Hawthorn Ridge Redoubt was a German front-line fortification, west of the village of Beaumont Hamel on the Somme. It was demolished by a British mine detonation at 7:20 a.m. on 1 July 1916, the First day on the Somme. Since the end of the Battle of Albert in 1914 the Germans had been fortifying the original defensive lines which had formed when static warfare began. The defences were elaborated several times before the Battle of the Somme as French and then British attacks on the Western Front became more formidable. During the Second Battle of Artois in early 1915, a supporting attack was conducted by the French XI Corps from Hébuterne to Serre, which advanced the front line on a 1-mile (1.6 km) front and left a German salient, the Heidenkopf (Quadrilateral), north of the Hawthorn Ridge R