The fighting at Biaches, like that at La Maisonnette, gave rise to some
of the most famous episodes in the Offensive south of the Somme.
The French advance had been so rapid that as early as July 8 General
Fayolle's troops, having broken through the German front to a depth of
8 kilometres, occupied the outskirts of Biaches. The next day, after
an intense bombardment, the system of trenches which protected the
outskirts of the village was carried in a few minutes.
[Illustration: BIACHES. THE SUGAR REFINERY IN 1919.
_Seen from the same view-point._]
A desperate struggle which lasted all day took place in the village,
where every street and crossing was protected by defence-works.
Machine-guns were posted in all the houses, while buildings like the
town-hall, sugar refinery, railway-station, etc., had been turned into
powerful centres of resistance.
A block of houses to the south-east resisted till the evening, when it
was reduced. At the entrance to the village, close to the Herbécourt
road, a strong point, passed in the course of the advance, was still in
enemy hands.
This position, which subsequently acquired fame under the official name
of Herbécourt Redoubt, enabled its occupants to take the French in the
rear, and rendered the occupation of the village very difficult and
uncertain.
[Illustration: BIACHES. DEFENCE-WORKS IN THE PLACE DE LA MAIRIE (1916).]
It was absolutely necessary to carry it. Frontal attacks were stopped
short by a murderous machine-gun fire; a concentration of fire with
trench-mortars gave no better results. Finally, in the afternoon of
July 10, a captain and eight men, with "extraordinary daring," crept
up to and entered the redoubt. The garrison, which still numbered 112
men and 2 officers, lost their presence of mind and surrendered without
offering any resistance.
The loss of Biaches, which formed the last advanced defences
of Péronne, was a particularly hard blow for the Germans, who
attempted, on several occasions to reconquer the position by fierce
counter-attacks.
On July 15, a terrific bombardment was opened on the village. The
ruined houses collapsed, fires broke out, and most of the shelters,
including those under the cellars, were smashed in. The attack followed
in the evening. Leaving Péronne by the Faubourg de Paris, the Germans,
favoured by fog, slipped along the banks of the canal and reached the
French first lines, which they attacked with liquid fire.
One section, surrounded with flames, gave way. Taking advantage
of this, the enemy slipped into the village and, after a violent
engagement, conquered the greater part of it, only to be driven out
again the next day by a counter-attack, during which the French won
back all the lost ground.
[Illustration: BIACHES. THE PLACE DE LA MAIRIE IN 1916.]
In the evening of July 17, the enemy made another powerful effort.
Supported by heavy batteries posted above Péronne on Mont-Saint-Quentin
Hill, which kept up an uninterrupted fire, the Germans again entered
Biaches and captured it. The struggle continued throughout the next day
in the ruins of the village with varying fortune, and it was only on
the 19th that the enemy were definitely driven out.
Further counter-attacks were launched afterwards, but met with no
better success. From July 17, 1916, till March, 1917, the French and,
later, the British maintained their lines intact in front of Péronne,
on the edge of the Somme Marshes.
On leaving Biaches, G.C. 1 rises towards Herbécourt. Looking back,
there is a very fine view of Biaches, Péronne and the valley
_(Panorama, pp. 116-117)_.
_3 km. 500 beyond Biaches, leave, on the left, the village of
=Flaucourt=_ (completely destroyed), which was carried by storm on July
3, 1916. _=Herbécourt= is 1 km. 500 farther on._
[Illustration: BIACHES. THE PLACE DE LA MAIRIE IN 1919.]
[Illustration: PANORAMA OF BIACHES AND PÉRONNE,
_as seen from the Biaches Herbécourt road_.]
At the entrance to the village, on the left, is a large German
cemetery, and on the right a house (almost intact) in which a German
dressing-station was installed. German frescoes may still be seen on
the walls _(photo, p. 117)_.
[Illustration: TRENCH ON THE HERBÉCOURT PLATEAU.]
After capturing Dompierre on July 1, 1916, the French advanced so
rapidly on Herbécourt that the Germans were unable to make use of
the numerous defence-works which had been accumulated between the
two villages. The hill overlooking Herbécourt was carried in a few
minutes, and on July 2, the village itself was entirely conquered.
[Illustration: HERBÉCOURT. HOUSE, PRACTICALLY UNDAMAGED, DECORATED BY
THE GERMANS WITH FRESCOES.
_It was used as a dressing-station._]
The French had thus advanced about 4 km. in depth, and the German
second line of resistance was broken into in front of Péronne (6 km.
to the east), _i.e._, at its weakest point.
[Illustration: HERBÉCOURT. RUINS OF THE CHURCH.]
Herbécourt commands a crossing of roads which branch off in various
directions. Rapid communication with the south of the plateau was now
possible by the road leading to the village of Assevillers (carried on
July 3) on the one hand, and with the Somme valley by the road which
ends at the bridges and highway of Feuillères (also captured on July 3).
[Illustration: ON LEAVING HERBÉCOURT--GERMAN BLOCKHOUSE AT THE CORNER
OF THE ROADS TO CAPPY _(on the right)_ AND DOMPIERRE _(on the left)_.]
[Illustration: GERMAN TRENCHES ON THE HERBÉCOURT PLATEAU.]
[Illustration: +FEUILLÈRES CHURCH AND VILLAGE+ _(not in Itinerary)_.
_On the canal between Frise and Biaches, they were violently bombarded
in 1916._]
The brick and rubble houses of Herbécourt stood at this cross-roads.
Nothing remains of them now, except a few walls, beams and fragments of
the timber frameworks of the battered farm-houses.
The façade, steeple and roofing of the church were destroyed. Only
a few battered fragments of the sides, walls, and choir are still
standing.
_Leave Herbécourt by the G.C. 71._ A blockhouse for machine-guns is
seen on the left, near the last ruins.
_The road runs across a bare plateau, then passes through the destroyed
hamlet of =Becquincourt=, after which =Dompierre= is reached._
Dompierre was the central point in the zone of attack on July 1, 1916.
It was carried on the first day, after a brilliant assault, together
with the neighbouring hamlet of Becquincourt and Bussus farm, to the
south. The German system of defence-works comprised three successive
lines of trenches connected with one another by communication trenches,
and reinforced with redoubts and concrete shelters for machine-guns.
Here were to be found the "Gatz" trench, and the "Misery" and "Thirst"
communication-trenches. The bombardment which preceded the attack was
terrific, the whole area being upturned by the shells; not a single
square yard of the ground was left intact.
[Illustration]
The village was not spared by the bombardments; most of the houses were
reduced to shapeless heaps of bricks and broken beams. The site of the
church is marked by a heap of white stones, higher than the others.
_After passing through Dompierre, take the road to Fay, on the left._
The ruined =sugar-refinery= of Dompierre _is on the right, 200 yards
farther on (photos, p. 121)_.
The Dompierre Sugar Refinery was within the French first lines, but
the village itself, although close by, was still in enemy hands. The
Germans attacked the refinery for two years, without being able to
capture it. It was, however, cut to pieces by the shells. The brick
walls crumbled away, but the steel frame-work resisted. Numbers of
twisted and rusty pipes, iron plates, cocks and vats, all disjointed,
broken, and out of shape, are still to be seen.
_Quite close to, at a crossroad, stands_ a calvary which is now famous.
The ground all around was churned up by the shells; only one hit the
calvary, carrying away an arm of Christ. The cross remained intact,
and supported the mutilated statue to the last.
[Illustration: DOMPIERRE. THE SUGAR REFINERY IN 1916.]
_Pass through =Fay=, 2 km. 500 farther on._
In the neighbouring sector of Dompierre, mine explosions succeeded one
another almost incessantly at Fay, during the trench warfare period,
especially in 1915-1916; the official communiqués often mentioned this
fighting as being extremely violent.
The French and German trenches ran along the western outskirts of the
village and were protected by very powerful defence-works, difficult to
approach in the open. Recourse was, therefore, to mines.
The Somme offensive put an end to these sanguinary engagements, which
had brought about no great change in the French or German positions.
Fay, completely razed, was carried on July 1.
_Among the ruins, the road turns at right-angles to the left (leave the
Estrées road to the right). 3 km. beyond Fay, =Assevillers=, built on a
hill_ and entirely destroyed, _is reached_.
[Illustration: DOMPIERRE. THE SUGAR REFINERY IN 1919.
_On the left: Road to Faucancourt; On the right: Road to Chuignes._]
_Pass through Assevillers, turning to the right, on entering. On
leaving, take the road to =Belloy-en-Santerre=, on the right._
Before reaching Belloy, the road descends into a hollow (see
defence-works and shelters), and skirts =Belloy Wood=, the trees of
which were cut to pieces by shell-fire. The wood lies on an eminence,
from the top of which are seen the ruins of a castle. Fine view towards
Biaches.