Enemy's barrier broken.
In spite of the fact that most of Ginchy and of High Wood remained in the enemy's hands, very noteworthy progress had been made in the course of these four days' operations, exceeding anything that had been achieved since July 14, 1916. Our right was advanced on a front of nearly two miles to an average depth of nearly one mile, penetrating the enemy's original second line of defense on this front, and capturing strongly fortified positions at Falfemont Farm, Leuze Wood, Guillemont, and southeast of Delville Wood, where reached the western outskirts of Ginchy. More important than this gain in territory was the fact that the barrier which for seven weeks the enemy had maintained against our further advance had at last been broken. Over 1,000 prisoners were taken and many machine guns captured or destroyed in the course of the fighting.
Preparations for a further attack upon Ginchy continued without intermission, and at 4.45 p.m. on September 9, 1916, the attack was reopened on the whole of the Fourth Army front. At Ginchy and to the north of Leuze Wood it met with almost immediate success. On the right the enemy's line was seized over a front of more than 1,000 yards from the southwest corner of Bouleau Woods, in a northwesterly direction, to a point just south of the Guillemont-Morval tramway. Our troops again forced their way into Ginchy, and passing beyond it carried the line of enemy trenches to the east. Further progress was made east of Delville Wood and south and east of High Wood.
German prisoners taken.
Over 500 prisoners were taken in the operations of September 9, 1916, and following days, making the total since July 1, 1916, over 17,000.
French progress.
Meanwhile the French had made great progress on our right, bringing their line forward to Louage Wood (just south of Combles)—Le Forest-Clery-sur-Somme, all three inclusive. The weak salient in the allied line had therefore disappeared and we had gained the front required for further operations.
Ability of new armies.
Depth of enemy fortifications.
Failure of counterattacks.
Still more importance, however, lay in the proof afforded by the results described of the ability of our new armies, not only to rush the enemy's strongest defenses, as had been accomplished on July 1 and 14, 1916, but also to wear down and break his power of resistance by a steady, relentless pressure, as they had done during the weeks of this fierce and protracted struggle. As has already been recounted, the preparations made for our assault on July 1, 1916, had been long and elaborate; but though the enemy knew that an attack was coming, it would seem that he considered the troops already on the spot, secure in their apparently impregnable defenses, would suffice to deal with it. The success of that assault, combined with the vigor and determination with which our troops pressed their advantage, and followed by the successful night attack of July 14, 1916, all served to awaken him to a fuller realization of his danger. The great depth of his system of fortification, to which reference has been made, gave him time to reorganize his defeated troops, and to hurry up numerous fresh divisions and more guns. Yet in spite of this, he was still pushed back, steadily and continuously. Trench after trench and strong point after strong point were wrested from him. The great majority of his frequent counterattacks failed completely, with heavy loss; while the few that achieved temporary local success purchased it dearly, and were soon thrown back from the ground they had for the moment regained.
The enemy had, it is true, delayed our advance considerably, but the effort had cost him dear; and the comparative collapse of his resistance during the last few days of the struggle justified the belief that in the long run decisive victory would lie with our troops, who had displayed such fine fighting qualities and such indomitable endurance and resolution.
Mouquet Farm in hands of British.
Practically the whole of the forward crest of the main ridge on a front of some 9,000 yards, from Delville Wood to the road above Mouquet Farm, was now in our hands, and with it the advantage of observation over the slopes beyond. East of Delville Wood, for a further 3,000 yards to Leuze Wood, we were firmly established on the main ridge, while further east, across the Combles Valley, the French were advancing victoriously on our right. But though the centre of our line was well placed, on our flanks there was still difficult ground to be won.
High ground from Ginchy to Morval.
From Ginchy the crest of the high ground runs northward for 2,000 yards, and then eastward, in a long spur, for nearly 4,000 yards. Near the eastern extremity of this spur stands the village of Morval commanding a wide field of view and fire in every direction. At Leuze Wood my right was still 2,000 yards from its objective at this village, and between lay a broad and deep branch of the main Combles Valley, completely commanded by the Morval spur, and flanked, not only from its head northeast of Ginchy, but also from the high ground east of the Combles Valley, which looks directly into it.
The French near Combles.
Up this high ground beyond the Combles Valley the French were working their way toward their objective at Sailly-Saillisel, situated due east of Morval, and standing at the same level. Between these two villages the ground falls away to the head of the ComblesValley, which runs thence in a southwesterly direction. In the bottom of this valley lies the small town of Combles, then well fortified and strongly held, though dominated by my right at Leuze Wood and by the French left on the opposite heights. It had been agreed between the French and myself that an assault on Combles would not be necessary, as the place could be rendered untenable by pressing forward along the ridges above it on either side.
Difficulties in way of French advance.
The capture of Morval from the south presented a very difficult problem, while the capture of Sailly-Saillisel, at that time some 3,000 yards to the north of the French left, was in some respects even more difficult. The line of the French advance was narrowed almost to a defile by the extensive and strongly fortified Wood of St. Pierre Vaast on the one side, and on the other by the Combles Valley, which, with the branches running out from it and the slopes each side, is completely commanded, as has been pointed out, by the heights bounding the valley on the east and west.
Close cooperation necessary on right.
On my right flank, therefore, the progress of the French and British forces was still interdependent, and the closest cooperation continued to be necessary in order to gain the further ground required to enable my centre to advance on a sufficiently wide front. To cope with such a situation unity of command is usually essential, but in this case the cordial good feeling between the allied armies, and the earnest desire of each to assist the other, proved equally effective, and removed all difficulties.
Enemy defense on main ridge over Thiepval.
On my left flank the front of General Gough's army bent back from the main ridge near Mouquet Farm down a spur descending southwestward, and then crossed a broad valley to the Wonderwork, a strong point situated inthe enemy's front-line system near the southern end of the spur on the higher slopes of which Thiepval stands. Opposite this part of our line we had still to carry the enemy's original defenses on the main ridge above Thiepval, and in the village itself, defenses which may fairly be described as being as nearly impregnable as nature, art, and the unstinted labor of nearly two years could make them.
British advance on Thiepval defenses.
Positions might be rushed.
Our advance on Thiepval and on the defenses above it had been carried out up to this date, in accordance with my instructions given on July 3, 1916, by a slow and methodical progression, in which great skill and much patience and endurance had been displayed with entirely satisfactory results. General Gough's army had, in fact, acted most successfully in the required manner as a pivot to the remainder of the attack. The Thiepval defenses were known to be exceptionally strong, and as immediate possession of them was not necessary to the development of my plans after July 1, 1916, there had been no need to incur the heavy casualties to be expected in an attempt to rush them. The time was now approaching, although it had not yet arrived, when their capture would become necessary; but from the positions we had now reached and those which we expected shortly to obtain, I had no doubt that they could be rushed when required without undue loss. An important part of the remaining positions required for my assault on them was now won by a highly successful enterprise carried out on the evening of September 14, 1916, by which the Wonderwork was stormed.
Plan of combined attack.
Main effort against Rancourt and Frégicourt.
The general plan of the combined allied attack which was opened on September 15 was to pivot on the high ground south of the Ancre and north of the Albert-Bapaume road, while the Fourth Army devoted its whole effort tothe rearmost of the enemy's original systems of defense between Morval and Le Sars. Should our success in this direction warrant it I made arrangements to enable me to extend the left of the attack to embrace the villages of Martinpuich and Courcelette. As soon as our advance on this front had reached the Morval line, the time would have arrived to bring forward my left across the Thiepval Ridge. Meanwhile on my right our allies arranged to continue the line of advance in close co-operation with me from the Somme to the slopes above Combles, but directing their main effort northward against the villages of Rancourt and Frégicourt, so as to complete the isolation of Combles and open the way for their attack upon Sailly-Saillisel.
A methodical bombardment was commenced at 6 a.m. on September 12, 1916, and was continued steadily and uninterruptedly till the moment of attack.
Bombardment and infantry assault.
At 6.20 a.m. on September 15, 1916 the infantry assault commenced, and at the same moment the bombardment became intense. Our new heavily armored cars, known as "tanks," now brought into action for the first time, successfully co-operated with the infantry, and, coming as a surprise to the enemy rank and file, gave valuable help in breaking down their resistance.
Tanks enter Flers.
High Wood carried.
Capture of the Quadrilateral.
The advance met with immediate success on almost the whole of the front attacked. At 8.40 a.m. "tanks" were seen to be entering Flers, followed by large numbers of troops. Fighting continued in Flers for some time, but by 10 a.m. our troops had reached the north side of the village, and by midday had occupied the enemy's trenches for some distance beyond. On our right our line was advanced to within assaulting distance of the strong line of defense running before Morval,Les Boeufs, and Gueudecourt, and on our left High Wood was at last carried after many hours of very severe fighting, reflecting great credit on the attacking battalions. Our success made it possible to carry out during the afternoon that part of the plan which provided for the capture of Martinpuich and Courcelette, and by the end of the day both these villages were in our hands. On September 18, 1916, the work of this day was completed by the capture of the Quadrilateral, an enemy stronghold which had hitherto blocked the progress of our right toward Morval. Further progress was also made between Flers and Martinpuich.
Results of four days' fighting.
The result of the fighting of September 15, 1916, and following days was a gain more considerable than any which had attended our arms in the course of a single operation since the commencement of the offensive. In the course of one day's fighting we had broken through two of the enemy's main defensive systems and had advanced on a front of over six miles to an average depth of a mile. In the course of this advance we had taken three large villages, each powerfully organized for prolonged resistance. Two of these villages had been carried by assault with short preparation in the course of a few hours' fighting. All this had been accomplished with a small number of casualties in comparison with the troops employed, and in spite of the fact that, as was afterward discovered, the attack did not come as a complete surprise to the enemy.
Prisoners taken.
The total number of prisoners taken by us in these operations since their commencement on the evening of September 14, 1916, amounted at this date to over 4,000, including 127 officers.
General attack launched.
Objectives taken.
Preparations for our further advance were again hindered by bad weather, but at 12.35 p.m. on September 25, 1916, after a bombardmentcommenced early in the morning of the 24th, a general attack by the Allies was launched on the whole front between the Somme and Martinpuich. The objectives on the British front included the villages of Morval, Les Boeufs, and Gueudecourt, and a belt of country about 1,000 yards deep curving round the north of Flers to a point midway between that village and Martinpuich. By nightfall the whole of these objectives were in our hands, with the exception of the village of Gueudecourt, before which our troops met with very serious resistance from a party of the enemy in a section of his fourth main system of defense.
French take Rancourt.
Combles occupied.
On our right our allies carried the village of Rancourt, and advanced their line to the outskirts of Frégicourt, capturing that village also during the night and early morning. Combles was therefore nearly surrounded by the allied forces, and in the early morning of September 26, 1916, the village was occupied simultaneously by the allied forces, the British to the north and the French to the south of the railway. The capture of Combles in this inexpensive fashion represented a not inconsiderable tactical success. Though lying in a hollow, the village was very strongly fortified, and possessed, in addition to the works which the enemy had constructed, exceptionally large cellars and galleries, at a great depth under ground, sufficient to give effectual shelter to troops and material under the heaviest bombardment. Great quantities of stores and ammunition of all sorts were found in these cellars when the village was taken.
Gueudecourt carried.
Few casualties.
On the same day Gueudecourt was carried, after the protecting trench to the west had been captured in a somewhat interesting fashion. In the early morning a "tank" started down the portion of the trench held by theenemy from the northwest, firing its machine guns and followed by bombers. The enemy could not escape, as we held the trench at the southern end. At the same time an aeroplane flew down the length of the trench, also firing a machine gun at the enemy holding it. These then waved white handkerchiefs in token of surrender, and when this was reported by the aeroplane the infantry accepted the surrender of the garrison. By 8.30 a.m. the whole trench had been cleared, great numbers of the enemy had been killed, and 8 officers and 362 of the ranks made prisoners. Our total casualties amounted to five.
Tactical value of the main ridge.
The success of the Fourth Army had now brought our advance to the stage at which I judged it advisable that Thiepval should be taken, in order to bring our left flank into line and establish it on the main ridge above that village, the possession of which would be of considerable tactical value in future operations.
New attack on Thiepval.
Accordingly at 12.25 p.m. on September 26, 1916, before the enemy had been given time to recover from the blow struck by the Fourth Army, a general attack was launched against Thiepval and the Thiepval Ridge. The objective consisted of the whole of the high ground still remaining in enemy hands extending over a front of some 3,000 yards north and east of Thiepval, and including, in addition to that fortress, the Zollern Redoubt, the Stuff Redoubt, and the Schwaben Redoubt, with the connecting lines of trenches.
Strong enemy resistance.
The attack was a brilliant success. On the right our troops reached the system of enemy trenches which formed their objectives without great difficulty. In Thiepval and the strong works to the north of it the enemy's resistance was more desperate. Three waves of our attacking troops carried the outer defenses of Mouquet Farm, and, pushing on,entered Zollern Redoubt, which they stormed and consolidated. In the strong point formed by the buildings of the farm itself, the enemy garrison, securely posted in deep cellars, held out until 6 p.m., when their last defenses were forced by a working party of a pioneer battalion acting on its own initiative.
Thiepval taken.
On the left of the attack fierce fighting, in which "tanks" again gave valuable assistance to our troops, continued in Thiepval during that day and the following night, but by 8.30 a.m. on September 27, 1916 the whole of the village of Thiepval was in our hands.
Prisoners.
Some 2,300 prisoners were taken in the course of the fighting on the Thiepval Ridge on these and the subsequent days, bringing the total number of prisoners taken in the battle area in the operations of September 14-30, 1916, to nearly 10,000. In the same period we had captured 27 guns, over 200 machine guns, and some 40 trench mortars.
Stuff and Schwaben Redoubts.
On the same date the south and west sides of Stuff Redoubt were carried by our troops, together with the length of trench connecting that strong point with Schwaben Redoubt to the west and also the greater part of the enemy's defensive line eastward along the northern slopes of the ridge. Schwaben Redoubt was assaulted during the afternoon, and in spite of counterattacks, delivered by strong enemy reenforcements, we captured the whole of the southern face of the redoubt and pushed out patrols to the northern face and toward St. Pierre Divion.
Our line was also advanced north of Courcelette, while on the Fourth Army front a further portion of the enemy's fourth-system of defense northwest of Gueudecourt was carried on a front of a mile. Between these two points the enemy fell back upon his defenses running in front of Eaucourt l'Abbaye and Le Sars,and on the afternoon and evening of September 27, 1916, our troops were able to make a very considerable advance in this area without encountering serious opposition until within a few hundred yards of this line. The ground thus occupied extended to a depth of from 500 to 600 yards on a front of nearly two miles between the Bazentin-le-Petit, Lingy, Thilloy, and Albert-Bapaume roads.
Destremont Farm carried.
Destremont Farm, southwest of Le Sars, was carried by a single company on September 29, 1916, and on the afternoon of October 1, 1916, a successful attack was launched against Eaucourt l'Abbaye and the enemy defenses to the east and west of it, comprising a total front of about 3,000 yards. Our artillery barrage was extremely accurate, and contributed greatly to the success of the attack. Bomb fighting continued among the buildings during the next two days, but by the evening of October 3 the whole of Eaucourt l'Abbaye was in our hands.
Fourth Army attacks.
At the end of September, 1916, I had handed over Morval to the French, in order to facilitate their attacks on Sailly-Saillisel, and on October 7, 1916, after a postponement rendered necessary by three days' continuous rain, our allies made a considerable advance in the direction of the latter village. On the same day the Fourth Army attacked along the whole front from Les Boeufs to Destremont Farm in support of the operations of our allies.
Enemy's trenches east of Gueudecourt taken.
The village of Le Sars was captured, together with the quarry to the northwest, while considerable progress was made at other points along the front attacked. In particular, to the east of Gueudecourt, the enemy's trenches were carried on a breadth of some 2,000 yards, and a footing gained on the crest of the long spur which screens the defenses of Le Transloy from the southwest. Nearly 1,000 prisoners weresecured by the Fourth Army in the course of these operations.
With the exception of his positions in the neighborhood of Sailly-Saillisel, and his scanty foothold on the northern crest of the high ground above Thiepval, the enemy had now been driven from the whole of the ridge lying between the Tortille and the Ancre.
Germans make repeated counterattacks.
British situation satisfactory.
Possession of the northwestern portion of the ridge north of the latter village carried with it observation over the valley of the Ancre between Miraumont and Hamel and the spurs and valleys held by the enemy on the right bank of the river. The Germans, therefore, made desperate efforts to cling to their last remaining trenches in this area, and in the course of the three weeks following our advance made repeated counterattacks at heavy cost in the vain hope of recovering the ground they had lost. During this period our gains in the neighborhood of Stuff and Schwaben Redoubts were gradually increased and secured in readiness for future operations; and I was quite confident of the ability of our troops, not only to repulse the enemy's attacks, but to clear him entirely from his last positions on the ridge whenever it should suit my plans to do so. I was, therefore, well content with the situation on this flank.
Along the centre of our line from Gueudecourt to the west of Le Sars similar considerations applied. As we were already well down the forward slopes of the ridge on his front, it was for the time being inadvisable to make any serious advance. Pending developments elsewhere all that was necessary or indeed desirable was to carry on local operations to improve our positions and to keep the enemy fully employed.
Strong enemy positions in eastern flank.
Enemy resistance weakens.
On our eastern flank, on the other hand, it was important to gain ground. Here the enemystill possessed a strong system of trenches covering the villages of Le Transloy and Beaulencourt and the town of Bapaume; but, although he was digging with feverish haste, he had not yet been able to create any very formidable defenses behind this line. In this direction, in fact, we had at last reached a stage at which a successful attack might reasonably be expected to yield much greater results than anything we had yet attained. The resistance of the troops opposed to us had seriously weakened in the course of our recent operations, and there was no reason to suppose that the effort required would not be within our powers.
Necessity to gain spur and heights.
The last completed system of defense, before Le Transloy, was flanked to the south by the enemy's positions at Sailly-Saillisel, and screened to the west by the spur lying between Le Transloy and Les Boeufs. A necessary preliminary, therefore, to an assault upon it was to secure the spur and the Sailly-Saillisel heights. Possession of the high ground at this latter village would at once give a far better command over the ground to the north and northwest, secure the flank of our operations toward Le Transloy, and deprive the enemy of observation over the allied communications in the Combles Valley. In view of the enemy's efforts to construct new systems of defense behind the Le Transloy spur, was extended and secured time in dealing with the situation.
Rain and fog a hindrance.
Unfortunately, at this juncture, very unfavorable weather set in and continued with scarcely a break during the remainder of October and the early part of November. Poor visibility seriously interfered with the work of our artillery, and constant rain turned the mass of hastily dug trenches for which we were fighting into channels of deep mud. The country roads, broken by countless shell craters, that cross the deep stretch of ground we hadlately won, rapidly became almost impassable, making the supply of food, stores, and ammunition a serious problem. These conditions multiplied the difficulties of attack to such an extent that it was found impossible to exploit the situation with the rapidity necessary to enable us to reap the full benefits of the advantages we had gained.
Enemy has time to reorganize.
None the less, my right flank continued to assist the operations of our allies against Saillisel, and attacks were made to this end, whenever a slight improvement in the weather made the co-operation of artillery and infantry at all possible. The delay in our advance, however, though unavoidable, had given the enemy time to reorganize and rally his troops. His resistance again became stubborn and he seized every favorable opportunity for counterattacks. Trenches changed hands with great frequency, the conditions of ground making it difficult to renew exhausted supplies of bombs and ammunition, or to consolidate the ground won, and so rendering it an easier matter to take a battered trench than to hold it.
French take Sailly-Saillisel.
On September 12 and 18, 1916, further gains were made to the east of the Les Boeufs-Gueudecourt line and east of Le Sars, and some hundreds of prisoners were taken. On these dates, despite all the difficulties of ground, the French first reached and then captured the villages of Sailly-Saillisel, but the moment for decisive action was rapidly passing away, while the weather showed no signs of improvement. By this time, too, the ground had already become so bad that nothing less than a prolonged period of drying weather, which at that season of the year was most unlikely to occur, would suit our purpose.
New line established.
In these circumstances, while continuing to do all that was possible to improve my position on my right flank, I determined to presson with preparations for the exploitation of the favorable local situation on my left flank. At midday on October 21, 1916, during a short spell of fine, cold weather, the line of Regina Trench and Stuff Trench, from the west Courcelette-Pys road westward to Schwaben Redoubt, was attacked with complete success. Assisted by an excellent artillery preparation and barrage, our infantry carried the whole of their objectives very quickly and with remarkably little loss, and our new line was firmly established in spite of the enemy's shell fire. Over one thousand prisoners were taken in the course of the day's fighting, a figure only slightly exceeded by our casualties.
Part of Regina trench carried.
On October 23, 1916, and again on November 5, 1916, while awaiting better weather for further operations on the Ancre, our attacks on the enemy's positions to the east of Les Boeufs and Gueudecourt were renewed, in conjunction with French operations against the Sailly-Saillisel heights and St. Pierre Vaast Wood. Considerable further progress was achieved. Our footing at the crest of Le Transloy Spur was extended and secured, and the much-contested tangle of trenches at our junction with the French left at last passed definitely into our possession. Many smaller gains were made in this neighborhood by local assaults during these days, in spite of the difficult conditions of the ground. In particular, on November 10, 1916, after a day of improved weather, the portion of Regina Trench lying to the east of the Courcelette-Pys road was carried on a front of about one thousand yards.
Enemy losses.
Throughout these operations the enemy's counterattacks were very numerous and determined, succeeding indeed in the evening of October 23, 1916, in regaining a portion of the ground east of Le Sars taken from him by our attack on that day. On all other occasions hisattacks were broken by our artillery or infantry and the losses incurred by him in these attempts, made frequently with considerable effectives, were undoubtedly very severe.
Preparations for attack on the Ancre.
On November 9, 1916, the long-continued bad weather took a turn for the better, and thereafter remained dry and cold, with frosty nights and misty mornings, for some days. Final preparations were therefore pushed on for the attack on the Ancre, though, as the ground was still very bad in places, it was necessary to limit the operations to what it would be reasonably possible to consolidate and hold under the existing conditions.
Permanent line of enemy fortifications.
The enemy's defenses in this area were already extremely formidable when they resisted our assault on July 1, 1916, and the succeeding period of four months had been spent in improving and adding to them in the light of the experience he had gained in the course of our attacks further south. The hamlet of St. Pierre Divion and the villages of Beaucourt-sur-Ancre and Beaumont Hamel, like the rest of the villages forming part of the enemy's original front in this district, were evidently intended by him to form a permanent line of fortifications, while he developed his offensive elsewhere. Realizing that his position in them had become a dangerous one, the enemy had multiplied the number of his guns covering this part of his line, and at the end of October introduced an additional division on his front between Grandcourt and Hébuterne.
Barrage to cover infantry.
At 5 o'clock on the morning of November 11, 1916, the special bombardment preliminary to the attack was commenced. It continued with bursts of great intensity until 5.45 o'clock on the morning of November 13, 1916, when it developed into a very effective barrage covering the assaulting infantry.
St. Pierre Divion taken.
At that hour our troops advanced on theenemy's position through dense fog, and rapidly entered his first-line trenches on almost the whole front attacked, from east of Schwaben Redoubt to the north of Serre. South of the Ancre, where our assault was directed northward against the enemy's trenches on the northern slopes of the Thiepval Ridge, it met with a success altogether remarkable for rapidity of execution and lightness of cost. By 7.20 a.m. our objectives east of St. Pierre Divion had been captured, and the Germans in and about that hamlet were hemmed in between our troops and the river. Many of the enemy were driven into their dugouts and surrendered, and at 9 a.m. the number of prisoners was actually greater than the attacking force. St. Pierre Divion soon fell, and in this area nearly 1,400 prisoners were taken by a single division at the expense of less than 600 casualties. The rest of our forces operating south of the Ancre attained their objectives with equal completeness and success.
Objectives reached on right bank of Ancre.
North of the river the struggle was more severe, but very satisfactory results were achieved. Though parties of the enemy held out for some hours during the day in strong points at various places along his first line and in Beaumont Hamel, the main attack pushed on. The troops attacking close to the right bank of the Ancre reached their second objectives to the west and northwest of Beaucourt during the morning, and held on there for the remainder of the day and night, though practically isolated from the rest of our attacking troops. Their tenacity was of the utmost value, and contributed very largely to the success of the operations. At nightfall our troops were established on the western outskirts of Beaucourt, in touch with our forces south of the river, and held a line along the station road from the Ancre toward BeaumontHamel, where we occupied the village. Further north the enemy's first-line system for a distance of about half a mile beyond Beaumont Hamel was also in our hands. Still further north—opposite Serre—the ground was so heavy that it became necessary to abandon the attack at an early stage, although, despite all difficulties, our troops had in places reached the enemy's trenches in the course of their assault.
Beaumont carried.
Next morning, at an early hour, the attack was renewed between Beaucourt and the top of the spur just north of Beaumont Hamel. The whole of Beaumont was carried, and our line extended to the northwest along the Beaucourt road across the southern end of the Beaumont Hamel spur. The number of our prisoners steadily rose, and during this and the succeeding days our front was carried forward eastward and northward up the slopes of the Beaumont Hamel spur.
Allies command Ancre Valley.
The results of this attack were very satisfactory, especially as before its completion bad weather had set in again. We had secured the command of the Ancre Valley on both banks of the river at the point where it entered the enemy's lines, and, without great cost to ourselves, losses had been inflicted on the enemy which he himself admitted to be considerable. Our final total of prisoners taken in these operations, and their development during the subsequent days, exceeded 7,200, including 149 officers.
Enemy kept on alert.
Throughout the period dealt with in this dispatch the rôle of the other armies holding our defensive line from the northern limits of the battle front to beyond Ypres was necessarily a secondary one, but their task was neither light nor unimportant. While required to give precedence in all respects to the needs of the Somme battle, they were responsible for the security of the line held by them and forkeeping the enemy on their front constantly on the alert. Their rôle was a very trying one, entailing heavy work on the troops and constant vigilance on the part of commanders and staffs. It was carried out to my entire satisfaction, and in an unfailing spirit of unselfish and broad-minded devotion to the general good, which is deserving of the highest commendation.
Great number of raids.
Some idea of the thoroughness with which their duties were performed can be gathered from the fact that in the period of four and a half months from July 1, 1916, some 360 raids were carried out, in the course of which the enemy suffered many casualties and some hundreds of prisoners were taken by us. The largest of these operations was undertaken on July 19, 1916, in the neighborhood of Armentières. Our troops penetrated deeply into the enemy's defenses, doing much damage to his works and inflicting severe losses upon him.
Main objects of offensive achieved.
The three main objects with which we had commenced our offensive in July had already been achieved at the date when this account closes, in spite of the fact that the heavy Autumn rains had prevented full advantage from being taken of the favorable situation created by our advance, at a time when we had good grounds for hoping to achieve yet more important successes.
Verdun had been relieved, the main German forces had been held on the western front, and the enemy's strength had been very considerably worn down.
Ample compensation for sacrifices.
Any one of these three results is in itself sufficient to justify the Somme battle. The attainment of all three of them affords ample compensation for the splendid efforts of our troops and for the sacrifices made by ourselves and our allies. They have brought us a long step forward toward the final victory of the allied cause.
German failure at Verdun.
The desperate struggle for the possession of Verdun had invested that place with a moral and political importance out of all proportion to its military value. Its fall would undoubtedly have been proclaimed as a great victory for our enemies, and would have shaken the faith of many in our ultimate success. The failure of the enemy to capture it, despite great efforts and very heavy losses, was a severe blow to his prestige, especially in view of the confidence he had openly expressed as to the results of the struggle.
Eastward movement of German troops checked.
Information obtained both during the progress of the Somme battle and since the suspension of active operations has fully established the effect of our offensive in keeping the enemy's main forces tied to the western front. A movement of German troops eastward, which had commenced in June as a result of the Russian successes, continued for a short time only after the opening of the allied attack. Thereafter the enemy forces that moved east consisted, with one exception, of divisions that had been exhausted in the Somme battle, and these troops were already replaced on the western front by fresh divisions. In November the strength of the enemy in the western theatre of war was greater than in July, notwithstanding the abandonment of his offensive at Verdun.
Somme offensive relieved Verdun.
It is possible that if Verdun had fallen large forces might still have been employed in an endeavor further to exploit that success. It is, however, far more probable, in view of developments in the eastern theatre, that a considerable transfer of troops in that direction would have followed. It is therefore justifiable to conclude that the Somme offensive not only relieved Verdun but held large forces which would otherwise have been employed against our allies in the east.
The third great object of the allied operations on the Somme was the wearing down of the enemy's powers of resistance. Any statement of the extent to which this has been attained must depend in some degree on estimates.
There is, nevertheless, sufficient evidence to place it beyond doubt that the enemy's losses in men and material have been very considerably higher than those of the Allies, while morally the balance of advantage on our side is still greater.
Enemy resistance feebler.
During the period under review a steady deterioration took place in the morale of large numbers of the enemy's troops. Many of them, it is true, fought with the greatest determination, even in the latest encounters, but the resistance of still larger numbers became latterly decidedly feebler than it had been in the earlier stages of the battle. Aided by the great depth of his defenses and by the frequent reliefs which his resources in men enabled him to effect, discipline and training held the machine together sufficiently to enable the enemy to rally and reorganize his troops after each fresh defeat. As our advance progressed, four-fifths of the total number of divisions engaged on the western front were thrown one after another into the Somme battle, some of them twice, and some three times; and toward the end of the operations, when the weather unfortunately broke, there can be no doubt that his power of resistance had been very seriously diminished.
Prisoners and guns taken.
The number of prisoners taken by us in the Somme battle between July 1 and November 18, 1916, is just over 38,000, including over 800 officers. During the same period we captured 29 heavy guns, 96 field guns and field howitzers, 136 trench mortars, and 514 machine guns.
The war fell with special severity upon the people of the poorer classes in Russia, many of whom, upon the advance of the German and Austrian armies, were compelled to flee from their homes in a practically destitute condition. A graphic description of the pitiable plight of these unfortunate people is given in the following pages.
A Russian freight train with passengers.
Near Moscow, on a siding of the railway that runs from Moscow to Warsaw through Smolensk, was a string of thirteen freight cars, the short, chunky Russian kind—barely half as long as the American—looking as flimsy, top-heavy, and unwieldy as houseboats on wheels. No locomotive was tied to the string, and from the windward side, where the cars were whitewashed by the biting blizzard that had already stopped all traffic with its drifted barricades, they had the desolate look of stranded empties. But the leeward door of each car was open a few inches, permitting the egress of odors that told any one who chanced to pass that the big rolling boxes were loaded with human freight, closely packed and long on the journey.
Old women at work.
I pushed the door of one car back and looked in. At first in the semi-gloom nothing was visible, but gradually, against a crack in the opposite car wall that let through a streak of gray light with a ribbon of snow that rustled as it fell on the straw-covered floor, there grew the dull silhouette of two old women, who sat facing each other in the straw, laboriously pounding corn into flour in a big earthen bowl between them.
Emaciated children and dead babies.
The young Pole who was with me climbed into the car and probed its recesses with a spear of light from a pocket flash-lamp. The old women stopped pounding to lift toward us wrinkled faces that expressed fear and hatewhen the tiny searchlight was turned on their dim, blinking eyes. Another pair of hags in a far corner, propped against a bale of hay and bound together like Siamese twins in a brown horse-blanket, moved their eyes feebly, but nothing more. They were paralyzed. A score of children that had been huddled here and there in the straw in twos and threes for warmth's sake came slowly to life and crowded around us, lifting a ring of wan, emaciated little faces. Three, too feeble to stand, sat up and stared at the strange light. The bodies of four small babies moved not at all—were, in fact, lifeless.