“ That night, a strong detachment of British troops slipped into the fortified ruins of the village, held by picked machine-gunners. A fierce struggle followed in the dark. At daybreak the German garrison attempted a sortie, and succeeded in encircling the British detachments. However, a British aeroplane, which was hovering over the scene of the struggle, signalled that reinforcements were coming, and finally the Germans were encircled, and several hundreds of them taken prisoners. ”

“ The ground, in a state of complete upheaval, is almost levelled in places, while the huge mine-craters give it the appearance of a lunar landscape. The ground was churned up so deeply that the upper covering of soil has almost entirely disappeared and the limestone substratum now laid bare is overrun with rank vegetation. From Thiepval to Albert, Combles and Péronne, and from Chaulnes to Roye, the ground was so completely upturned as to render it useless for agriculture for many years to come, and a scheme to plant this area with pine trees is now being considered. ”

“ Not a single square yard escaped the deluge of shells, the destruction being as complete as it was methodical. Of the trenches, which were levelled before the fighting proper began, practically only traces remain. The woods, turned into fortresses, have likewise vanished, only shapeless tree-stumps being left. The villages were razed to their very foundations.
As far as the eye can reach, nothing is seen but a chaotic waste patched here and there with weeds and rank grass. In places, vestiges of the ancient barbed wire entanglements, which overran the ground in all directions, are met with. ”

“ Behind, the edge of a once wooded ravine, the chalky substratum of which, laid bare by shell-fire, was christened "Gendarme's Hat" by the Poilus, formed the Germans' first line. Further away, in the hollow of the valley, appear the ruins of Curlu village. ”

“ A desperate struggle which lasted all day took place in the village, where every street and crossing was protected by defence-works. Machine-guns were posted in all the houses, while buildings like the town-hall, sugar refinery, railway-station, etc., had been turned into powerful centres of resistance. ”

“ A breach was made south of the Somme, but the marshes prevented development, while to the north, the offensive was held on the Ancre lines.
Putting to profit the German failure at Verdun, where the enemy masses, after appalling sacrifice of human life, gradually became blocked in a narrow sector (71⁄2 miles in width) , the Allies widened their front of attack.
After an effective "pounding" by the guns which annihilated all obstacles to a considerable depth, the assaulting waves went forward simultaneously along a 24-mile front, feeling for a weak sector where a breach could be made. ”

“ The outbuildings were still standing when the late war broke out; to-day they form a shapeless accumulation of débris. The park was entirely cut up with German entrenchments, of which only a few concrete machine-gun posts and underground shelters with concrete entrances remain. The fine old trees of the park were reduced by the shells to mutilated stumps.
Near the entrance-gate of the château is a powerful system of defence-works, consisting of a machine-gun blockhouse and inter-communicating underground shelters, the entrances to which may be seen near the side of the road. ”

“ A similar liaison is ensured between the various attacking units, on the right, left and behind. Action must be co-ordinated, an essential point on which the G.H.Q. always strongly insist.
As soon as the enemy perceives the assaulting waves, every effort is made to scatter them by means of artillery barrage and machine-gun fire, asphyxiating gas, grenades and liquid fire, so that generally the storming troops cross "no man's land" through a veritable screen of fire. The enemy's fire likewise extends to the first-line trenches, to cut off the first waves from their supports. ”

“ The battle extended over the Picardy plateau, south and north of the Somme. Before the war, the region was rich and fertile, the chalky ground having a covering of alluvial soil of variable thickness.
The slopes of the undulating hills and the broad table-lands were covered with immense fields of corn, poppies and sugar beet. Here and there were small woods—vestiges of the Arrouaise Forest, which covered the whole [Pg 11] country in the Middle-Ages. There were scarcely any isolated houses, but occasionally a windmill, farm or sugar-refinery would break the monotony of the landscape. ”

“ The day after the capture of Curlu, the French resumed their advance, and soon reached the village of Hem, which they carried on July 5, after fierce fighting lasting the whole day.
The road follows the line of the advance, from Fargny Mill to Hem. At Curlu leave the church on the left. Numerous shelters, graves and cemeteries are seen along the road, which passes near Hem-Monacu (2 km. beyond Curlu) ; a few broken walls, 300 yards to the right of the road, are all that remain of the village (photo below) . ”

“ The road passes a cross (photo above) in the village, at the junction of two ways. Take the one on the right, which leads to the site of the late church. Of the latter, nothing remains but a few iron crosses in the surrounding cemetery (photo below) .
Montauban was captured by the British on the first day of their offensive (July 1, 1916) . The struggle was short, but fierce and sanguinary. Numerous machine-guns posted in the cellars of the houses directed a continuous and murderous fire upon the assailants through the vent-holes, and had to be destroyed one by one, by means of grenades. ”

“ The British followed up their success by attacking the fortified positions to the north and north-east, on the line of hills which dominate the Valley of the Ancre near Grandcourt, where the Germans had also made formidable entrenchments, comprising the Stuff Redoubt (to the north-east) , the Schwaben Redoubt (to the north) , and between the two, astride of the Thiepval-Grandcourt road (G.C. 151) , the Hesse Trench. Behind these, in the direction of Grandcourt, the Shiff and Regina Trenches, likewise powerfully organised, formed a second line of entrenchments. ”

“ The German system of defence-works comprised three successive lines of trenches connected with one another by communication trenches, and reinforced with redoubts and concrete shelters for machine-guns. Here were to be found the "Gatz" trench, and the "Misery" and "Thirst" communication-trenches. The bombardment which preceded the attack was terrific, the whole area being upturned by the shells; not a single square yard of the ground was left intact.
The village was not spared by the bombardments; most of the houses were reduced to shapeless heaps of bricks and broken beams. ”

“ At 12.30 a.m., on September 25, the Canadians attacked the castle and southern part of the village, one of the strongholds of the fortress. After fierce fighting, which lasted two hours, they captured the defence-works, being helped by the tanks which, crushing everything before them, destroyed the nests of machine-guns hidden on all sides. ”

“ The honour of taking Sailly fell to the 152nd Infantry Regiment of the [Pg 89] Vosges, already famous by the capture, in Alsace, of the village of Steinbach and the Hartmannsweillerkopf. For eight days, this gallant unit "fully maintained its gains, in spite of the most intense bombardment, and as many as three violent counter-attacks daily" (Order of the Day of December 4, 1916, being the third Citation "à l'ordre de l'Armée" of this regiment) .
GRAVES IN THE PARK OF SAILLY-SAILLISEL CHÂTEAU
The battle was soon resumed with the same violence for the possession of Saillisel. ”

“ THE RUINS OF THIEPVAL.
[Pg 50]
WHERE THE CHÂTEAU OF THIEPVAL USED TO STAND.
The recapture of the Thiepval Plateau by the Germans at the end of March, 1918, did not give rise to any important engagement, no special effort being made to defend it. In the same way, it is said that when the British finally drove out the Germans a few months later (August 24, 1918) , they did not lose a single man.
Everything was pounded to bits by the shells. Of the one-time flourishing village, nothing remains. A shapeless mass of broken stones marks the site of the Castle (photo above) . ”

“ The French and German trenches ran along the western outskirts of the village and were protected by very powerful defence-works, difficult to approach in the open. Recourse was, therefore, to mines.
The Somme offensive put an end to these sanguinary engagements, which had brought about no great change in the French or German positions. Fay, completely razed, was carried on July 1.
Among the ruins, the road turns at right-angles to the left (leave the Estrées road to the right) . 3 km. beyond Fay, Assevillers, built on a hill and entirely destroyed, is reached. ”

“ Further fighting took place in the ruins of Lihons in 1918. On August 8, British troops, starting from the region of Villers-Bretonneux—Hangard, reached Lihons on the 10th. Preceded by light tanks, armoured cars and cavalry patrols, the Australians immediately entered the village, drove out the enemy and captured a complete Divisional staff. It was in vain that the Germans launched numerous counter-attacks in an endeavour to recapture the village and clear the approaches to Chaulnes, where they attempted to establish their lines of resistance. ”

“ At the corners, and at intervals, in the foundations of the castle, machine-guns were posted. The outbuildings of the estate were similarly fortified. The cellars, some 50 feet deep, were turned into armoured shelters, capable of successfully withstanding the most violent bombardments, and connected with one another and with the defence-works of Blaise Wood by a subterranean passage, which enabled the Germans either to fall back unseen towards the canal or approach for counter-attacks. ”

“ Towns and villages were wiped out, houses plundered, industries ruined, factories destroyed, land devastated, agricultural implements broken, farms burnt, trees cut down—in a word, everything done to turn the place into "a desert incapable for a long time of producing the things necessary to life" (Berliner Tagblatt) . ”

“ Fighting with grenades, the British advanced inch by inch, so to speak, and eventually gained a footing in the village, to the east and south. Each advance was immediately followed by a violent counter-attack, as the Germans looked on Thiepval as the key of the Bapaume position.
On August 26, in particular, the Prussian Guard attacked the British lines of the Leipzig Salient. The struggle was one of "giants." After furious hand-to-hand fighting, the Wiltshire and Worcestershire Regiments broke the assaulting waves and inflicted "frightful" losses on the enemy. ”

“ Counter-attacking at the point of the salient in the Allied lines at Delville Wood, they succeeded in slipping through, but they were held in front of Longueval.
On the 20th and 23rd, the Allies delivered a general attack. The British 4th Army was now confronted by the enemy in force all along the line. However, the village of Pozières, one of the strong-points of Thiepval Plateau, to the west, was carried by the Australians on July 25. The French advanced their lines as far as the ravine, in which runs the light railway from Combles to Cléry. ”

“ There were other enemy positions on the counter-slopes behind the ridge.
These positions took in the villages and small woods of the region, all of which, fortified during the previous two years, bristled with defence-works and machine-guns.
Some of these villages (Courcelette, Martinpuich, Longueval, Guillemont and Combles) , hidden away in hollows, were particularly deadly for the Allies; the defenders, unseen, were able to snipe the assailants as they appeared on the hill tops. The Allies had to encircle these centres of resistance before they were able to enter them. ”

“ The Albert—Combles-Péronne railway runs along the bottom of one of these depressions.
The higher parts of the plateau form a ridge, one of whose tapering extremities rests on the Thiepval Heights, on the bank of the Ancre. Running west to east, the ridge crosses the Albert-Bapaume road at Pozières, passes Foureaux Wood, then north of Ginchy. It is the watershed which divides the rivers flowing northwards to the Escaut and southwards to the Somme. ”

“ A single line of heights only now separated the British Army from Bapaume, 6 km. distant from Le Sars. This line consisted chiefly of Warlencourt Ridge, which dominates the country all round, and which had been turned by the Germans into an apparently impregnable fortress.
Although the bad weather and the mud now forced the Allies to suspend their offensive, sharp fighting continued. From December to the end of January the British raided the enemy's trenches unceasingly. ”