n a front of one and two-third miles to an average
depth of about 800 yards. The British took during this battle over 800
prisoners.

The new French positions to the north of Combles were violently
attacked on this same date, but the German effort was broken by the
machine-gun and artillery barrage. The French captured over 500
prisoners and ten machine guns.

South of the Somme, on a front of about twelve miles, the French
troops attacked enemy organizations from Barleux to the region south
of Chaulnes and were entirely successful in gaining their objectives.

Southwest of Barleux the French infantry in a single push carried
three successive German lines and advanced over a mile, which brought
them to the outskirts of Berny and Deniecourt. To the south, by a
well-planned enveloping movement, the village of Soyecourt was
carried, and here a whole Prussian battalion was cut off and
surrendered after a short resistance. South of Vermandovillers, where
the Germans occupied a portion of the village, the French launched an
attack on the German front in the afternoon, but it was night before
they could break through north of Chilly. The French pushed on through
the breach, forcing the Germans to retire to their second line,
leaving 1,200 prisoners, guns and machine guns in French hands.
Desperate attempts were made by the German General von Hein to recover
the lost ground. Before the French had time to consolidate their
positions he launched six counterattacks, all of which failed under
the French barrage of fire. On September 4, 1916, the French made
2,700 prisoners between Barleux and Chilly.

CHAPTER IV

OPERATIONS AT VERDUN--BRITISH VICTORIES IN THE SOMME

The intense activity of the Allied forces in the Somme region in
August and during the first week in September, 1916, exceeded in
interest the happenings around Verdun. While only one building in the
town remained uninjured by the shells which the Germans poured into it
daily, the French, to whom the initiative had passed, continued to
harry the enemy daily along the Thiaumont-Vaux front. Their "nibbling"
process went on unceasingly, seizing some hundred yards of trenches,
or taking batches of 200 or 300 prisoners with such frequency as to
produce a decidedly depressing effect on the German commanders and on
their troops, who in this sector represented the pick of the German
army.

On September 6, 1916, a signal success was won by the French at Verdun