ear, blue night. Orders were
given out to the British commanders to attack on the following morning
three hours after daybreak.

CHAPTER XLIX

THE BRITISH ATTACK

The first day of July, 1916, dawned warm and cloudless. Since half
past 5 o'clock every gun of the Allies on a front of twenty-five miles
was firing without pause, producing a steady rumbling sound from which
it was difficult to distinguish the short bark of the mortars, the
crackle of the field guns, and the deep roar of the heavies. The
slopes to the east were wreathed in smoke, while in the foreground lay
Albert, where German shells fell from time to time, with its shattered
church of Notre Dame de Bebrieres, from whose ruined campanile the
famous gilt Virgin hung head downward. At intervals along the Allies'
front, and for several miles to the rear, captive kite balloons,
tugging at their moorings, gleamed brightly in the morning light.

The Allies' bombardment reached its greatest intensity about 7.15,
when all the enemy slopes were hidden by waves of smoke like a heavy
surf breaking on a rock-bound coast. Here and there spouts and columns
of earth and debris shot up in the sunlight. It seemed that every
living thing must perish within the radius of that devastating
hurricane of fire.

At 7.30 exactly there was a short lull in the bombardment--just long
enough for the gunners everywhere to lengthen their range, and then
the fire became a barrage. The staff officers, who had been studying
their watches, now gave the order, and along the twenty-five mile
front the Allies' infantry left the trenches and advanced to attack.

In this opening stage of the battle the British aim was the German
first position. The section selected for attack ran from north to
south, covering Gommecourt, passing east of Hebuterne and following
the high ground before Serre and Beaumont-Hamel, crossed the Ancre
northwest of Thiepval. From this point it stretched for about a mile
and a quarter to the east of Albert. Passing south around Fricourt, it
turned at right angles to the east, covering Mametz and Montauban.
Midway between Maricourt and Hardecourt it turned south, covering
Curlu, crossing the Somme at a marshy place near Vaux, and finally
passed east of Frise, Dompierre, and Soyecourt, to leave east of
Lihons the sector in which the Allied offensive was in progress which
we are describing.

The disposition of the British forces on the front of attack was as
f