Throughout the offensive of 1916, Bray was an important revictualling
centre, and as such, frequently bombed by German aeroplanes. Troops and
convoys were constantly passing through.
In 1918, the Germans, having driven back the British beyond the old
front line of 1914-1916, occupied Bray on March 26, six days after
launching their offensive. Immediately progressing beyond the town,
they advanced along the Somme to the vicinity of Sailly-le-Sec, where
the front line became fixed at the end of March.
The Franco-British offensive of August 8, the objective of which was
to reduce the Amiens Salient, cleared the Somme Valley as far as the
outskirts of Bray, where the Germans resisted strongly.
However, on August 22, General Rawlinson's Army, in a fresh effort,
succeeded in carrying Hill 107--an observation-post which dominated the
country to the north-east. On the night of the 23rd, Australian troops,
slipping along the river, entered Bray and captured a large number of
prisoners.
[Illustration: BRAY-SUR-SOMME. CHURCH AND PLACE DE LA LIBERTÉ.]
The town which, until 1918, had practically escaped damage, suffered
severely in the subsequent bombardments, and was moreover thoroughly
pillaged by the German troops during their occupation. In this they
complied with the instructions of the High Command, who ordered all
the churches and chapels in the region of the Somme to be carefully
searched, not excepting the "_altars, confessionals and other parts
of the church, access to which is reserved by ecclesiastical rules to
the priests only_." In pursuance of this decree, dated May 20, 1918,
the church of Bray-sur-Somme was despoiled of its furnishings. A
magistrate-member of the Enquiry Commission, visiting the church a few
days after the Germans had left, reported: _"A large number of bottles
were lying on the floor. The baptismal font was fouled with urine. The
door of the Holy of Holies, which bore traces of having been forced,
was twisted and the iron-work torn off."_
The church itself _(Hist. Mon.)_, dated from the 13th and 15th
centuries. It was greatly damaged by the bombardments. The spire
collapsed, the façade was pierced with numerous shell-holes, while the
timber work and roofing were partly destroyed.
The church is reached by the Rue des Massacres.
_After visiting the church, proceed to the bottom of the square,
where, on the right, turn to the left into the Rue de Cappy. Pass a
Merovingian cemetery, then follow the marshy Valley of the Somme to
=Cappy= (3 km. from Bray)._
[Illustration: CAPPY. THE VILLAGE AND BRIDGE OVER THE CANAL.]
Cappy, lost on March 26, 1918, was reconquered exactly five months
later by the British. The Germans had a dump in the village for all the
sacred articles stolen in the district. This depôt was installed in the
yard of the billet occupied by the "_officer in charge of the booty_,"
opposite a building which, according to a notice posted up by the
Germans, was the meeting-place of the "_detachments for the collection
of the booty_." The sudden arrival of the British did not leave them
time to carry away the booty, which included three bells, a quantity
of metallic objects, chandeliers, candlesticks, crucifixes, and "six
greatly damaged ecclesiastical ornaments."
[Illustration: THE CANAL NEAR THE LOCK. WOUNDED ON THEIR WAY TO THE
DRESSING-STATION.]
The church has a massive fourteenth century fortified belfry, the
upper story of which comprises four watch-towers resting on the corner
abutments. Two of these towers were destroyed by the bombardment.
[Illustration: FRISE CHURCH IN JULY, 1916 _(see pp. 71-72)_.]
_Near the Church, take the road which runs parallel to the Somme canal.
On leaving Cappy there is a large_ Franco-British cemetery _on the
left_.
_=Eclusier= (3 km. beyond Cappy) is next reached_; it is the principal
portion of the "_commune_" of Vaux-Eclusier. =Vaux=, which forms the
other portion of it, lies on the northern bank.
On July 1, 1916, the French first lines, passing through the eastern
outskirts of Vaux-Eclusier, barred the Valley of the Somme with a
continuous line of small posts established in the middle of marshes,
thus connecting the organisations on solid ground on the northern bank
with those of the southern bank.
There is a French military cemetery on the right, before entering
Eclusier.
In spite of numerous bombardments, Eclusier has retained the appearance
of a village. Most of the damage is repairable.
It was only in January, 1916, that Vaux-Eclusier became the last
village occupied by the French in the Valley of the Somme. Previous to
that date the advanced lines ran beyond the village of =Frise=, 2 km.
further to the east.
[Illustration: FRISE CHURCH IN SEPTEMBER, 1917 _(see pp. 70-72)_.]
_To reach Frise, keep straight along the Somme Canal._
[Illustration]
Standing on a picturesque site dominated by a hill on the north, the
village lies on the left bank of the Somme, opposite the marshes,
at the end of a large bend in the river. This bend measures 7 km.
round, whereas the isthmus which separates the two arms of the river,
opposite Frise, is scarcely 1 km. in width. These conditions made it
very difficult to defend the village, which was accordingly used only
as an advance-post. The Germans attempted to capture the place on
several occasions by local surprise-attacks and mining. In January,
1916, a powerful attack with large forces succeeded, after a violent
bombardment, in occupying the position, but the Germans were unable to
debouch from it.
[Illustration: FRISE CHURCH in 1919 _(see pp. 40-42)_.
_Only the two trees are left._]
The French retook Frise on the morning of July 2, 1916. In the course
of a brilliant attack, the successive lines of trenches which defended
the southern and eastern parts of the village, were carried, and the
latter was evacuated by the Germans at noon. Giving the enemy no time
to reform, the French followed up their success by attacking the German
second line, and before nightfall carried that part of Méréaucourt Wood
which lies to the east, on a crest about 340 feet high, overlooking the
Valley of the Somme.
Frise was completely destroyed. Here and there fragments of walls
and half-burnt beams mark the site of the old houses. Some of the
inhabitants have returned and are being housed in huts erected in the
Place de l'Eglise.
The large modern church has disappeared, the tottering ruins having
been pulled down.
[Illustration: VAUX VILLAGE AND THE VALLEY OF THE SOMME.]
_On leaving Frise, return to Eclusier by the same road. Beyond the
church take the road on the right which crosses first the canal, then
the marshes by means of three bridges. At the fork, take the right-hand
road to =Vaux=._
There is a fine view of the River Somme and the marshes, including part
of the battlefield of July 1, 1916. In the valley, walled in by high
chalky cliffs, the Somme, bordered with high poplar-trees, follows its
winding course among marshes and peat-bogs, intersected with patches of
rushes and reed-grass. The half-hidden ruins of Frise are on the right.
On the left fragments of walls are all that remain of Fargny Mill and
the buildings which surrounded it. The French first line ran close by
on July, 1, 1916 _(photo, p. 74)_.
[Illustration: FARGNY MILL, JULY, 1916.]
[Illustration: FARGNY MILL DAM AND THE "GENDARME'S HAT."
_In 1919 the mill had disappeared._]
Behind, the edge of a once wooded ravine, the chalky substratum of
which, laid bare by shell-fire, was christened ="Gendarme's Hat"= by
the Poilus, formed the Germans' first line. Further away, in the hollow
of the valley, appear the ruins of =Curlu= village.
_The road runs alongside the Somme. At the site of Fargny Mill go
round the "Gendarme's Hat"_--from which the attack of July 1, 1916,
debouched--_to reach =Curlu=_.
Curlu had been transformed into a stronghold by the Germans.
[Illustration: THE "GENDARME'S HAT," JULY, 1916.]
Debouching from Fargny Mill, on the morning of July 1, a regiment of
the French 20th Corps carried all the German advance-positions with
great dash, notably the "Gendarme's Hat." However, at the outskirts of
Curlu, further advance was stayed by machine-gun fire, making fresh
artillery preparation necessary, which destroyed most of the houses.
Rushing again to the assault in the evening, the French, in a few
minutes, drove the Bavarians from all their positions, and the enemy's
numerous attempts during the night and throughout the next day to
regain a footing in the village broke down before the French barrage
fire.
[Illustration: CURLU CHURCH.
_Fragment of 13th century wall--all that is left of the village._]
The day after the capture of Curlu, the French resumed their advance,
and soon reached the village of =Hem=, which they carried on July 5,
after fierce fighting lasting the whole day.
The road follows the line of the advance, from Fargny Mill to Hem. _At
Curlu leave the church on the left._ Numerous shelters, graves and
cemeteries are seen along the road, which passes near _=Hem-Monacu= (2
km. beyond Curlu)_; a few broken walls, 300 yards to the right of the
road, are all that remain of the village _(photo below)_.
[Illustration: HEM-MONACU. RUINS OF THE CHURCH.]
[Illustration: CLERY CHURCH AND VILLAGE.]
The French were held to the east of Hem _(see sketch-map, p. 71)_, by
the strong defences around the village. These positions consisted of: a
wood full of barbed-wire entanglements, situated to the north, near the
station of the Albert-Péronne light railway; to the north-east, other
strongly organised small woods and a quarry.
Further to the east, on the Combles-Feuillères road (G.C. 146), =Monacu
Farm=--a veritable fortress with numerous strong-points--was connected
with other defences which had been organised in the slag-heaps of the
phosphate of lime works belonging to the St. Gobain Glass Manufactory.
These defences extended as far as the Somme marshes, where the long
reeds hid the numerous machine-guns.
The French carried all these centres of resistance at the end of July
and beginning of August, and kept them in spite of fierce German
counter-attacks, some of which lasted thirty-six hours. At Monacu Farm
the German efforts assumed a particularly violent character. The French
artillery, posted on the top of the cliffs, enfiladed the attacking
waves, which were each time forced to fall back in disorder with very
heavy losses, without being able to reach the French lines.
These successful operations, while enabling the French to secure the
whole second line of the German defences, also gave them an outlet, on
the north, into Combles Valley--the long, dry and sinuous ravine along
which runs the Albert-Péronne light railway. On the south, they also
commanded the bridges and roads leading to Feuillères, on the left bank
of the Somme.
The bridges were immediately rebuilt, and direct communication ensured
between the troops engaged north and south of the river.
_Three kilometres from Curlu, take the Feuillères-Maurepas road (G.C.
146) on the left, to =Hem Wood= (500 yards further on). Here take the
G.C. 213, on the right, to =Cléry-sur-Somme=_--an important village
on the north of a bend in the river. Fine view of the Somme, towards
Péronne.
In the Middle-Ages, Cléry was a fortified town commanding the valley of
the Somme. Here the Dukes of Créquy, then lords of the district, built
a fortified castle in front of the river marshes, to which the family
device: "_Nul s'y frotte_" ("Meddle not with me") was given. Before the
war some fourteenth century vestiges of the castle were still to be
seen.
[Illustration: CLERY. CEMETERY IN MADAME WOOD.]
In fortifying Cléry, the Germans took full advantage of its favourable
position; powerful defences were made in the outskirts of the village,
and in the surrounding woods and ravines, while many of the houses
were transformed into centres of resistance. However, in spite of
the strength of its defences, Cléry was entirely carried in a single
assault on September 3, 1916, after a terrific bombardment which the
German _communiqués_ qualified as "ferocious."
The success was an important one, as Cléry commanded the various roads
leading to Maurepas, Combles and Bouchavesnes on the north, another
road on the east leading to Feuillancourt and some bridges across the
Somme. The capture of the hamlet of =Omiécourt= at the other end of the
bridges, two days after that of Cléry, enabled the French to connect up
their positions north of the Somme with those on the left bank of the
river. The Germans counter-attacked in force several times, but were
unable to retake the position, in spite of very heavy losses.
Cléry was completely destroyed; only a few broken walls and shattered
roofs remain, and even these few traces of the formerly prosperous
village are crumbling away and disappearing. A few unrecognisable
fragments of ruins, standing amid an accumulation of stones and
rubbish, are all that is left of the fifteenth century church.
There are numerous soldiers' graves in the village, and also many
military defence-works.
To the east of Cléry the turbid waters of the Somme spread themselves
out, forming immense marshes, intersected by a labyrinth-like network
of channels. The French advance was directed from this side in 1916,
while on the east they were likewise blocked by the Mont-Saint-Quentin
Hill, which rises nearly 200 feet above the Somme Valley, from Cléry
to Péronne, and which the Germans, by powerful defences, had converted
into a second "Warlencourt Ridge." Although within sight of Péronne,
scarcely three miles distant, the French could get no farther. Cléry,
on the right bank of the Somme, was the nearest village to Péronne
conquered by the French in 1916.
[Illustration: MAUREPAS VILLAGE--COMPLETELY RAZED.]
In March, 1918, no important engagements were fought on the old Somme
battlefields. On March 24 the Germans crossed the Somme, south of
Péronne, and forced the Tortille line north of the town. Overwhelmed
and in danger of being surrounded, the British had to fall back
hurriedly, under the protection of rear-guards, who were unable to
check the enemy's advance.
In the following month of August the valley of the Somme was cleared
of the enemy almost without firing a shot. In accordance with Marshal
Foch's general plan, the British attack of August 21 was limited to the
north of the Somme. The Germans had just been driven back, south of the
river, from the district of Montdidier to the outskirts of Roye, as a
result of the Franco-British offensive of August 8. The Allied plan
provided for the withdrawal of the enemy's right wing from the banks of
the Ancre to Bapaume, thereby necessitating the immediate evacuation
of the whole bend in the Somme by their centre, and this is what
actually happened. As soon as Bapaume was invested, the Germans hastily
retreated, and whereas, on August 28, the British were still hanging on
to the western outskirts of Curlu, on the morning of the 29th they were
in Hem, and in the evening of the same day had progressed beyond Cléry.
_On leaving Cléry, return by the same road to Hem Wood, where take the
Feuillères-Maurepas road (G.C. 146), on the right towards Maurepas. The
road runs alongside Hem Wood (cut to pieces), crosses a ravine in which
ran the Albert-Péronne railway, and then rises towards a crest from
which starts, on the left, a road (500 yards from the fork) leading to
=Maurepas=_ (completely destroyed).
The Germans strongly fortified the village of Maurepas which protected
Combles from the south-west and formed the junction of six roads coming
from all directions. It was an agglomeration of large farms, each of
which possessed a meadow surrounded with trees. These farms had to be
carried almost one at a time, and the advance was therefore very slow.
[Illustration: MAUREPAS POND.]
The first assault against the village was launched on August 12 by
troops coming from Hardecourt-aux-Bois; only the southern and western
parts of the village--including the fortified cemetery and the
church--could be carried. The northern part fell a few days later.
Finally, on August 24, the last centres of resistance--notably the
houses alongside of the roads leading to Combles and to Forest--were
captured.
_In the village, near a cross, take the road to =Combles=, on the
right, crossing the north-west part of the village_. The site of
the church is on the right, while on the left is a small German
redoubt _(photo below)_, from which there is a line view of
=Hardecourt-aux-Bois=.
Hardecourt, which cannot be reached by road, stood at the
junction-point of the French and British forces during the offensives
which aimed at the investment of Combles. It had been captured in less
than three hours by the French on July 8, 1916, together with the
eminence which protects it on the north. A few scattered ruins are all
that remain to-day of the village.
_The road runs straight from Maurepas to =Combles= (3 km.)._
[Illustration: MAUREPAS. GRAVES AROUND A GERMAN REDOUBT.]
[Illustration: PANORAMIC VIEW OF COMBLES AND THE SURROUNDING COUNTRY.
A.--_Trônes Wood_; B.--_Guillemont_; C.--_Ruins of Church_;
D.--_Entrance to the Underground Shelters_; E.--_Combles-Guillemont
road_; F.--_Bouleaux Wood_; G.--_Quarry used as howitzer emplacement_;
H.--_Morval_; I.--_Combles. Morval road_; J.--_Maurepas-Combles road_.]
Investment and Capture of Combles by the Franco-British Troops in
September, 1916
Combles formed the last redoubt in the German defences until September,
1916.
Nature had made the position an exceedingly strong one. Enclosed at
the bottom of a small valley and completely surrounded by a girdle
of hills, Combles was out of reach of the artillery. For two and a
half years the Germans had been fortifying this position, building
formidable entrenchments and extensive subterranean defences in and
around the village.
The systematic conquest by the Allies during the first half of
September, 1916, of the whole region, including the villages of Forest,
Maurepas, Guillemont and Ginchy, had brought about the fall of the
whole of the defences of the stronghold, on the south and west.
A fresh Franco-British attack was launched on September 25, after a
terrific bombardment, with the object of encircling the fortress, by
the capture of the strong points which still protected it on the east
and north _(see sketch-map, p. 81)_.
[Illustration]
On the south-east, the French, starting from their trenches in the
old German positions of Le Priez Farm--a powerful redoubt protected
by six lines of defences which they had carried by assault on
September 14--captured the hamlet of Frégicourt. On the east, they
carried Rancourt village, and all intermediary positions between
these two points, advancing as far as the north-western corner of St.
Pierre-Vaast Wood.
[Illustration: ONE OF THE ENTRANCES TO THE UNDERGROUND SHELTERS OF
LAMOTTE CHÂTEAU.
_(Stretcher-bearers taking a meal.)_]
On the north, the British took the fortified villages of Morval and
Lesbœufs, and nearly joined hands with the French.
The Germans had now only one line of communication with their rear,
consisting of a hollow road which, winding towards Sailly-Saillisel
to the north-east, through La Haie Wood, was under the fire of the
Franco-British artillery. The Germans therefore decided to evacuate
their positions, but the Allies did not give them time to withdraw
in good order. On the morning of September 26 they attacked again,
the objective being this time the defences of the village itself.
Their junction was to be the centre of the village and "London" the
pass-word. The plan of attack was carried out to the letter. The French
110th Infantry Regiment, debouching from the south-east, carried all
that part of Combles lying east and south of the railway, including
the cemetery and railway-station. The 73rd Infantry Regiment captured
and consolidated the western part of the village, in spite of stubborn
resistance. The City of London Regiment cleared the north-western
portion of the village.
The streets and the road leading to Sailly-Saillisel, along which
the Germans retreated, were filled with their dead; 1,200 prisoners
and important quantities of material and supplies, both food and
ammunition, were captured.
Lying partly at the bottom of the valley and rising partly in tiers on
the slopes of the surrounding hills, Combles (1,150 inhabitants, mostly
engaged in silk and wool weaving) had suffered less from this fierce
fighting than might have been expected. Although damaged (shattered
walls, disjointed timber-work and tile-less roofs) many of its houses
were still standing at the end of 1916. The village had, however,
been thoroughly pillaged by the Germans, and traces of their long
occupation were everywhere to be seen, including concrete shelters,
strong-points, for machine-guns, underground passages, chambers, etc.
[Illustration: IN THE UNDERGROUND SHELTERS OF LAMOTTE CHÂTEAU.
_(German Officers' room.)_]
The tunnels, excavated out of the solid rock under the Lamotte Castle,
which already existed before the war, were the most important of
these subterranean organisations. The Germans utilised them as posts
of commandment, dressing-stations, mustering-places, etc. They were
large enough to shelter several companies at a time and sufficiently
deep to be proof against the heaviest projectiles. There were separate
entrances and exits, ventilating shafts, electric light, etc., and they
were comfortably fitted up. Beds were installed in the walls, and there
were tables, chairs, armchairs, tapestries, etc.--all stolen from the
houses in the village.