At the time of the First World War Newfoundland was a British colony and, like all the other countries of the Empire, it raised a volunteer army. At 7.30 am on 1 July 1916 the men of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment had scarcely left their trenches before they came under intense German machine-gun fire. Half an hour later only 68 men remained unscathed, with all the officers killed or wounded. In terms of casualties relative to the number of men engaged, this battle was among the most murderous of the entire Battle of the Somme.

A single petrified tree escaped the devastation of the site : this is the skeleton of the "danger tree", named after its location at a particularly exposed observation point.
The first German line crossed the far end of the park, close to the kilted Highlander statue of the 51st Highland Division which captured the enemy position on 13 November 1916. Young bilingual Canadian students provide guided visits from the beginning of April until the end of November. Information centre at the site.