The French, whose first-lines at the time ran east of Foucourt, carried the advance trenches which covered Estrées, along the Amiens—St.-Quentin road, after most desperate fighting, and finally gained a footing in the village.
The photograph opposite shows the condition of the road after its capture by the French; the causeway had disappeared and, on the shell-torn ground there were hardly any traces left of the German trenches which had everywhere fallen in.
ESTRÉES. SITE OF THE CEMETERY IN AUGUST, 1916.
Estrées village had to be captured house by house. On the evening of July 4, after three days' fighting, the Germans held only the eastern part of the village. For the next twenty days, about 200 of them hung on desperately to it, holding back the assailants with machine-guns posted in the cellars, which fired through the narrow vent-holes. To overcome this resistance, which prevented all advance north or south, it was necessary to sacrifice these houses, and for six consecutive hours 9-in., 11-in., and 15-in. shells pounded this small area. Only fifteen survivors were found in the ruined foundations; the rest of the German garrison had been wiped out.
THE AMIENS ST. QUENTIN ROAD IN SATYRES WOOD, WEST OF ESTRÉES (1916).
This terrible struggle utterly destroyed the village. Its site and the surrounding land form a chaotic waste; all traces of the former landmarks have disappeared.
Keep along G.C. 201, towards Amiens. The remains of Satyres Wood are in a hollow of the road, about 1 km. beyond Estrées.