Avocourt and Avocourt and Malancourt Woods.—One of the finest feats of arms in the Battle of Verdun was performed at Avocourt.
THE CROSS IN THE MIDDLE OF AVOCOURT VILLAGE IN APRIL, 1916.
TRENCH IN THE RUINS OF AVOCOURT VILLAGE IN APRIL, 1917.
On March 20th, 1916, the Germans, who had never been able to take the village, attacked with a fresh division of picked troops (IInd Bavarians), which had taken part in the summer campaign in Galicia and Poland with Mackensen’s forces. The attack succeeded, with the help of liquid fire. A French counter-attack on the 29th by the 210th R.I., and a battalion of the 157th, recaptured the wood and the redoubt known as the “Réduit d’Avocourt,” situated on its S. edge. The attacking troops, which had not been revictualled for four days, had finished their reserve rations twelve hours previously. So fatigued were they that they slept standing despite the bombardment. To rouse them, their chiefs, at 3 a.m. next morning, ordered the buglers and drummers to play. As the day was breaking the music suddenly stopped, a shell having buried all save one drummer. Furious at this, the men, with the drummer at their head, rushed forward, and by 8 a.m. the wood had been entirely reconquered.
SITE OF AVOCOURT VILLAGE IN NOVEMBER, 1918.