Return to the car.
The road merges into Dame ravine. Formerly, Nawé wood extended to the left, but now not even the stumps remain, so churned up is the ground. From the ridge to the bottom of the ravine the soil is pitted with shell-holes.
From June to October 1916, the first German lines ran over the ridge which stands out on the left. On October 24th 1916, the day of the victory of Douaumont, the Zouaves and the "tirailleurs" of the 36th Division cleared these slopes which were honeycombed with dug-outs. All who were cowering in these shelters gave up without a show of fight. An officer of high rank, was captured as he was getting out of bed and a quarter-master was made prisoner with all his mail.
During the following night, Sergeant Julien of the 4th Zouaves, returning from a ration party was captured by the Germans who were still occupying a dug-out. However, he took a high tone with them, telling them of the fall of Douaumont, and invited them to give themselves up in their turn, then and there. He so impressed them that they soon laid down their arms. He then collected them and brought back to the rear of the French lines his magnificent "bag", a company and six officers.
At a turning in the road Haudromont Quarries are shortly visible. Their steep white walls show up against the clay of the hill. The enemy had cut galleries in the stone, proof against the heaviest shells.
These quarries were captured from the enemy at the time of the taking of Douaumont by the 11th Infantry Regiment, who on the left wing extended the general attacking front.
The infantrymen set out, singing: "We shall get in the quarries when the Boches are no longer there ...", and surrounded the quarries from the North. They encircled the defenders, firing on them from top to bottom, while the Germans who had taken up their refuge there protracted the resistance. The fight continued with bombs in the galleries until evening.
Haudromont Quarries in September 1917.