y the Germans. The French positions were farther carried
to the south of the sugar refinery as far as the outskirts of
Gomiecourt. In these successful operations the French captured over
500 prisoners, including a number of officers.

CHAPTER XI

BRITISH SUCCESSES IN THE ANCRE

In the Ancre region the British won some notable victories on November
12, 1916, when Beaumont-Hamel was taken, which the Germans considered
an even more impregnable stronghold than Thiepval. The British also
swept all before them on the south side of the Ancre, capturing the
lesser village of St. Pierre Divion. The defeats which the British had
suffered in this region during July of 1916 were amply atoned for by
these victories. Beaumont-Hamel lies in the fold of a ridge and was
honeycombed with dugouts and the defenses so cunningly prepared that
it was extremely difficult for the British artillery to destroy them.
Under Beaumont-Hamel there is an elaborate system of caves or cellars
dating from ancient days, and it was the emergence of the German
troops from the dugouts and these lairs that made the attack of the
Ulster troops in July unavailing. Attacking simultaneously northward,
down the nearer slope, and eastward directly against the face of the
main German line before Beaumont-Hamel, the British troops captured
the whole position at once.

The entire front on which the British attacked was over 8,000 yards.
On the right, or east, the advance began from the western end of
Regina Trench from the British position about 700 yards to the north
of Stuff Redoubt. From this point a German trench known as the Hansa
line ran northwestward to the Ancre, directly opposite the village of
Beaucourt. On the extreme right, north of Stuff Redoubt, to reach that
trench meant an advance of only a score or so of yards. To the
westward, above Schwaben Redoubt half a mile, the advance was nearly
1,000 yards. By St. Pierre Divion, along the valley of the Ancre
itself, the advance was over 1,500 yards. Everywhere in this sector
the British troops were successful. They gained in this offensive a
stretch of 3,000 yards north of the Ancre to an average depth of about
a mile. The victory of the British troops was especially notable,
because they had struck frontally at the main German first line with
tier upon tier of trenches which the Germans had strongly fortified
and wired for two years past. One English county battalion alone to
the south of Beaumon