ting dugouts that were well furnished and
homelike. The best of these were papered, with linoleum on the floor,
pictures on the wall, and contained bathrooms, electric lights and
electric bells. There were also at convenient points bolt holes from
which the occupants could escape in case of surprise. Some of the
dugouts had two stories, the first being reached by a thirty-foot
staircase. Another stairway about as long communicated with the lower
floor. Every preparation seemed to have been made for permanent
occupation. The Germans had good reasons for believing that their
position was impregnable. The utmost ingenuity had been employed to
fortify every point. Carefully screened manholes used by the snipers
were reached by long tunnels from the trenches. The most notable piece
of military engineering was a heavily timbered communication trench
300 feet long, and of such a depth that those passing through it were
safe from even the heaviest shells.

Late in the afternoon Mametz fell, after it had been reduced to a
group of ruined walls, above which rose a rough pile of broken masonry
that represented the village church. The Germans who occupied trench
lines on the southern side had shattered the British trenches opposite
Mametz so completely that the British infantry were forced to advance
over open ground.

CHAPTER L

THE FRENCH ATTACKS NORTH AND SOUTH OF THE SOMME

From the hamlet of Vaux, ruined by German artillery, on the right bank
of the Somme, part of the battle field, with the configuration of a
long crest, looks like a foaming sea stretching away to the horizon.

Against the whitish yellow background the woods resolve into dark
patches and the quarries into vast geometric figures. In the valley
the Somme zigzags among the poplars; its marshy bed is covered with
rushes and aquatic plants; on the left stand crumbled walls
surrounding an orchard whose trees were shattered by German shells.
This is the mill of Fargny through which the French line passes. A
little beyond at a place called Chapeau-de-Gendarme was the first
German trench, and farther still in the valley stands the village of
Curlu, its surrounding gardens occupied by Bavarian troops. To the
eastward, half hidden by the trees, a glimpse could be had of the
walls of the village of Hem. In the distance a solitary church spire
marked the site of Peronne, a fortress surrounded by its moat of three
streams.

General Foch had planned his advan