The spectacular explosion of the mine at Hawthorn Ridge—a fortified German front-line position in the First World War—marked the beginning of the Battle of the Somme, and remains one of the best-known pieces of film from the whole conflict.

More than 60ft below the surface, British miners had dug a gallery for more than 900 meters from their lines and packed it with 40,000 lbs of explosives. It was one of 19 mines placed beneath German front positions that were detonated on July 1, 1916, to mark the start of the offensive.

But the detonation of the mine at Hawthorn Ridge, famously captured by film director Geoffrey Malins, took place 10 minutes before the whistles blew at 7:30am. The early detonation, later described as a “colossal blunder,” alerted the Germans the infantry attack was imminent and gave them enough time to take up defensive positions in the newly-formed crater, leading to heavy losses among the attacking British troops.

Now, findings from the first-ever multi-disciplinary scientific investigation of the 107-year-old crater have been published in the Journal of Conflict Archaeology. The team of researchers, scientists and historians, led by Keele University, used a range of cutting–edge technology, including drones with imaging cameras, to examine the area like never before.