Situated on a plateau surrounded by hills, Thiepval had been
transformed into a veritable fortress. Since September, 1914, the
Wurtemburger 180th Regiment had been garrisoned there, and made it
a point of honour to hold the place at all cost. For twenty months,
formidable defence-works had been made; redoubts, blockhouses and
concrete vaulted shelters, built on the surrounding high ground, formed
a continuous, fortified line around the village. Inside, a labyrinth
of trenches, connected by subterranean passages, linked up with strong
points and to bombardment-proof shelters.
The British were forced to lay siege to the place. The operations,
begun on July 3, 1916, lasted till October.
On July 7, the British carried the greater part of the Leipzig Redoubt
(Hill 141), a powerful stronghold which protected Thiepval from the
south, and consisting of a system of small blockhouses connected up by
a network of trenches. A wide breach opened by the artillery, enabled
the troops to gain a footing in the position and conquer it trench by
trench.
Throughout the months of July and August the struggle went on, with
unabated fury, around the fortress. Fighting with grenades, the British
advanced inch by inch, so to speak, and eventually gained a footing
in the village, to the east and south. Each advance was immediately
followed by a violent counter-attack, as the Germans looked on Thiepval
as the key of the Bapaume position.
On August 26, in particular, the Prussian Guard attacked the British
lines of the Leipzig Salient. The struggle was one of "giants." After
furious hand-to-hand fighting, the Wiltshire and Worcestershire
Regiments broke the assaulting waves and inflicted "frightful" losses
on the enemy. At no point were the British positions pierced; on the
contrary, progress continued to the south and south-east.
On September 15, the Australians captured Mouquet Farm which, on the
right, formed the advance-bastion of the fortress.
Thiepval was now completely surrounded from south to east, and after a
last artillery preparation of extreme violence, the final assault was
made.
At 12.30 a.m., on September 25, the Canadians attacked the castle and
southern part of the village, one of the strongholds of the fortress.
After fierce fighting, which lasted two hours, they captured the
defence-works, being helped by the tanks which, crushing everything
before them, destroyed the nests of machine-guns hidden on all sides.
The battle went on throughout the following day in the village, the
cellars of which were connected with one another and fortified, forming
so many nests of machine-guns. Detachments of Wurtembergers who, by
means of underground passages, had slipped behind the Canadians, were
either exterminated or captured. In the evening, the cemetery, which
formed the centre of resistance in the northern part of the village,
was carried. Thiepval was thus entirely conquered, as well as the
Zollern Redoubt, which dominates it on the east.
The British followed up their success by attacking the fortified
positions to the north and north-east, on the line of hills which
dominate the Valley of the Ancre near Grandcourt, where the Germans
had also made formidable entrenchments, comprising the Stuff Redoubt
(to the north-east), the Schwaben Redoubt (to the north), and between
the two, astride of the Thiepval-Grandcourt road (G.C. 151), the Hesse
Trench. Behind these, in the direction of Grandcourt, the Shiff and
Regina Trenches, likewise powerfully organised, formed a second line of
entrenchments.
From September 27 to October 1, the fighting was bitter and incessant,
both redoubts and the Hesse Trench changing hands several times.
Finally, the British remained masters of these positions, but were
afterwards held by the following trenches--the Shiff and Regina--to
which they had to lay siege. Progress was very slow, in spite of
incessant grenade fighting, and when winter arrived, they had not yet
conquered the whole of these trenches.
[Illustration: THE RUINS OF THIEPVAL.]
[Illustration: WHERE THE CHÂTEAU OF THIEPVAL USED TO STAND.]
The recapture of the Thiepval Plateau by the Germans at the end of
March, 1918, did not give rise to any important engagement, no special
effort being made to defend it. In the same way, it is said that when
the British finally drove out the Germans a few months later (August
24, 1918), they did not lose a single man.
Everything was pounded to bits by the shells. Of the one-time
flourishing village, nothing remains. A shapeless mass of broken stones
marks the site of the Castle _(photo above)_. The place has become a
desolate waste overrun with weeds and grass. Here and there traces of
the defence-works: redoubts, trenches, etc., and the graves of British
and German soldiers, conjure up visions of the bloody struggle which
took place there.
_Return to Pozières, take again N. 29 on the left, towards Bapaume._
[Illustration: RUINS OF SARS VILLAGE. N. 29 NEAR BAPAUME.]
[Illustration: SARS. RUINS OF GERMAN MONUMENT IN CEMETERY ON THE RIGHT
OF N. 29.]
_Five kilometres beyond Pozières, =Sars=, which stood on both sides of
the high road, is reached (photo, p. 50)._ It was taken on October 7,
1916, by the British, who advanced beyond it, but were then held, as in
spite of repeated assaults the Germans had maintained themselves on the
Warlencourt Ridge (Hill 122), to the east, which dominates the whole
district.
Sars is the nearest village to Bapaume, taken by the British in the
course of their offensive of 1916. It was about 9 km. from their
trenches (in front of La Boisselle), and 6 km. this side of the first
houses of Bapaume. In 1918, on the contrary, it took the British only
three days to cross the strip of ground, 7 km. wide, which separated
their starting trenches from Le Sars village, captured on August 25.
Sars was wiped out. At the entrance, in a small shell-torn wood on the
right, are the remains of a German cemetery, completely devastated. The
base of a German monument can still be seen _(photo above)_.
_Continue along N. 29 for about 1 km. beyond Sars; 150 yards to the
right, =Warlencourt Ridge=_ stands out. _Go there on foot._
[Illustration: SARS. A CHINESE CAMP.]
[Illustration: WARLENCOURT RIDGE, SEEN FROM N. 29.]