Beaumont Hamel Day is the one that counts in Newfoundland

"On July 1 in broad daylight one hundred thousand men, the Newfoundlanders among them, climbed out of their trenches and advanced shoulder to shoulder in line, one behind the other, across the crater-torn waste of No-Man's Land. Weighed down by 30 kilograms of equipment each, they advanced slowly towards the waiting German guns.

No unit suffered heavier losses than the Newfoundland Regiment, which had gone into action 801 strong. When the roll call of the unwounded was taken next day, only 68 answered their names."

From: http://collections.ic.gc.ca/legion/intro.htm

On a mound, surrounded by rock and shrubs native to Newfoundland, there stands a great bronze caribou, the emblem of the Newfoundland Regiment. Situated close to the Headquarters dugout of the 88th Brigade, of which the 1st Battalion, Newfoundland Regiment was a part, the Caribou nobly faces in the direction of the former foe, overlooking the trenches and ground across which the Battalion advanced on July 1, 1916. At the base of the mound, three bronze tablets carry the names of 820 members of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, the Newfoundland Royal Naval Reserve, and the Mercantile Marines who gave their lives in the First World War and have no known grave. [It should be noted that several of these have been subsequently found and buried in nearby Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries.]

The Royal Newfoundland Regiment - (RNFLDR) traces its origins to 1795, and since 1949 it has been a militia or reserve unit of the Canadian Armed Forces. During World War I the battalion-sized regiment was the only North American unit to fight in the Gallipoli campaign of 1915. Later in the war the regiment was virtually wiped out at Beaumont Hamel on July 1, 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme. Since then July 1 has been marked as Memorial Day in Newfoundland and Labrador.

When war against the Americans was formally declared on 18 June 1812, the flank companies were withdrawn from the regiment and, in August, were sent to Kingston under the command of Major Heathcote.

Elements of the Royal Newfoundlanders soon became involved in action around Detroit, as the Americans attempted to mount an attack on Upper Canada. The detachment under Captain Mockler, serving as seamen aboard the General Hunter and the Queen Charlotte, were brought ashore in August to form a core of regulars hr the militia force attacking Detroit. The Newfoundlanders won a special commendation from General Brock on the fall of Detroit.

By the end of 1812, the regiment was scattered in detachments to Quebec, Prescott, Kingston, Fort George, and York. The largest group of the regiment was a detachment of 111 all ranks, which formed part ofthe garrison of Fort George at the mouth of the Niagara River. The Americans attacked the fort on the night of 26-27 May 1813.

The grenadier company of the Royal Newfoundlanders formed part of the small force of 200 defenders at the point of the original assault-landings. Attacked in overwhelming strength, the British force gradually fell back to Fort George; the grenadier company lost twenty-one men killed and twelve wounded, including both its officers.

A further 100 men of the regiment served as marines with the Lake Erie Squadron under the command of Captain Robert Barclay, R.N. These Newfoundlanders suffered fourteen killed and twenty-five wounded - twenty eight per cent of the total British casualties - in the naval Battle of Lake Erie fought on 10 September 1813.

In 1814, a detachment of Newfoundlanders carried out a remarkable operation that demonstrated their capability and determination both ashore and on the water. Two companies were ordered to reinforce the isolated British post of Michilimackinac. This involved building a fleet of small open boats and sailing them from Georgian Bay to the northwestern end of Lake Huron. The Royal Newfoundlanders reached their destination in a month.

Early in August, the post was attacked by troops landed from an American naval squadron. The garrison not only beat off the attack, but the Newfoundlanders and a naval detachment took to the water in four small boats and captured the American ships Tigress and Scorpion in a daring night operation.