e west end of High Wood, and then along a
trench tramway till it ended rather abruptly at the Flers Switch. Like
most dumps, it was at the end of the tramway and none too healthy a
spot. It was afterwards moved forward to a sunken road called 'Hexham
Road,' where the boxes of ammunition were just piled in the open.

The position in front was now as follows. The 1st Division had pushed
the enemy back to a line along the top of a ridge running from the
Butte of Warlencourt practically due east. This ridge prevented our
seeing the enemy's approaches and support positions in Le Barque. On
the other hand from Loupart Wood the whole of our approaches and
support trenches were in full view of the enemy, as far back as High
Wood. Across those two miles no one could move in daylight without
being seen by the enemy, and there was practically no position to put
our field guns forward of High Wood. The enemy's front line consisted
of two trenches--Gird Line and Gird Support--with a forward trench on
the top of the ridge, called on the left 'Butte Trench' on the right
'Hook Sap.' Our front line Snag Trench and Maxwell Trench lay this
side the ridge and about two hundred yards away from the German
forward trench.

The Butte of Warlencourt, an old Gallic burial place, was a round
chalk hill, rising about 100 feet above ground level; and had been
mined with deep dugouts and made into a formidable strong point. From
the Butte machine-guns defended the approaches to Hook Sap, and from
Hook Sap and the Gird Line machine-guns defended the approaches to the
Butte. The ground between and around the opposing trenches had been
ploughed up with innumerable shells, some of huge calibre, and it was
now a spongy morass, difficult to cross at a walk and impossible at a
run. As events proved, unless both the Butte and the Gird Line could
be taken at the same time, the one would render the other impossible
to hold. This then was the problem that faced the 50th Division, a
problem that would have been difficult enough in the driest of
weather, but rendered four times more so by the rain which fell in
deluges on three days out of four during the whole of October and
November. I have dealt with these details rather fully, because this
phase of the Somme battle has been passed over as a thing of no
account. The eyes of the public have been directed to the successful
operations at Beaumont Hamel and Beaucourt. They have not been
directed to the misery a