- The Royal Newfoundland Regiment
Infobox Military Unit
unit_name=The Royal Newfoundland Regiment
caption=Cap badge of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment
dates=1795-Present
country=Canada
branch=Militia
type=Line Infantry
role=Light Infantry
size= Three battalions
command_structure=Royal Canadian Infantry Corps
current_commander=
garrison= RHQ - St. John's
1st Battalion - St. John's
2nd Battalion - HQ and B COY Grand Falls-Windsor
A COY - Corner Brook
C COY - Stephenville
ceremonial_chief=HRH The Princess Royal
ceremonial_chief_label=Colonel in Chief
colonel_of_the_regiment=
nickname= "The Blue Puttees" (Only the first 500 soldiers were The Blue Puttees)
motto= "Better than the Best"
colors=
march=Quick - "The Banks of Newfoundland"
mascot=
battles=War of 1812 Battle of Gallipoli , 1915-16Battle of the Somme , 1916
Battle of Beaumont-Hamel, 1916
Battle of Cambrai, 1917Third Battle of Ypres , 1917
Le Transloy, Arras 1917
Scarpe,1917,
Langmarck, 1917
Poelcappelle, 1917
Lys, Bailleul, Kemmel, Kortrijk
France and Flanders, 1916-18
Egypt, 1915-16
notable_commanders=
anniversaries=ANZAC Day - 25 Apr
Memorial Day - 1 JulThe Royal Newfoundland Regiment - (R NFLD R) traces its origins to 1795, and since 1949 it has been a
militia or reserve unit of theCanadian Forces . During the First World War thebattalion -sized regiment was the onlyNorth America n unit to fight in the Gallipoli campaign of 1915. Later in the war the regiment was virtually wiped out at Beaumont Hamel onJuly 1 ,1916 , the first day of the Battle of the Somme. Since thenJuly 1 has been marked as Memorial Day inNewfoundland and Labrador .Early history
A Newfoundland regiment was first founded, to serve in the
British Army , in 1795. It was disbanded and refounded several times under different names, including His Majesty's Royal Newfoundland Regiment of Foot, The Royal Newfoundland Veterans Companies and, The Royal Newfoundland Companies. The regiment dates its origin to 1795, when Major Skinner of theRoyal Engineers stationed in St. John's at Fort Townshend, was ordered to raise a regiment.The regiment was significantly involved in the
War of 1812 . Soldiers of the regiment fought aboard ships asmarine s in battles of theGreat Lake s, as infantry inMichigan , and in the battle to defend York (Toronto ). It was largely distributed throughout the zone as attached sub-units and not as a formed battalion. It was disbanded in 1816.Newfoundland became a self-governing
Dominion of theBritish Empire on26 September 1907 World War I
Like all other parts of the
British Empire , Newfoundland was bound by British foreign policy and entered the First World War onAugust 4 ,1914 . From a very small population base, it raised the 1st Newfoundland Regiment, to fight alongside theBritish Army .During the First World War, the Newfoundland Regiment was nicknamed the "Blue Puttees" due to a fabric shortage which saw the regiment wearing blue puttees rather than the standard olive drab
puttees . Fact|date=February 2007Gallipoli
On
September 20 ,1915 the regiment landed at Suvla Bay on the Gallipoli peninsula, where the British VIII Corps, IX Corps and the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) had been attempting to seize control of the Dardanelles Strait fromTurkey since the first landings onApril 25 . At Gallipoli the 1st Newfoundland Regiment facedsniper s,artillery fire and severe cold, as well as thetrench warfare hazards ofcholera ,dysentery ,typhus ,gangrene andtrench foot . Over the next three months thirty soldiers of the regiment were killed or mortally wounded in action and ten died of disease; 150 were treated for frostbite and exposure.Despite the terrible conditions, the Newfoundlanders stood up well. When the decision was made to evacuate all British Empire forces from the area, the regiment was chosen to be a part of the
rearguard , finally withdrawing from Gallipoli with the last of theBritish Dardanelles Army troops onJanuary 9 ,1916 .The Somme
On
July 1 1916 , the first day of the Battle of the Somme in World War I, 801 soldiers of the 1st Newfoundland Regiment rose from the British trenches and went into battle atBeaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial , nine kilometres north of Albert in France. The next day, only 69 men answered the regimental roll call: 255 were dead, 386 were wounded, and 91 were listed as missing. Every officer who had gone over the top was either wounded or dead.The regiment was in one of the follow up waves of what was referred to as "The July Drive" and were scheduled to reinforce what was expected to be sweeping victories across the front. When the time came to move to the jumping-off point, the Newfoundlanders found that the lead trenches were so tightly packed with dead and dying soldiers of the lead waves, who had been stopped by formidable barbed wire obstacles and automatic weapons fire, that they had to attack from secondary trenches. The increased amount of ground they had to cover, in the open, contributed to the disaster that befell them. The Newfoundland Regiment never made it past their own concentrations of barbed wire. Lieutenant-Colonel
Arthur Lovell Hadow who witnessed the attack reported that the attack had failed despite training, discipline, and valor, because dead men can advance no further.On the bloodiest day in the history of the
British Army (57,470 casualties, 19,240 dead) at the opening of the largest battle (over one million casualties) of the war, Newfoundland had also suffered its gravest military loss. To this day, Beaumont-Hamel remains the most significant single military action fought by Newfoundlanders, and it marked a turning point in the history and culture of the island. Some historians have suggested that tiny Newfoundland never fully recovered from the loss of so many of its male population; similar hardships were faced by the regiment atGallipoli as well.Newfoundlanders today mark the date of
July 1 not just asCanada Day , but also as Memorial Day.After Beaumont-Hamel
In the weeks and months following the attack, as the surviving officers wrote letters of condolence to families and relatives in Newfoundland, the Battalion was steadily brought back to full strength. Six weeks later they were beating off a German gas attack in
Flanders . Subsequently they distinguished themselves in a number of battles; back on the Somme atGueudecourt in October 1916; on23 April 1917 , atMonchy-le-Preux during the Battle of Arras, where they lost 485 men in a day but checked a German attack despite overwhelming odds; then in November 1917 atMasnières -Marcoing during the Battle of Cambrai where they heroically stood their ground although outflanked; then atBailleul stemming the German advance in April 1918. Following a period out of the line providing the guard force for General Headquarters atMontreuil , they joined the 28th Brigade of the9th (Scottish) Division and were in action again atLedegem and beyond in the advances of the Last Hundred Days. It was in these last days of the war that Pte.Thomas Ricketts of the Regiment became the youngest soldier of the war to win theVictoria Cross . In recognition of their achievements the Newfoundlanders were regarded as being an elite battalion.Fact|date=July 2007First World War honours
In late 1917, following the Battle of Cambrai, the regiment was granted the "Royal" prefix by King George V, making it the only regiment of the
British Empire to receive that honour during the war itself and only the third time in the history of the British Army that it has been given during a state of war.Later history
When
World War II began, as Dominion governed directly from the UK, Newfoundland declared war a day after theUnited Kingdom , onSeptember 4 ,1939 . However no Newfoundland infantry units were sent overseas. Instead, it raised two artillery regiments; the 59 Heavy (Newfoundland) Regiment and the 57 (later 166) [ [http://www.infonet.st-johns.nf.ca/providers/166th_nfr/ 166th Newfoundland Regiment] ] (Newfoundland) Field Artillery Regiment. These units saw service in Africa, Italy, and Europe.In 1949, after a pair of referenda, Newfoundland joined
Canada as the latter's 10th province. The Royal Newfoundland Regiment became the primary militia unit for the province. The regiment is ranked last in the order of precedence of Canadian infantry regiments due to Newfoundland's entry into Canada in 1949, long after other Canadian regiments were recognized in the order of precedence.Since 1992, soldiers and sub-units of the regiment have served to augment Regular Force units in
Cyprus , Bosnia,Sierra Leone andAfghanistan on peacekeeping and combat missions.Quotes
"It was a magnificent display of trained and disciplined valour, and its assault only failed of success because dead men can advance no further." Major-General Sir
Beauvoir de Lisle (commander,British 29th Division ) regarding the Newfoundland Regiment at Beaumont-Hamel."Thank God, my left flank is safe! Now for my right." Brigadier General Bernard Freyberg, VC (commander British
88th Brigade ), at theBattle of Ledeghem , September, 1918, upon learning that the Newfoundland Regiment held his left flank.Popular Culture
The Song "Recruiting Sergeant" by
Great Big Sea is about the regiment and its actions in Suvla and in France.Alliances
*GBR - The Royal Scots Borderers
*AUS - The Royal New South Wales Regimentee also
*
The Canadian Crown and the Canadian Forces
*National War Memorial (Newfoundland)
*Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial
*List of Canadian organizations with royal patronage
*Monarchy in Newfoundland and LabradorOrder of precedence
Notes and references
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