Ailly Wood
Ailly Wood covers the brow of the hill, the southern slopes of which descend steeply towards a ravine.
GERMAN TRENCH UNDER THE APREMONT-ST. MIHIEL ROAD
Here the attacks took place which, between April 5 and 13, 1915, gave the French definite mastery of the position. The Germans held one corner of the wood and the outskirts at the foot of the slopes. The French trenches followed the ravine, mounted half-way up the unwooded part of the hill, and ran alongside the wood. The entrenchment, known as the “Le Fortin,” was in the corner. In the wood the German trenches rose in three tiers, linked together by narrow trenches. At certain points the Germans had constructed “chevaux-de-frise,” twelve yards deep by two yards high.
The bombardment began on the morning of the 5th. The 75’s opened breaches in the defences, and the observers, who were only 130 yards from the enemy line, gave accurate directions to the gunners. In their turn, 6-in. shells crushed the machine-gun emplacements, and at mid-day the explosion of five mine-fields annihilated the garrison and threw the enemy into a panic. A bayonet-attack was launched at once, without the firing of a single shot.