s and occupied positions midway
between Eaucourt and the Butte de Warlencourt. To the left, a mile or
so back, in what was known as the Mouquin Farm region, the British
troops pushed forward in the direction of Pys and Miraumont, and all
that part of Regina Trench over which there had been much stiff
fighting was held by them. German troops had recovered a small portion
of the front-line trenches they had lost to the north of Les Boeufs.
In this sector on the night of October 7, 1916, the British guns
shattered two attempted counterattacks and gathered in three officers,
170 men, and three machine guns. To the north of the Somme the French
infantry cooperating with the British army attacked from the front of
Morval-Bouchavesnes and carried their line over 1,300 yards northeast
of Morval. During this advance over 400 prisoners, including ten
officers, were captured, and also fifteen machine guns. Large
gatherings of German troops reported north of Saillisel were caught by
the concentrated fire from the French batteries.

In the region of Gueudecourt the British advanced their lines and
beat off a furious attack made on the Schwaben Redoubt north of
Thiepval on October 8, 1916. This repulse of the Germans was
followed by the British troops winning some ground north of the
Courcelette-Warlencourt road. In two days they took prisoner
thirteen officers and 866 of other ranks.

[Illustration: General Sir Douglas Haig (left), commanding the
British armies in France and Belgium, and General Joffre, supreme
commander of the French armies. In December, 1916, Joffre was made a
Marshal of France.]

The British continued their daily policy of making raids on the German
trenches. Several were carried out on October 10, 1916, in the
Neuville-St. Vaast and Loos regions, where trenches were invaded,
three machine-gun emplacements destroyed, and a large number of
prisoners taken. On the same date there was intense artillery activity
on the Somme between the French and Germans. The French fought six air
fights and bombed the St. Vaast Wood. To the south of the river the
French troops took the offensive and attacked on a front of over three
miles between Berny-en-Santerre and Chaulnes. Here the French infantry
by vigorous fighting captured the enemy position and certain points
beyond it. They also captured the town of Bovent, and occupied the
northern and western outskirts of Ablaincourt and most of the woods of
Chaulnes. During this o