The crater of the Hawthorn Redoubt seen from the location of Jacob's Ladder on the Somme battlefield
Hawthorn Crater was one of the 17 mines that were exploded by the British on the morning of 1 July 1916 to signal the start of the Somme offensive. It is one of the few remaining craters (along with, notably, Lochnagar), however its chief claim to fame is two-fold. Firstly, the Hawthorn Crater was the first to be blown that day, at 0720 - eight minutes before any of the remaining 16; and secondly because the explosion itself was actually captured on film. The mine took seven months to lay, being 75ft deep and 1,000ft long. It was prepared with a 40,600lb ammonal charge by 252nd Tunnelling Company. The resultant crater was 40ft deep and 300ft wide. Today it forms a figure of eight, the result of a subsequent British mine explosion (with a 30,000lb ammonal charge) under a German fortification in November 1916. The 1 July 1916 mine explosion was captured on film by Geoffrey Malins for the highly successful officially approved film 'The Battle of the Somme'. He shot the footage from a vantage point near the famous Sunken Lane., close to where this photograph was taken
Size: 5760px × 3840px
Location: Old Beaumont Road, Beaumont-Hamel Somme France
Photo credit: © Niall Ferguson / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: 1914-18, 1916, 1st, city, crater, explosion, great, hawthorn, jacob, july, ladder, lane, malins, redoubt, somme, sunken, war, white
