Hawthorne Crater, Beaumont-Hamel, France

We attended a private non religious ceremony/reenactment to mark the anniversary of the start of the Battle of The Somme. Numerous WW1 experts were present including Andy Robertshaw from Great Britian. Each participant was given an envelope with details of a soldier you were to read to yourself at the end. Everyone was also given a shot of rum from an original crock from the War that had some original rum in it. We were in the precise location of a British unit right beside Hawthorn Crater that was blown at the start of the attack. We mimicked the movement of the unit at the precise time they moved out that morning. Once this was complete a bagpipe player played us over to Hawthorne Crater and were the first to be given a tour and told what the plans are for this site. Andy Robertshaw with the help of a military engineer told us what all the items we had found in the battlefields were. We then had breakfast in the village.Read more