Their assignment was to seize control of the German trenches near the village of Beaumont Hamel.
It was a strategically difficult assignment.
Besides, the Germans knew when an attack was going to start.
The battlefield of Beaumont-Hamel is still pockmarked with craters and trenches.
The Germans knew that once the artillery bombardment stopped, an infantry attack would follow.
But they made another terrible mistake here: they blew the explosives 10 minutes before zero hour.
The slaughter at Beaumont-Hamel was appalling.
From here, German trenches were a further 500 meters away down a slope.
When roll call was taken the next day, only 68 men answered their names.
Now a replica representation of the twisted tree stands at the spot.
The central memorial mound at the Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial.
