To understand the main features of this stage of the fighting it is necessary to consult the map. Haig's chief objective was Bapaume, important because several roads centred at it. and because once attained the British would be beyond the previously constructed German lines and in a position to force a further retirement on each flank. To reach Bapaume from the British front, a distance of eight miles at any point in the arc from Gommecourt to Maricourt, it was necessary to penetrate five lines of de fense. The British and French trenches ex tended across the base of the angle made by the Somme and the Ancre rivers, the surface of which is generally flat and low. Back of the first German trench the ground rose 150 feet to a ridge that interposed its barrier across the lines of access to Bapaume all the way froin the Ancre to the north and south road that con nects Bapaume with Peronne. On the south ern and western edge of this ridge—which was from two to three miles wide—was the sec ond German line of defense. North of it three lines interposed before Bapaume, all constructed after the attack of 1 July. They were strong obstacles to the British advance.
In his report of the battle General Haig di vided the British operations into four stages: (1) The fighting from 1 July to 14 July, which took the first German line and the intervening country up to the ridge; (2) the fighting from 14 July to 14 September, during which the British pressed onward, step by step, taking one hill and fortified village or farm after another, until they finally had firm grasp on the whole crest of the ridge; (3) from 14 September. to 23 October, dunng which they drove the Ger mans slowly down the slopes that lay btyond the ridge; (4) from 9 November to 15 Novem ber, during which, after a short interval of quiet on account of bad weather, the fighting shifted to the region of the Ancre Valley and an attempt was made to carry the new line northward up to the Ancre and the old line eastward, so as to cut off a slice of German holdings immediately west of Bapaume. In all these operations the British fought in the Verdun way, with heavy concentrations of artillery of all calibres that pulverized the enemy's defenses and left the infantry little to do but clean up the remnantb of the garrisons that had held the ' de molished positions. During all this period the French on the south fought brilliantly, carrying their lines forward more rapidly than the Brit ish and talcing large numbers of prisoners. At the end of the season they were within a mile of Pironne, south of the Somme, and had well passed the road from Bapaume to Peronne north of that river. To describe these stages of conflict in detail would involve the repetition of a series of small engagements each of which demanded heroic conduct. The operations of the first stage were chiefly clearing actions. Fricourt and Contalmaison, two strongly forti fied villages, had to be taken and a number of wooded slopes had to be cleared of machine guns ere the army stood before the second German line. The area to be cleared was two miles by eight, and some idea 'of the nature of the fighting may be had when it is said that it required hard fighting by 250,000 men for 12 days to complete the work. But it was well
done by die 13th, and the army proceeded at dawn on the 14th to attack the second line of defenses, die battle thus passing into the second stage. The line of advance was from La BoiseIle to Delville Woods, just east of Longue val, a distance of six miles. Both positions were taken by hard work, and in the second the British encountered that kind of forest fight ing that made the conquest of the Argonne such a difficult task for the American soldiers two years later. To drive out the defenders was hard enough and it was done more than once, but the place was well covered by German artillery and it was impossible to hold it until the surrounding areas were taken also. For 13 days the two sides contended for Delville Woods, until the British soldier gave them the name "Devil's Woods)); but they remained at last in British hands.
Of the villages attacked one of the most difficult to take was Pozieres, which stood on the Albert-Bapaume road at the southern edge of the rid_ge. Strong forces were thrown against it on 23 July, it being a part of an attack on the whole advanced line. The ruins of the tovm were fortified with covered trenches and strewn with machine guns. In the early morn ing two divisions converged on it, one from the southwest, a Midland territorial division, and another from the southeast, an Australian division. The Midland men advanced with litde opposition to the edge of the ruins, but the Australians met fierce attacks from a sunken road that ran parallel to their own course. They cleared away the opposition and reached the town where they fought hand to hand from one ruined house to another until they fairly divided the town with their opponents. The struggle went on for three days and on the fourth most of the place was won. It now remained to force bacic the foe from the environs, a process that had to be fought for step by step under heavy cannonading. Behind the town three-quarters of a mile was a windmill, on high ground that overlooked the entire ridge and the slope that ran away to Bapaume. In a cloud of explod ing shells the Australians held on four days always groping. their way toward the coveted ruins of the windmill. Early in the morning of the 30th they went forward in the darIcness, grappled with the defenders, and established their trenches at the edge of the labyrinth that protected the windmill. Here they lay for five days in thick and stifling heat that tried even the men from the antipodes. But on 4 August, in the coolness of the night, they rushed the positions at the -windmill and in the parts of the town that had not been talcen, advancing from 400 to 600 yards on a front of 3,000, yards. They fortified their gains and held them against the enemy's counterattacks. Then the process of slowly crawling fonvard was taken up again, this time the direction being toward the north west, where the strong position lcnown as Moquet Farm with the village of Thiepval blocked their way. On the right, south of the angle at Longueval, the village of Guillemont still held out. It was the only part of the German first line of defense that had not been taken. It fell 3 September to troops from southern and western Ireland.