GERMAN MONUMENT IN FRONT OF MIRAUMONT CHURCH (1917).
Lost again in the following year, Miraumont was one of the few positions which the Germans fiercely defended at the time of the British counter-offensive of August, 1918. They tried all they knew to stop the British advance on Bapaume at this point. The fight lasted all day on August 24, and the German retirement began only after the capture of Grandcourt and Thiepval (on the south) and of Irles and Loupart Wood (on the north-east) threatened them with complete encirclement. That night, a strong detachment of British troops slipped into the fortified ruins of the village, held by picked machine-gunners. A fierce struggle followed in the dark. At daybreak the German garrison attempted a sortie, and succeeded in encircling the British detachments. However, a British aeroplane, which was hovering over the scene of the struggle, signalled that reinforcements were coming, and finally the Germans were encircled, and several hundreds of them taken prisoners.
After the fights of 1916, Miraumont was one of the least damaged of the reconquered villages. Many of the houses retained parts of their walls, and some their frame-work, though in a dislocated condition. To-day nothing remains. Of the modern church which used to stand on the highest point of the village, only a fragment of wall remains (photo, p. [42]). On the right, in the devastated cemetery which surrounds the church, stands a massive stone monument, erected by the Germans before their retreat of 1917 (photos, above and below).
At the entrance to Miraumont, take the Courcelette road on the right, which crosses the marshes, then passes under the railway bridge and afterwards traverses the site of Petit-Miraumont (now razed). It next climbs the hill on the left bank of the Ancre. Leave the road to Pys on the left, and keep straight on to Courcelette. Numerous shelters, trenches and British and German graves may be seen along the road.
The village of Courcelette was taken by the British during the offensive of September 15, 1916.
MIRAUMONT. RUINS OF CHURCH AND GERMAN MONUMENT (1918—see above).