The village was not spared by the bombardments; most of the houses were reduced to shapeless heaps of bricks and broken beams. The site of the church is marked by a heap of white stones, higher than the others.
After passing through Dompierre, take the road to Fay, on the left.
The ruined sugar-refinery of Dompierre is on the right, 200 yards farther on (photos, p. [121]).
The Dompierre Sugar Refinery was within the French first lines, but the village itself, although close by, was still in enemy hands. The Germans attacked the refinery for two years, without being able to capture it. It was, however, cut to pieces by the shells. The brick walls crumbled away, but the steel frame-work resisted. Numbers of twisted and rusty pipes, iron plates, cocks and vats, all disjointed, broken, and out of shape, are still to be seen.
Quite close to, at a crossroad, stands a calvary which is now famous. The ground all around was churned up by the shells; only one hit the calvary, carrying away an arm of Christ. The cross remained intact, and supported the mutilated statue to the last.
DOMPIERRE. THE SUGAR REFINERY IN 1916.
Pass through Fay, 2 km. 500 farther on.
In the neighbouring sector of Dompierre, mine explosions succeeded one another almost incessantly at Fay, during the trench warfare period, especially in 1915-1916; the official communiqués often mentioned this fighting as being extremely violent.
The French and German trenches ran along the western outskirts of the village and were protected by very powerful defence-works, difficult to approach in the open. Recourse was, therefore, to mines.