SARS. A CHINESE CAMP.
WARLENCOURT RIDGE, SEEN FROM N. 29.
Warlencourt Ridge
Warlencourt Ridge is as tragically famous in the British Army as the Mort-Homme is for their French comrades-in-arms.
From the top of Hill 122, the last before Bapaume, the view embraces the whole region, renowned for the battles fought before the town first in the Franco-German War (1871) and then forty-six years later (1917-18). At the foot of the ridge lies the ruined village of Ligny-Thilloy; to the right, on the sky-line, accumulations of stones and rubbish, the suburbs of Bapaume; on the left, the remains of Loupart Wood, and, behind, a few broken walls, all that is left of the village of Grévillers.
The ground was everywhere cut up with trenches and defence-works, to destroy which a terrific pounding by the artillery was necessary. Not a single square yard escaped the deluge of shells, the destruction being as complete as it was methodical. Of the trenches, which were levelled before the fighting proper began, practically only traces remain. The woods, turned into fortresses, have likewise vanished, only shapeless tree-stumps being left. The villages were razed to their very foundations.
As far as the eye can reach, nothing is seen but a chaotic waste patched here and there with weeds and rank grass. In places, vestiges of the ancient barbed wire entanglements, which overran the ground in all directions, are met with. These were so numerous that the guns could not entirely destroy them, but wide gaps were made through which the attacking waves forced their way.
