n the following night, during a heavy rainstorm, the British attacked
a number of the southwesterly suburbs of Lens, including the one known
as Avion. They won all their first objectives, and captured over 200
prisoners. The fighting was in and out of ruined buildings,
collieries, pit derricks, and the usual structures of a mining
settlement. It was continued on the following day, advance being made
on a total front of about four miles to a depth of over a mile. The
result of these attacks was to give the British a series of strongly
organized defensive systems on both banks of the river Souchez
covering Lens.

On the same night the suburbs of the mining center were attacked, the
British captured German forward positions south and west of Oppy in
the Arras sector on a front of about 2,000 yards.

On the 28th and 29th of June, 1917, the Germans launched by night
powerful attacks in the Verdun sector near Hill 304 and Avocourt Wood.
They succeeded in piercing French first lines over the whole front
attacked, but were subsequently driven out, except at one point, on
the slope of Dead Man Hill, where they clung tenaciously, defying
every attempt made by the French to regain the position.

CHAPTER LX

THE GERMANS DEFEAT BRITISH ON BELGIAN COAST--INTENSE FIGHTING IN THE
CHAMPAGNE AND AT VERDUN

In the first days of July, 1917, the Verdun sector became the scene
of some of the heaviest fighting on the western front. The Germans
seemed determined to redeem their failures in this area in the
previous year and engaged in daily assaults with large numbers of
picked forces. The German High Command had circulated so many stories
regarding the declining strength of the French troops and of their
weakened morale that they must have come to believe their own
inventions. The soldiers of the Republic certainly did their best to
convince the German command that they were very much alive and in good
fighting trim. Most of the German attacks in the Verdun sector were
repulsed, but they succeeded in retaining some conquered ground on the
west slope of Dead Man Hill. On the Aisne front during the night of
June 30, 1917, the Germans attacked near Cerny and Corbeny, when their
storming detachments were almost annihilated by the devastating fire
of the French artillery. To the northeast of Cerny the Germans
succeeded in gaining a small salient which had first been leveled by
their guns.

South of Lens the British continued to mak