s directed.

During the first three days of August, 1916, comparative quiet
prevailed along the Somme front, and no important offensive was
attempted by either side. Minor fighting continued, however, every
day, and during the nights the English positions were heavily
bombarded by the German guns.

On the night of August 4, 1916, the British assumed the offensive,
advancing from Pozieres on a front of 2,000 yards. The attack, which
seems to have taken the Germans by surprise, was entirely successful,
as the British troops gained 1,000 yards of the German second line and
captured over 400 prisoners. This second line consisted of two
strongly fortified trenches running parallel, which were backed by a
network of supporting and intermediate trenches, all strongly
constructed, with deep dugouts and cunningly devised machinery of
defense. When the Australians made the thrust forward from Pozieres
while the British cooperated on the left over the ground to the east
of the village, they found when going over the enemy trenches that in
many places the British guns had wrecked and almost obliterated the
German second lines. After the British advance the Germans launched
two spirited counterattacks, which were easily repulsed by the British
artillery. The British casualties were unimportant, but the troops
suffered intensely from the heat of the evening and from the gas masks
that they were forced to wear, as previous to the attack the Germans
had bombarded with gas shells.

Minor fighting and artillery duels continued intermittently until the
morning of August 6, 1916, when the Germans delivered two fierce
attacks on the ground gained by the British east of Pozieres. The
Germans, employing liquid fire in one attack, forced the British back
from one of the trenches they had captured on August 4, 1916, but part
of this was later regained. The following day the Germans continued
their attacks north and northeast of Pozieres on the new British
lines. After heavy bombardment of the British positions, the Germans
penetrated their trenches, but were forced out again, having suffered
some casualties and leaving a number of prisoners in British hands. In
front of Souchez the Germans exploded a mine, and here some of their
troops succeeded in entering the English trenches over the crater,
but were quickly bombed out again.

On the same date late in the afternoon the French forces to the north
of the Somme carried out a well-planned a