Beaumont-Hamel

During the First World War, Beaumont-Hamel was close to the front line, near many attacks, especially during the Battle of the Somme, one of the largest allied offensives of the war. By 1918, the village had been almost totally destroyed.The banks of white chalk at Beaumont Hamel led to a sector of British trenches being nicknamed "White City". To the west of the village was Hawthorn Ridge Redoubt, one of the sites of the mines exploded on the first day of the Battle of the Somme. On 1 July 1916, the 29th Division assaulted the German front line in an attempt to capture the village as part of the Somme Offensive. Included in this Division was the Newfoundland Regiment. Newfoundland commemorates this event as Memorial Day on 1 July each year.

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