rifle, bayonet, of ammunition, iron ration (an emergency ration of preserved food, tea, sugar and salt), two grenades, pick, shovel or entrenching tool, four empty sandbags, two gas helmets, wire cutters, a smoke candle and a water-bottle. In the French army, the experience of 1915 showed that despite the power of French bombardments, infantry would enter a chaotic environment, full of German pockets of resistance and individuals who had been by-passed. By mid-1916 much of the French infantry in the Sixth Army were specialist rifle-and-bayonet men, bombers, rifle grenadiers or light machine-gun crews. Attacking waves were spread wider and companies trained to manoeuvre in small groups, to get behind surviving German defences, as (trench cleaners) armed with hand-grenades and revolvers, searched captured ground for stray Germans and hidden machine-gunners, although such methods did not come into general use until later in the year. Mining The chalk soil of the Somme was ideal for tunnelling and the British inherited a number of mine workings begun by the French army. The British tunnelling companies placed 19 mines beneath the German front positions and prepared Russian saps from the British front line into no man's land, to be opened at Zero Hour and allow the infantry to attack the German positions from a comparatively short distance. The mines on the Somme were the largest yet in the war. The mines were to destroy the German defences and to provide shelter in no man's land for the advancing infantry. Eight large and eleven small mines were prepared for the first day of the battle; three large mines of and seven mines around . When the mines were blown, infantry was to rush forward to seize the craters; the largest mines, each containing of ammonal, were on either side of the Albert–Bapaume road near La Boisselle, Y Sap mine north of the road and Lochnagar mine to the south. H3, the other large mine was planted under Hawthorn Ridge Redoubt near Beaumont Hamel, containing of explosive. The mines were to be detonated at two minutes before zero hour, except for the Hawthorn Ridge mine, which was to be sprung at (The small mine at Kasino Point was mistimed and blown after the infantry attack had commenced.) Supply From 1 January to 3 July 1916 the BEF was reinforced by and the number of heavy guns increased from The new divisions needed supply trains a week