Where Vaux village was (April 26th 1917).
Make a half turn and come back by the same road as far as the Chapelle Sainte-Fine cross roads. Then continue some 40 metres, taking the turn on the right to Douaumont.
The Bombardment of the Fleury-Thiaumont sector seen from an aeroplane (August 1916).
In the foreground, on the crest, big calibre shells bursting. Then just behind, Poudrière ravine. The first white blot in the middle of the photograph is the Fleury sector. In the background, amid the smoke of exploding shells, Froideterre Hill and Thiaumont.
About 500 metres from the cross-roads is the site, on the left, of Fleury village. A slight raising of the soil is the only sign that is left that a village once existed. Captured on June 23rd, 1916, Fleury village was not definitely freed until August 18th, after two month's incessant fighting.
On June 26th, the 114th Battalion of chasseurs clung to the borders south and west of the village. On July 15th, in an attack made by the 3rd Zouaves, one battalion lost all its officers. On August 2nd, the 56th and 10th Infantry Regiments captured the station to the south of the village, with 350 prisoners and 11 machine guns. Next day, some units of the 207th crossed the village but they ran short of ammunition so that after a close combat somewhat ill-matched, they had to withdraw to their original line. On August 4th, the 134th Infantry Regiment captured some buildings, as also did the 8th Tirailleurs four days later.
On August 10th, at length, the colonial regiment of Morocco planned a systematic capture of the village. From the 10th to the 16th, they advanced to the sap and organised their starting points. On August 18th, supported by a battalion of the 8th Tirailleurs, the colonials attacked singing the Marseillaise and the Anthem of the Marines. Two battalions encircled the village, but in the centre each shell-hole and every hollow had become a miniature fort to be stormed in the teeth of machine gun fire. Next day was a fight of knives and bombs. At night a hundred surviving Germans gave themselves up. After the capture of the village the enemy concentrated a terrific artillery fire on it, and up to September they endeavoured to retake the ruins.