29th Division, replacing an Irish battalion of the Regular Army that could not get enough reinforcements from Ireland. Somme 29th Division had recently taken over a section of the line in front of Beaumont-Hamel and was preparing for the 'Big Push' (the Battle of the Somme) scheduled for 29 June 1916. The division's objective was to cross of open ground and penetrate the German front line to Beaumont-Hamel, taking the Hawthorn Ridge Redoubt with the assistance of a large mine. The 16th Middlesex, like other battalions, had to provide working parties to carry away the chalk excavated by the tunnellers. The plan hinged on a five-day artillery bombardment to destroy the enemy trenches and barbed wire. Bad weather obscured the targets, patrols (including one from 16th Middlesex) reported much of the wire still uncut, and the bombardment was extended for two extra days, with Z day put back to 1 July. The 16th Middlesex was in support, behind the 2nd Royal Fusiliers attacking towards the Hawthorn Ridge Redoubt and the 1st Lancashire Fusiliers advancing from a sunken lane in No man's land towards The Copse a few hundred yards further north. Controversially, the Hawthorn Ridge mine was blown at 07.20, 10 minutes before Zero hour, which allowed the Germans time to recover before the infantry went 'over the top'. The explosion was caught by cameraman Geoffrey Malins and later shown worldwide in his film The Battle of the Somme. Before dawn on 1 July 16th Middlesex under Lt-Col Hall moved up to assembly trenches named Cripps Cut and Cardiff Street, where they waited while the first wave went forward into No man's land five minutes before Zero. Both the Royal Fusiliers and Lancashire Fusiliers were caught by a cross-fire of machine guns from the 'Bergwerk' to the right of Hawthorn Ridge and from the Copse, and by the artillery barrage that the Germans laid down on the British start line. The barrage was so intense and the number of returning wounded so great that the second wave, including B and D Companies of the 16th Middlesex, could not leave their trenches until 07.55. A and C Companies followed, but all were caught by the same fire. The 16th Middlesex just about reached the wire in front of the crater, with heavy loss, but could get no further. Malins' film shows a distant group of men, believed to be from the