered appalling losses. After the War, Newfoundland purchased this land in 1921, and first it and then the Canadian government (after 1949) have maintained it since as a memorial." Wikepedia

It was another sunny autumnal day, and again there was such a calm feel about the place. But it was easy to picture the horror of what must have taken place on this land and in the trenches. This poem was at the memorial site:

Tread softly here! Go reverently and slow!
Yea, let your soul go down upon its knees,
And with bowed head and heart abased strive hard
To grasp the future gain in this sore loss!
For not one foot of this dank sod but drank
Its surfeit of the blood of gallant men.
Who, for their faith, their hope,—for Life and Liberty,
Here made the sacrifice,—here gave their lives.
And gave right willingly—for you and me.

From this vast altar—pile the souls of men
Sped up to God in countless multitudes:
On this grim cratered ridge they gave their all.
And, giving, won
The peace of Heaven and Immortality.
Our hearts go out to them in boundless gratitude:
If ours—then God's: for His vast charity
All sees, all knows, all comprehends—save bounds.
He has repaid their sacrifice:—and we—?
God help us if we fail to pay our debt
In fullest full and unstintingly!

John Oxenham