Learning Station # 1 – Images and Remembrance Response Sheet

Answer the following questions based on what you see in the Images of the Somme and Group Portraits of the Newfoundland Regiment.

1. How old do you think the soldiers in the group portraits are? Why do you think men so young might have signed up for service?
2. Look at the picture of the Newfoundland soldiers in the St. John’s support trench at Beaumont-Hamel the morning of July 1, 1916. What do you think might have been going through their minds as they awaited the orders to “go over the top?”
3. Look at the pictures of the mud, shell holes and barbed wire at Beaumont-Hamel. What do you think it might have been like to live in trenches on the front lines for days and weeks on end? What do you think you would do if you were ordered to cross a landscape in the face of machine gun fire and exploding shells?
4. Additional Question:
   In the First World War, the Newfoundland Regiment was known as “the blue puttees.” Using the photos as a reference, what part of their uniforms do you think are the “puttees?” Hint: they provide leg protection.