From July 1 to 8, the 20th Corps captured the first and second German positions and consolidated their conquest on the following days.
GENERAL FAYOLLE.
South of the Somme.—The attack was launched on July 1, two hours later than that on the northern bank. With fine dash, the 1st Colonial Corps and a division of Brittany reserves carried the first German position, including the villages of Dompierre, Becquincourt and Fay.
On the 2nd, the movement was continued on the left. Frise, outflanked from the south, was captured, Méréaucourt Wood encircled, and Herbécourt carried by a frontal attack, after being turned from the north. The approaches to Assevillers and Estrées were reached. The northern part of the second position was captured.
On the 3rd, the advance continued on the left. Flaucourt, in the third position, was carried in the course of an extraordinarily daring coup-de-main. Assevillers likewise fell.
Belloy was captured on the 4th; the divisional cavalry patrolled freely as far as the Somme, between Biaches and Barleux.
Biaches village and La Maisonnette observation-post fell on the 9th and 10th. The horses of the African Mounted Chasseurs were watered in the Somme, and the Zouaves gathered cherries in the suburban gardens of Péronne.
During these ten days the French troops, by carrying out a vast turning movement on the left, towards the south-east, had pierced all the German positions. A breach had been made, but the marshy valley of the Somme in this diversion sector made it very difficult to follow up the success; moreover, the objectives assigned to these troops did not provide for such exploitation.
The French attack had been carried out with great dash. In addition to the many lines of defences, villages and fortified woods conquered, 85 guns, 100 machine-guns, and 26 minenwerfer were captured, and over 12,000 prisoners, including 235 officers, taken.