The Men of the Newfoundland Regiment

The Men of the Newfoundland Regiment

A longing for peace was in everyone’s thoughts,
As the First World War in Europe was fought;
Brave men were needed to join in the fight;
To save the free world from a terrible plight.

The Newfoundland men left their fishing behind
To take up work of a much different kind;
As they left their families – to war they were sent –
The men of the Newfoundland Regiment.

The British were fighting upon foreign soil,
In rain, mud and cold the soldiers did toil;
And so they laid plans for victorious battle
Near the enemy lines there at Beaumont Hamel.

Not zero hour – ten minutes before –
A mine was blown with a deafening roar;
As the first wave of soldiers went on the attack
The German guns soon began firing back.

The British advance did not go as was planned
And they met defeat at the enemy’s hand;
The trenches were filled with the bodies of men,
Yet into the fray, still more soldiers were sent.

Over the top of the trenches they went,
The men of the Newfoundland Regiment;
Across “No Man’s Land” towards the enemy line,
While bayonets glowed in the bright sunshine.

On the first of July in nineteen sixteen,
The meadows of France were a horrific scene;
So many were lost on that infamous day,
As wounded and dying, those brave soldiers lay.

In the minds and hearts of all Newfoundland folk,
The tragedy of Beaumont Hamel was wrote;
We’ll never forget to their deaths they were sent,
The men of the Newfoundland Regiment.