ametz Wood. During the day the Germans
attempted a counterattack, and incidentally the British enjoyed "a
good time." A fresh German division had just arrived at Montauban,
which received such a cruel welcome from the British guns that it must
have depressed their fighting spirit. East of Mametz a battalion from
the Champagne front appeared and was destroyed, or made prisoner, a
short time after detraining at the railhead. The British took a
thousand prisoners within a small area of this sector. An eyewitness
describes seeing 600 German prisoners being led to the rear by three
ragged soldiers of a Scotch regiment "like pipers at the head of a
battalion."

The British entered the wood of Mametz to the north of Mametz village
on July 4, 1916, and captured the wood of Barnafay. These positions
were not carried without stiff fighting, for the Germans had fortified
the woods in every conceivable manner. Machine-gun redoubts connected
by hidden trenches were everywhere, even in the trees there were
machine guns, while the thick bushes and dense undergrowth impeded
every movement. In such a jungle the fighting was largely a matter of
hand-to-hand conflicts. The German guns were well served, and every
position won by the British was at once subjected to a heavy
counterbombardment. Indeed from July 4, 1916, onward, there was
scarcely any cessation to the German fire on the entire British front,
and around Fricourt, Mametz, and Montauban in the background.

On July 7, 1916, the British General Staff informed the French high
command that they would make an attack on Trones Wood on the following
morning, asking for their cooperation. Assisted by the flanking fire
of the French guns, the British penetrated Trones Wood, and obtained a
foothold there, seizing a line of trenches and capturing 130 prisoners
and several mitrailleuses. On the same day the French on the British
right were pushing forward toward Maltzhorn Farm.

Trones Wood which for some days was to be the scene of the hottest
fighting in the southern British sector, is triangular in form and
about 1,400 meters in length, running north and south. Its southern
side is about forty meters. The Germans directed against it a violent
bombardment with shells of every caliber.

Owing to its peculiar position every advantage was in favor of the
defense. Maltzhorn Ridge commanded the southern part, and the German
position at Longueval commanded the northern portion. The German