The 74 acre park lies outside the village of Beaumont Hamel, and comprises the largest area of preserved battlefield on the Somme. This sector, across which the 29th Division attacked on July 1st, is almost unique in the Somme battlefield in that the British trenches overlooked those of the German first line. However, rising ground behind the German fire trenches, and positions even further back on the Beaucourt Ridge, gave the Germans a clear and open field of fire onto the assaulting troops, and the advance of the initial wave of the 87th Brigade across what was an unusually wide expanse of no-man's-land was quickly and decisively checked.