From Hill 304, return to the Esnes Calvary and from there take the road on the right to Avocourt.
Avocourt, Avocourt and Malancourt Woods.
One of the finest feats of arms in the battle of Verdun was performed at Avocourt.
The centre of Avocourt, in April 1916.
On March 20th, 1916, the Germans who had never been able to take the village, attacked the wood with a fresh division, the 11th Bavarian Division. The attack succeeded, with the help of liquid fire. A French counter-attack on the 29th by the 210th Infantry Regiment, and a battalion of the 157th, recaptured the wood and the redoubt known as the "Réduit d'Avocourt". The attacking troops which had not been revictualled for four days, had finished their reserve rations twelve hours previously. So fatigued were they that they slept standing despite the bombardment. To rouse them, their chiefs, at 3 a.m. next morning, ordered the buglers and drummers to play. As the day was breaking the music suddenly stopped, a shell having buried all save one drummer. Furious at this, the men, with the drummer at their head, rushed forward, and by 8 a.m. the wood had been entirely reconquered.
A trench in the ruins of Avocourt in April, 1917.