Hill 304 recaptured. (Photographed August 24th, 1917. See [p. 24])
In congratulating the troops General Mangin reminded them that Germany had just invited France to sue for peace, adding that they had been “the true ambassadors of the Republic.”
Fontaines Ravine, West of Bezonvaux.
The French Offensive of August 20th, 1917
The Army of Verdun, under General Guillaumat, completed the clearing of the city on both banks of the Meuse.
GENERAL GUILLAUMAT
On August 20th, 1917, eight divisions attacked from Avocourt Wood on the west to Bezonvaux on the east, along a fifteen-mile front. Avocourt Wood, Mort-Homme, Corbeaux Wood and Oie Hill on the left bank; Talou Hill, the villages of Champ, Neuville and Champneuville, Hill 344, parts of Fosses Wood, Chaume Wood and Mormont Farm, on the right bank, were captured by the French, who, the next day, also took Samogneux and Regnéville. Hill 304, which had thus far resisted, was likewise captured. On the 26th a further attack from Mormont Redoubt to Chaume Wood brought the French to the southern outskirts of Beaumont. From the 20th to the 26th August the captures include 9,500 prisoners, thirty guns, 100 trench mortars and 242 machine-guns.