Editing Hawthorn Ridge Redoubt (section)

{{Short description|German fortification in the First World War}}
{{See also|Battle of the Somme|First day on the Somme|Mines on the first day of the Somme|Battle of the Ancre}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2019}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2021}}
{{Infobox military conflict
|conflict=Hawthorn Ridge Redoubt
|partof=The [[Battle of the Somme]], in the [[First World War]]
|image = Image:Ancre sector 1 July 1916.png
| image_upright = 1.0
|caption=Trench Map showing Hawthorn ridge and crater at top left
|date=1 July, 13 November 1916
|place=[[Picardy]], [[France]]
|coordinates = {{coord|50|05|0.2|N|2|39|0.54|E|display=inline}}
|map_type=France
|map_size=200
|map_caption={{centre|Beaumont-Hamel is a [[Communes of France|commune]] in the [[Somme (department)|Somme]] [[Departments of France|department]], [[Picardy (region)|Picardy]], northern [[France]]}}
|map_label=Hawthorn Ridge
|result=1 July 1916: German victory, 13 November: British victory
|combatant1= {{flag|British Empire}}
* {{flag|United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland}}
|combatant2= {{flag|German Empire}}
|commander1= [[Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig|Douglas Haig]]
|commander2= [[Erich von Falkenhayn]]
|strength1=
|strength2=
|casualties1=
|casualties2=
|campaignbox = {{Campaignbox Somme 1916}}
{{Campaignbox Western Front (World War I)}}
}}
'''Hawthorn Ridge Redoubt''' was a [[German Empire|German]] field fortification, west of the village of [[Beaumont Hamel]] on the [[Somme River|Somme]]. The redoubt was built after the end of the [[Battle of Albert (1914)|Battle of Albert]] (25–29 September 1914) and as [[French Third Republic|French]] and later [[British Empire|British]] attacks on the [[Western Front (World War I)|Western Front]] became more formidable, the Germans added fortifications and trench positions near the original lines around Hawthorn Ridge. At {{nowrap|7:20 a.m.}} on 1 July 1916, the British fired a huge mine beneath the Hawthorn Ridge Redoubt. Sprung ten minutes before zero hour, the mine was one of 19 [[Mines on the first day of the Somme|mines detonated]] on the first day of the [[Battle of the Somme]]. [[Geoffrey Malins]], one of two official war cameramen, filmed the detonation of the mine. The attack on the redoubt by part of the [[29th Division (United Kingdom)|29th Division]] of [[VIII Corps (United Kingdom)|VIII Corps]] (Lieutenant-General Sir [[Aylmer Hunter-Weston]]) was a costly failure.

Hunter-Weston had ordered the mine to be fired early to protect the advancing infantry from falling debris but this also gave the Germans time to occupy the rear lip of the mine crater. When British parties advanced across [[no man's land]] to occupy the crater, they were engaged by German small-arms fire. A few British soldiers reached the objective but at noon they were ejected by a German counter-attack. The success of the German defence of the Hawthorn Ridge Redoubt crater contributed to the failure of the British attack on the rest of the VIII Corps front.

The British reopened the tunnel beneath the Hawthorn Ridge crater three days later and reloaded the mine with explosives for the [[Battle of the Ancre]] {{nowrap|(13–18 November)}}. The new mine was fired on 13 November in support of an attack on Beaumont-Hamel by the [[51st (Highland) Division]] of [[V Corps (United Kingdom)|V Corps]]. The Scottish infantry advanced from a trench {{cvt|250|yd}} from the German lines, half the distance of 1 July, with the support of tanks, an accurate [[creeping barrage]] and an overhead machine-gun barrage. Beaumont-Hamel was captured and {{nowrap|2,000 German}} prisoners taken.
{{TOC limit|2}}