THE GERMAN ATTACKS OF MARCH 5TH–14TH,
1916, ON THE LEFT BANK OF THE MEUSE
From Chattancourt the positions of Mort-Homme may be visited by the road to Béthincourt (the lower [photograph on p. 94] shows the beginning of this road).
Motor-cars can go as far as the top of Hill 295 or Mort-Homme, where it is necessary to turn the car round and return to Chattancourt, as the road is cut near Béthincourt by the Forges stream, which has entirely flooded the lower part of the village.
Mort-Homme.—Like Hill 304, Mort-Homme was one of the most fiercely disputed positions on the left bank. It consists of twin hills: No. 265 (of which the Béthincourt-Cumières road skirts the summit) and No. 295 (the Mort-Homme proper, round which the road winds on the N.E.), and formed an excellent observation-post and artillery position in front of the real line of resistance.
On March 5th, 1916, the German offensive, which, until then, had been confined to the right bank of the river, developed with great violence on the left flank, progressing in six days to the slopes of Mort-Homme.
On the 14th, after a five-hours bombardment with shells of every kind and size, sometimes at the rate of 120 a minute, the enemy’s Infantry attack on Mort-Homme began. The Germans took and kept Hill 265, but the French Infantry and Zouaves, after a magnificent defence, held their ground on Hill 295—the key to the entire position—and in night counter-attacks drove back the assailants to the N.W. counter-slopes.