I didn’t have time to prepare a Memorial Day post for this year, but everything I wrote last year still stands. We haven’t forgotten.
(Not to depress anyone on this lovely and otherwise-celebratory-in-Canada day, but history is important, guys…)
Happy Canada Day! Well, mostly… see, when you live in Newfoundland, July 1 is a bittersweet holiday (and not just because so many people still swear that joining Canada was a mistake– not today’s topic, don’t worry). No, it’s because in Newfoundland, July 1 is also Memorial Day, the day set aside to remember the lives lost at the battle of Beaumont-Hamel, France, on July 1, 1916.
It’s not an insignificant number. The Newfoundland Regiment (then hailing from a tiny dominion of the British empire, not from Canada) was destroyed: more than 650 casualties, most within 15-20 minutes of leaving the trenches. Anywhere you read about the Newfoundland Regiment and this battle, the terms “nearly annihilated,” “almost wiped out” or “decimated” are sure to appear.
War is awesome, isn’t it?
But Great Big Sea tells…
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disregard the prologue 
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