ns continued to make the most desperate
efforts to regain a section of the Hindenburg line east of
Bullecourt, which the Australians had won in the advance of May 3,
1917. From three sides day and night the sturdy defenders were
assailed by the Germans, but their attacks by day were killed by the
British artillery, and at night were driven off by bomb and bayonet.
The Germans had good reason to value this wedge bitten into the
Hindenburg line, for its possession by the Australians weakened an
otherwise strong position that ran formerly from Arras to Queant. The
British were now in touch with the Hindenburg line all the way from
Queant south to St. Quentin, and were pressing the Germans toward the
Drocourt switch in the north.

On the new lines east of Mont Haut held by the Germans a position
garrisoned by 200 men was captured by the French during the night of
May 5, 1917.

The French continued to make progress, slowly but firmly pressing the
Germans back from many points, and gaining more ground than they lost
through counterattacks. By the 6th of May, 1917, they had captured all
the unconquered positions on the Chemin-des-Dames and were masters of
the crest over which it runs for more than eighteen miles. The moral
effect of this victory was to give the French the assurance that they
could beat the Germans on their chosen battle ground and force them
out of their deepest defenses into the open field. German
invincibility had become a shattered myth.

For some days General Haig's troops had been tightening their grip
around Bullecourt, which lies in the original Hindenburg line due east
of Croisilles. The Australians who held this front had surrounded the
village on three sides and its fall was imminent.

On May 8, 1917, Bavarian troops stormed Fresnoy village and wood and
wrested some ground from the British on the western side. During the
night the Germans had concentrated large forces for an attack north of
Fresnoy which were dispersed by British fire. By a strong
counterattack the British recovered all the ground on the west that
they had lost on the previous day.

Some idea of the intense fighting in northern France may be gained
from the fact that since April 1, 1917, over thirty-five German
divisions (315,000 men) were withdrawn from this front owing to their
exhausted condition. The French and British had lost heavily, but
their casualties were from 50 to 75 per cent fewer than they incurred
in the Battle