north
of Delville Wood and in High Wood, though here an enemy counterattack
recovered part of the ground won.

On the front of General Gough's army, though the enemy suffered heavy
losses in personnel, our gain in ground was slight.

[Sidenote: British assault on Falfemont Farm.]

In order to keep touch with the French who were attacking on our right
the assault on Falfemont Farm on September 3, 1916, was delivered three
hours before the opening of the main assault. In the impetus of their
first rush our troops reached the farm, but could not hold it.
Nevertheless, they pushed on to the north of it, and on September 4,
1916, delivered a series of fresh assaults upon it from the west and
north.

[Sidenote: Leuze Wood cleared.]

Ultimately this strongly fortified position was occupied piece by piece,
and by the morning of September 5, 1916, the whole of it was in our
possession. Meanwhile further progress had been made to the northeast of
the farm, where considerable initiative was shown by the local
commanders. By the evening of the same day our troops were established
strongly in Leuze Wood, which on the following day was finally cleared
of the enemy.

[Sidenote: Advance on the right.]

[Sidenote: 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 co