Danger Tree

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The Danger Tree is an infamous memorial to the Royal Newfoundland Regiment who went into battle on the first day of the Battle of the Somme in World War I, 1st July 1916. It is merely a replica of the remains of a tree trunk, but it marks the spot where the casualties were highest. It is in Newfoundland Memorial Park at Beaumont Hamel, 9km north of the town of Albert.

On the first day of the Somme, 800 soldiers of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment rose from the British trenches and went into battle at Beaumont Hamel. The next day, only 68 men answered the regimental role call. 255 were dead, 386 were wounded, and 91 were listed as missing. Every officer who had gone over the top was either wounded or dead.

The Danger Tree was used as the spot where the Newfoundlanders were ordered to gather once they got into No-Man's Land. From there they would receive a new plan of action. However, nobody had realised that the Germans could easily see the tree and concentrated their fire there, thus killing the troops who reached that spot. It is rumoured that nobody made it past the tree alive on the first day of the Somme campaign.

Nowadays, a cluster of small trees grow next to the bare trunk of the Danger Tree, and they are believed to have grown from the same root system as the original Tree.