Lest We Forget

Today is the first of seven posts leading up to "Rememberance Day". Each day I will provide a different example of the courage that our Canadian heros performed during the great war. Today I start with a summary of one of many great documentary tapes that the "War Amps" offers covering both World Wars and Korea.

The Blue Puttees

There is a remarkable story that comes out of the history of the First World War -- the story of a regiment from Newfoundland that earned itself the reputation as one of the best fighting Forces of the "war to end all wars." Yet, how little Canadians really know of this amazing group of volunteer soldiers, who travelled to the battlefields of France in 1916 as virtual unknowns, and returned in 1918 with the respect of the world.

This documentary tells the story of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment -- of its beginnings as a band of volunteers, who quite literally started with nothing, to build themselves into a properly equipped battalion; of its initiation into the rigours of trench warfare in Gallipoli; of its near annihilation at the tragic and bungled Battle of Beaumont Hamel in France; of its regrouping to distinguish itself in other significant battles throughout the war; and of what was perhaps the ultimate honour -- the awarding of the prefix "Royal" to the regiment by the British War Office before the war was even over.

Later,
Kenaz