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Today, marks the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the Battle of the Somme. By the end of this first day, 1st July 1916, 20,000 British soldiers were dead, and 40,000 wounded. It was the worse day in British military history.
I knew a veteran of this battle when I was a small boy. He had lost a leg while bravely fighting for his country.
My friend and I tried asking him about the war. He was a cheerful old guy, but as he tried to explain to us curious children, he broke down in tears. It remains in my memory, watching the tears run down his face.
July the first is Canada Day, and we as a nation celebrate our national birthday.
BUT in Newfoundland and Labrador, the first of July is a solemn and somber day, as the island remembers the virtual elimination of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment at the battle of Beaumont Hamel on July first, 1916.
Just about every village and town on the island lost somebody that day. 760 casualties in one day. 80 percent of the Regiment was either killed or wounded. On one day.
At this moment in time, 100 years ago today. brave men were fighting and dying for their country. Right or wrong, that's what they were fighting for. 20,000 dead by nightfall, and 40,000 injured. For many years, their sacrifice was overshadowed by the more recent 2nd World War.
I knew of them, and there were plenty of those men alive when I was a boy. Some we didn't see...... the one's horribly mutilated, with faces destroyed. We didn't see the one's locked in mental homes, their minds mangled by war.
Towards the end of that brave generation, some of them decided to talk of what happened to them on those fields in France so long ago. We have that recorded on film now they are all gone.
We must never forget their sacrifice, all those young men. Also all the men and women who fought in the Second World War. Some of those, thankfully, are still with us.
Those men and women fought for a reason, so the rest of the UK's people, and the ones yet to be born, could live in safety and peace.
I hope politicians in their dealings today with Europe, keep in mind those brave people. They didn't fight and die for this country to be handed to others not of this land, and with no real love for it.
July the first is Canada Day, and we as a nation celebrate our national birthday.
BUT in Newfoundland and Labrador, the first of July is a solemn and somber day, as the island remembers the virtual elimination of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment at the battle of Beaumont Hamel on July first, 1916.
Just about every village and town on the island lost somebody that day. 760 casualties in one day. 80 percent of the Regiment was either killed or wounded. On one day.
Lest we forget.
Jim B.
Thank you for your sacrifice, and all the other countries who came to our aid.
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