The estate of La Maisonnette occupied the summit of a limestone
eminence which dominates the battlefield south of the Somme (highest
point, 320 feet).
[Illustration: THE BATTLEFIELD AT LA MAISONNETTE.]
[Illustration: THE VALLEY OF THE SOMME. PÉRONNE AND MONT-ST.-QUENTIN
SEEN FROM LA MAISONNETTE.]
In 1870, the German batteries shelled Péronne from this hill. In 1916,
they were determined to hold it at all costs, knowing by experience
that the town would soon be untenable with French artillery posted
there.
The fighting which took place for the possession of La Maisonnette was
of the bloodiest, and made the ruins of the place famous.
The estate comprised a modern château and a park, a second residence
close by, about a dozen houses in the vicinity, and some fine trees and
orchards. All the houses, thickets and woods--including Blaise Wood,
to the north--had been strongly fortified. A maze of entrenchments
covered the whole park. A second continuous line of trenches ran round
the castle. Loop-holes had been made in the ivy-covered walls of the
château. At the corners, and at intervals, in the foundations of the
castle, machine-guns were posted. The outbuildings of the estate were
similarly fortified. The cellars, some 50 feet deep, were turned into
armoured shelters, capable of successfully withstanding the most
violent bombardments, and connected with one another and with the
defence-works of Blaise Wood by a subterranean passage, which enabled
the Germans either to fall back unseen towards the canal or approach
for counter-attacks.
However, this did not prevent a French Colonial Regiment from carrying
the whole position in an hour and a half on July 9. The cellars were
cleared out with grenades, and the Germans, unable to withstand the
impetuous charge of the "Marsouins," surrendered in large numbers.
The fiercest fighting took place at Blaise Wood, the defence works of
which connected La Maisonnette with Biaches. At this point a German
detachment in serried ranks raised their rifles in sign of surrender.
As the French advanced to disarm them, the German ranks opened, a
hidden machine-gun fired on the French, killing two officers and about
fifty soldiers. The French retired, but the lost ground was won back
the same day.
On July 15, the Germans counter-attacked furiously, and attempted
by means of liquid fire and asphyxiating grenades to slip into La
Maisonnette through Blaise Wood. They succeeded in gaining a footing in
the northern part of the wood, but were driven out the next day.
On the 17th, six successive assaults were made by the enemy on La
Maisonnette hill, but each time the Germans were repulsed with
sanguinary losses.
Renewing their attacks, they finally succeeded, first, in gaining a
footing in the outskirts of Blaise Wood, and, later, with the help of
liquid fire, in penetrating further into the French first lines, where
they established themselves in the ruins of the farm.
But, in spite of all their efforts, they were unable to establish
themselves securely on Hill 97, to the west of the estate, which
dominates the whole valley of the Somme, before and beyond Péronne.
Throughout the winter of 1916-17 constant bombardments, grenade
fighting from trench to trench, local attacks with alternating success
and failure, made the position on the crest untenable to both sides.
Finally, on March 17, 1917, Maisonnette Hill was entirely captured
by the Allies, and the Germans fell back on the Hindenburg line,
abandoning without striking a blow the few trenches which they had
managed to keep on the left bank of the Somme and which they had until
then so fiercely defended.
The British, who, early in 1917, had taken over this sector from the
French, entered the village, now completely destroyed. The pretty
Maisonnette Château had been reduced to a shapeless mass of ruins,
while the beautiful park in which it stood was so devastated as to be
unrecognisable. The orchards were destroyed, the woods hacked to pieces
by shell-fire. Only a portion of the organisations which surrounded the
Maisonnette position, and those which connected the hill with Biaches,
had withstood the bombardments.
The picture of desolation which met the British soldiers' eyes from the
top of Hill 97 was such as no cataclysm could have caused. Nothing was
to be seen but devastated lands, destroyed villages and felled trees,
while beyond the inundations which had been spread over the Somme
marshes, the smoke could be seen rising from the ruins of Péronne, set
on fire by the Germans.
_Return by the same road to G.C. 1, which take on the left. Follow
the Somme for a short distance to_ the ruins of =Biaches=. This small
village formerly nestled in the bottom of a verdant nook near the Canal
of the Somme, less than 1 km. from the ancient ramparts of Péronne, and
separated from it only by the marshes and the wide and sinuous river.
[Illustration: BIACHES CHURCH AS THE WAR LEFT IT.
_In the background: The Marshes of the Somme; On the right, behind the
trees: The beginning of Péronne._]
[Illustration: BIACHES. THE SUGAR REFINERY IN 1916.]