Capture of Beaumont-Hamel

Capture of Beaumont-Hamel
Part of the Battle of the Somme of the First World War
Battle of the Somme, 1916
Date 1 July 1916 13–18 November 1916 Location Beaumont-Hamel, France 50°05′02″N 02°39′26″E / 50.08389°N 2.65722°E / 50.08389; 2.65722 Result German victory 1 July British victory 13–18 November
Belligerents
British Empire  United Kingdom  Newfoundland	German Empire
Commanders and leaders
Douglas Haig Henry Rawlinson Hubert Gough	Fritz von Below
Strength
1 July: 29th Division 13 November: 51st (Highland) Division	1 July: Reserve Infantry Regiment 119 (26th Reserve Division) 13 November: Infantry Regiment 62 (12th Division)
Casualties and losses
1 July: 5,240 13 November: c. 2,200	1 July: 292
Beaumont-Hamel class=notpageimage| Beaumont-Hamel, a commune in the Somme department, Picardy, northern France

The Capture of Beaumont-Hamel was a tactical incident that took place during the Battle of the Somme (1 July – 18 November 1916) in the Battle of the Ancre (13–18 November) during the second British attempt to take the village. Beaumont-Hamel is a commune in the Somme department of Picardy in northern France. The village had been attacked on 1 July, the First Day of the Somme. The German 2nd Army (General Fritz von Below) defeated the attack, inflicting many British and Newfoundland Regiment casualties.

On 1 July 1916, the 29th Division attacked at 7:20 a.m., ten minutes after a 40,000 lb (18 long tons; 18 t) mine under the Hawthorn Ridge Redoubt had been blown. The explosion alerted the Germans nearby, who occupied the far lip of the crater and pinned down British troops in no man's land on either side, where they were caught by German artillery-fire. White German signal rockets were mistaken for success flares and the 88th Brigade, including the Newfoundland Regiment, advanced from 200 yd (180 m) behind the British front line. The few parties that crossed no man's land found uncut wire. Reserve Infantry Regiment 119 had been in deep dugouts (Stollen) and emerged to defeat the attack. The Newfoundlanders suffered 710 casualties, of the 29th Division total of 5,240 casualties.

By early November, the British in the south were ready to attack northwards towards the Ancre river, simultaneous with an attack eastwards on the north side of the river to capture Beaumont-Hamel and Serre-lès-Puisieux. On 13 November, during the Battle of the Ancre in thick fog, the 51st (Highland) Division outflanked Beaumont-Hamel on both sides and forced the garrison to surrender. Infantry and artillery co-operation was conspicuously superior to 1 July; barrages were better aimed and more destructive, cut off the German front line from the rear and neutralised German guns; mopping up parties had been given specific objectives in the German defences. The defenders were exhausted before the battle began and where the British artillery had cut the wire, were unable to repulse the attack. The defenders of Beaumont-Hamel repulsed a frontal attack by the Highlanders but were surrounded in the fog and surrendered later in the day.