l tell the tale long after the survivors have ceased to
recount the deeds of the day to their grandchildren wherever the English
tongue is spoken. Each side gives credit to the other for the utmost
bravery and devotion during the battle. The new English regiments fought
like veterans, and fully maintained the traditions of the British army
for dogged bravery, while the Germans fought with desperate tenacity,
valor and resourcefulness, this last quality being displayed in the
devices which had been invented and were used to prevent or delay
the Allied advance. It was indeed wonderful how well the Germans had
protected their machine-guns from the devastating effects of the
preliminary bombardment, which tore trenches to pieces and utterly
demolished barbed-wire entanglements, but failed in many cases to
destroy the deep bomb-proofs in which the Teuton machine-guns were
protected and concealed.

CONTINUATION OF THE GREAT BATTLE

On July 2 and 3, the battle of the Somme continued without cessation
of infantry fighting, while the big guns thundered on both sides.
The British offensive took Fricourt on the 2nd, after a tremendous
bombardment, and occupied several villages, while the French advanced to
within three miles of Peronne. Ten thousand more prisoners fell into the
hands of the Allies on these two days. On the 4th, German resistance
temporarily halted the British, but the French offensive took German
second-line positions south of the Somme on a six-mile front. Violent
counter-attacks by the Germans on July 6 failed to wrest from the French
the ground won by them during the previous five days, and the Allied
troops resumed their advance, taking the German second-line trenches all
along the front in the face of a heavy fire. Next day Contalmaison was
won by the British, but recaptured by the Prussian Guard, who held the
town for three days, when they were again driven out.

A desperate struggle for the possession of the Mametz woods marked
the fighting from the 10th to the 12th, the British and the Germans
alternating in its possession. Victory at this point finally lay with
the British, who on July 12 gained possession of the whole locality,
together with the Trones wood, which had also been the scene of a bloody
straggle. By this time some 30,000 German prisoners had been taken by
the Allies during the offensive, while the losses in killed and wounded
on both sides, in the absence of official reports, could only be