FAY VILLAGE, AS THE WAR LEFT IT, SEEN FROM THE ASSEVILLERS ROAD (Itinerary).
On the left: Road to Estrées; In front: Road from Dompierre.
That famous regiment, the Foreign Legion, whose flag is decorated with the Legion d'Honneur, and whose innumerable exploits have won for it many mentions in the Orders of the Army, was ordered on July 4, at 6 p.m., to carry the position immediately at the point of the bayonet.
Deployed in battle formation, they charged across a flat meadow 900 yards broad. When 300 yards from their objective, machine-guns hidden in the path from Estrées to Belloy were suddenly unmasked, and a deadly fire mowed down the French ranks. The 9th and 11th Companies sustained particularly heavy losses, all the officers falling. One of these companies reached the objective under the command of the mess corporal. Belloy was captured and 750 Germans were taken prisoners.
BELLOY-EN-SANTERRE, SEEN FROM THE SITE OF THE CHURCH.
In the middle: Road from Assevillers; At the back: Belloy Wood.
The enemy immediately launched counter-attack upon counter-attack. Terrible fighting went on throughout the night. In the early morning, the Germans regained a footing in Belloy, and entered the park of the Castle, where three sections of the Legion were surrounded.
A second-lieutenant received orders to restore the situation with the remnants of a company. Posting his men along the Belloy-Barleux road (G.C. 79), he cut the line of retreat of the Germans, who had entered the park. The latter endeavoured to break through, with a detachment of disarmed prisoners in their midst.