minutes later the three assaulting columns, led by their officers, dashed forward. The position, attacked from three sides, was taken, and a hundred Germans were killed in the trenches. Four prisoners and a machine-gun were captured. At 8.30 the French held 350 yards of the German trench, and reached the second line, which was full of Germans. The enemy then launched fierce counter-attacks, which gave them back their second line. On the French side the second wave had arrived to reinforce the first company in the captured position. Two machine-guns mowed down the advancing Germans, but were in turn put out of action by the enemy, who renewed their counter-attacks with grenades. The French were reinforced by two companies of the third wave, the third company being used to revictual the combatants with grenades, bombs, and sand-bags. The Germans renewed their counter-attacks, but were driven back. Between 1.30 and 3 p.m., after a violent bombardment with artillery and minenwerfer, which churned up the ground, the enemy counter-attacked the French right in force with bayonets, but were checked. The attack was renewed with grenades and bombs, and this time the Germans advanced through all the trenches in the vicinity. After a heroic resistance the French had to give way, and at about 4.30 p.m. the position was lost. The enemy then attacked the rest of the trench on the flank; under an incessant hail of bombs, the French were forced to withdraw, retreating step by step—200 yards in two hours—with a loss of 40 per cent of their forces. Little by little, their ammunition exhausted, and in the face of the impossibility of bringing up supplies, they were obliged to abandon the position and return to the trench from which they had started. A company of Chasseurs fought for two hours with German rifles and ammunition, and with unexploded German bombs. On March 1 another desperate struggle took place at Blanleuil. At about 7.15 a.m. three enemy mines exploded under the French trenches, and the Germans rushed into the craters, overwhelming two companies in the first line, the survivors of which fought hand-to-hand. The Germans, heavily reinforced, made considerable progress in Fontaine-Madame ravine, but a counter-attack by a French battalion stopped and held them. At nightfall another battalion counter-attacked in a snow-storm, and after four hours of bayonet fighting recaptured the greater part of the lost ground. Very few prisoners were taken on either side. On March 22, at Bagatelle, after the explosion of three mines, two French companies took a German trench and repulsed a strong attack, while 500 yards away the enemy also exploded mines, threw themselves into the French trenches, and in a hand-to-hand fight were beaten and driven back. From June 30 to July 15 the sector was affected by the German offensive between Four-de-Paris and Binarville road. On July 28, and on August 4 and 17, three German efforts against Fontaine-aux-Charmes broke down. On September 9, a fresh and more powerful attack ended in a desperate struggle. The Germans, repulsed, renewed the attack a second time without success. On the following day the sector was heavily bombarded with big shells. From 1916 this sector became quieter, the fierce and prolonged struggle of 1915 giving place to a mutual shelling of the trenches with occasional grenade attacks and raids on both sides.
GRUERIE WOOD. ST. HUBERT SECTOR
Taking the soup to troops in first-line trenches.
Another sector, that of St. Hubert, was the scene of frequent struggles from October, 1914, to September, 1915. In December, 1916, the Germans attacked St. Hubert five times. After alternately advancing and retreating, the French succeeded in maintaining their positions.
Between January 16 and 27, 1915, some fifteen enemy attacks took place in this region. At the beginning of July the battle became more violent. On August 2, the Germans made use of liquid fire in an attack. Subsequently the sector became quieter, like the rest of the Argonne.
Not far from St. Hubert the French line described a pronounced salient, known as Marie-Thérèse, in the enemy positions to the north of Fontaine-la-Mitte. This name was given to the position by the poilus, probably on account of the proximity of the lodge of a gamekeeper who had a daughter named Marie-Thérèse. Surrounded on three sides by the German lines, the Marie-Thérèse salient was difficult to hold, and the Germans frequently endeavoured to reduce it. On January 19, 1915, they exploded two mines in front of the French trenches, but the French immediately occupied the craters. On the 22nd, after having pushed sap-heads as close as possible to the French lines, the German grenadiers suddenly emerged from them at about 10 a.m., each throwing two large bombs. Then one of their battalions attacked the three sides of the position, killed the machine-gunners, and at certain points penetrated into the French second line. At 2 p.m. a battalion of French Chasseurs counter-attacked, and partly reoccupied the first line, but was then repulsed by German reinforcements. A third counter-attack in the evening and a fourth on the following morning regained some of the lost positions after a terrific struggle. All day and all night the fight went on with bombs, grenades, bayonets, knives, pickaxes—anything the men could lay their hands on—with equal ferocity on both sides. A hundred Frenchmen, nearly all wounded, were taken prisoners. At about 9.30 a.m. on February 10, the Germans mined some of the French trenches, and then attacked in considerable force, but although they occupied part of them, the attack was arrested almost immediately by a counter-attack, and in the evening the enemy was partially driven back. The fighting here was ferocious. The Germans, mostly drunk or drugged, murdered some prisoners after disarming them. About midday on the 12th, the enemy, in columns four abreast, on a front of 300 to 400 yards, once more hurled themselves against the Marie-Thérèse salient. However, after being brought to a stand by rifle fire, then scattered by an artillery barrage, they retreated with very heavy losses. Two hours later, two companies of French Chasseurs attacked in their turn, but suffered severely from the machine-gun fire, only one party succeeding in getting into contact with the enemy in a trench to which they clung. Twice on May 12, several times in the beginning of July, on August 2 (when they used liquid fire), on August 12 and 24, and twice on August 29, the Germans attacked this so greatly coveted and so well defended salient. Finally, there, as elsewhere, they abandoned all hope of breaking down the resistance of the French, and thereafter “Marie-Thérèse” was seldom mentioned in the communiqués.