THE HEIGHTS OF SAINT-PRIX (to the east of the road)

CHAPEL AT SAINT-PRIX.

On N. 51, in the Woods of Botrait and the Grandes-Garennes, attacks and counter-attacks followed each other during four days. The thickets were the scene of fierce hand-to-hand struggles. In the rare clearings the combatants sheltered themselves in hastily-dug trenches. This stubborn resistance exasperated the Germans; and after the battle witnesses found a company of Algerian sharp-shooters whose brains had been beaten out by blows from the butt-end of rifles. This fact is vouched for by the Inquiry Commission. Other corpses belonging to the same regiment had been placed in a ring round a fire which had burnt all the heads.

The battle continued until the French, after having silenced the German guns at Le Thoult and Corfélix (see p. [157]), finally reached Corfélix and the Morin. Advancing along the valley (seen in the views at the foot of p. [167], and at the top of p. [168]), they debouched on the flank of the enemy's troops deeply engaged in the interior of the Plateau of Sézanne.

The manœuvre of September 9 was decisive. Attacked on flank and front, and driven from the woods, the Germans re-crossed the Morin; while their rearguards fought desperate covering engagements, of which the chapel and its little cemetery (seen in the view above), the machine-gun trench (seen in the photograph at the top of p. [167]), and the neighbourhood of the station of Talus-Saint-Prix were, in particular, witnesses. The retreat however continued briskly, and on September 10 the Tenth Corps, which had performed the outflanking movement, was able, setting forth from the Champaubert-Saint-Prix front, to sweep the whole of the north of the marshes.

GRAVES AT SOIZY.