Some of these villages (Courcelette, Martinpuich, Longueval, Guillemont and Combles), hidden away in hollows, were particularly deadly for the Allies; the defenders, unseen, were able to snipe the assailants as they appeared on the hill tops. The Allies had to encircle these centres of resistance before they were able to enter them.
South of the Somme.—The battle zone, bounded by the large circular bend of the Somme at Péronne, formed a kind of arena. The vast, flat table-lands of the Santerre district, separated by small valleys, descend gently towards the large marshy valley of the Somme, in which the canal runs parallel with the river.
Owing to the narrowness of this zone, the Germans were forced to establish their positions close behind one another, and the latter were therefore in danger of being carried in a single rush. On the other hand, the assailants' rapid advance was first hampered, then held by the marshy valley, which prevented them from following up their brilliant initial success.
During the battle, the Germans, driven from their first positions, hastily prepared new ones, and clung desperately to the counter-slopes of the hills which descend to the valleys.
The Different Stages of the Offensive
The offensive of the Somme, the general direction of which was towards Cambrai, aimed at reaching the main northern line of communications, by opening a gap between Bapaume and Péronne.
The main sector of attack—between the Ancre and the Somme—was flanked on either side by diversion sectors north of the Ancre and south of the Somme.
ATTEMPTED BREAK-THROUGH.