s
troops which showed that the German officers appreciated the
seriousness of the Allied offensive:

[Illustration: The English Gains.]

"The decisive issue of the war depends on the victory of the Second
Army on the Somme. We must win this battle in spite of the enemy's
temporary superiority in artillery and infantry. The important ground
lost in certain places will be recaptured by our attack after the
arrival of reenforcements. The vital thing is to hold on to our
present positions at all costs and to improve them. I forbid the
voluntary evacuation of trenches. The will to stand firm must be
impressed on every man in the army. The enemy should have to carve his
way over heaps of corpses...."

To understand the exact position of the British forces on July 3,
1916, the alignment of the new front must be described in detail.

The first section extended from Thiepval to Fricourt, between which
the Albert-Bapaume road ran in a straight line over the watershed.
Thiepval, Ovillers, and La Boiselle were positions in the German front
line. East of the last place the fortified village of Contalmaison
occupied high ground, forming as it were a pivot in the German
intermediate line covering their field guns.

The British second position ran through Pozieres to the two Bazentins
and as far as Guillemont. Thiepval and Ovillers had not yet been
taken, and only a portion of La Boiselle, but the British had broken
through the first position south of that place and had pushed well
along on the road to Contalmaison. This northern section had been
transformed by warfare into a scene of desolation, bare, and
forbidding, seamed with trenches and pitted with shell holes. The few
trees along the roads had been razed--the only vegetation to be seen
being coarse grass and weeds and thistles.

The southern section between Fricourt and Montauban presented a more
inviting prospect. A line of woods extended from the first village in
a northeasterly direction, a second line running from Montauban around
Longueval. In this sector all the German first positions had been
captured. The second position ran through a heavily wooded country and
the villages of the Bazentins, Longueval, and Guillemont.

During the night of July 2, 1916, the British had penetrated La
Boiselle, and throughout the following day the battle raged around
that place and Ovillers. The fighting was of the most desperate
character, every foot of ground being contested by t