World War One battlefields today | The Compost Bin | Forums

The second pic in the article, and the one in the original post above, is from the Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial.

It marks the site where the Newfoundland (then not even a part of Canada) Regiment, had their first major engagement during the battle of the Somme. Due to battlefield confusion the regiment, being held in reserve contingent upon the success of the main attack, went over the top unsupported and suffered roughly 80% casualties in about 20 minutes against the Germans. About .5% of Newfoundland's population died on the field that day. For perspective, if you took that casualty rate and applied to the population of Canada today it would result in 1,750,000 causalities.

The site now belongs to Canada after being purchased by the people of Newfoundland in the 1920s, and is one of our national historic sites.

It is crazy to think that my great great grandparents were of the generation of Newfoundlanders who fought on that field.

Great link, thanks for posting.