Beaumont-Hamel

Beaumont-Hamel
Commune
The monument to the dead, in Beaumont
Beaumont-Hamel
Location within Hauts-de-France region
Beaumont-Hamel
Coordinates: 50°05′02″N 2°39′26″E / 50.084°N 2.6572°E / 50.084; 2.6572Coordinates: 50°05′02″N 2°39′26″E / 50.084°N 2.6572°E / 50.084; 2.6572
Country France
Region Hauts-de-France
Department Somme
Arrondissement Péronne
Canton Albert
Intercommunality Communauté de communes du Pays du Coquelicot
Government
 • Mayor (2001–2008) Bernard Omiel
Area1 8.31 km2 (3.21 sq mi)
Population (2010)2 188
 • Density 23/km2 (59/sq mi)
Time zone UTC+1 (CET)
 • Summer (DST) UTC+2 (CEST)
INSEE/Postal code 80069 /80300
Elevation 70–148 m (230–486 ft)
(avg. 75 m or 246 ft)

1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

2 Population without double counting: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once.

Beaumont-Hamel is a commune in the Somme department in Hauts-de-France in northern France.

Map of Beaumont-Hamel during the Battle of the Somme in 1916 (red – British front line, blue – German fortifications).

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".[1] 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, nearly 700 men of the Newfoundland Regiment (later to become the Royal Newfoundland Regiment) were killed or injured by German fire as they moved over open ground to make an attack, the communication trenches being already full of wounded men. Newfoundland commemorates this event as Memorial Day on 1 July each year.

The fields around Beaumont-Hamel after the Battle of the Somme.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Baker, John (June 5, 2014). "White City', located near Beaumont Hamel on the Somme, 1916. | British Army First World War". www.army.mod.uk. Retrieved 26 November 2016.
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