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and though in the British centre between High Wood and Delville Wood ground was gained, German counter-attacks recovered most of it. But the right fared better. The 2oth (Light) Div., assisted by a brigade of the i6th (Irish) Div., at last mastered Guillemont, the obstacle which had held up so many attacks and cost so many casualties. The 7th Div. reached Ginchy, but after desperate fighting was thrust out of it again, while on the extreme right three days of hard fighting gave the 5th Div. Falfemont Farm and brought it to Leuze Wood. Here, there- fore, the original German second system, which had so long held back the British right, was at last pierced and when on Sept. 9 this success was followed up by the capture and retention of Ginchy by the i6th Div. and the advance of the 56th (London) Div. up to Bouleaux Wood, the great stumbling-block to the advance of the British centre was at last so far removed that it could now push forward without putting itself at a grave dis- advantage from enfilade and reverse fire. Thus the battles for Guillemont and Ginchy (Sept. 3 and 9) mark a very definite stage in the Allied progress. The forward crest of the main ridge was in their hands over a front of five miles and more. It was now possible to plan a general advance against the villages on the northern slopes of the watershed. Such an attack, if successful, would bring the British up against the rearmost of the enemy's original systems of defence, and would make the position of the Germans on their old front line S. of the Ancre and immediately N. of it a pronounced salient.

Third Phase. The next attack, therefore, opened a new phase in the offensive. Special preparations were made for it, and a week's pause after the taking of Ginchy allowed of many reliefs. Thus the ten divisions of the IV. Army employed in the attack of Sept. 15 included several which had not yet taken part in the operations, among them the Guards, the 6th, one of the original units of the 1914 " B.E.F." and the New Zealand. Similarly in the V. Army the Canadian Corps had replaced the Austra- lians, who had since their capture of Pozieres made considerable gains N. of the Albert-Bapaume road. In addition to these fresh troops it had been decided to employ in this attack a new weapon from which much was expected. Despite the great increase in the available artillery and ammunition and the great improvements in the methods for directing, controlling and observing artillery fire, barbed wire and machine-guns were still the chief assets of the defence and had held up attack after attack. The evolution of the " tank " had been a long process. The idea of an armoured motor-car capable of defying both machine-guns and barbed wire had occurred to many people from the earliest days of the deadlock set up by the extension of the trench line from Switzerland to the North Sea. To translate this idea into practical shape, to produce a machine capable of accomplishing what was wanted, had been the work of months of ingenuity, experiment, devotion and skill. Not the least re- markable feature had been the success with which secrecy had been maintained. The tanks at their first venture hardly fulfilled their designers' hopes and expectations it would have been extraordinary if they had but they did quite well enough to encourage the Allies and to shake the moral of the German infantry, to whom they came as an effective surprise.

The frontage included in the British attack stretched from just S. of Courcelette to just W. of Combles. That strongly fortified position itself was not to be attacked, as the capture of the high ground on either side of the valley would determine its fate, and S.E. of the valley the French, who had already on Sept. 12-13 attacked and taken Bouchavesnes with 2,000 prisoners, were ready to cooperate.

The attack proved a great if not a complete success. On the left the Canadians not only captured their objectives S. of Courcelette but exploited their success so well that the village itself, not part of the original objective, was carried and con- solidated. To their right the isth (Scottish) Div. captured Martinpuich, High Wood was at last completely cleared by the 47th Div. and farther to the right again the New Zealand and 4ist Div., with some assistance from tanks, captured Flers and pushed some way beyond it. On the right the success was

less pronounced. A strong work between Ginchy and Morval known as the Quadrilateral held up the 6th Division. The tanks detailed to attack this point broke down and the gallant efforts of the infantry were unavailing. This check prevented the Guards Div. reaching their final objective, Lesboeufs, though they stormed their first and second objectives on the ridge S.W. of that village and maintained their position against counter- attacks. But with Lesboeufs and Morval, the objective of the 6th Div., still in German hands, the centre of the attack could not push forward without creating the same sort of situation as had prevailed on the right after the attack of July 14, and any further exploitation of the success was out of the question. Still, a big success had been achieved, a strong position had been broken into on a six-mile front, 4,000 prisoners had been taken, and the troops had the encouragement of having crossed the ridge and being able to see what lay on the farther side of the crest it had cost so much to gain.

The days that followed had to be occupied in reducing the Quadrilateral and in straightening out the line between Martin- puich and Flers. The 6th Div., not to be denied, pressed hard upon the Quadrilateral and after another unsuccessful attempt captured it on Sept. 18. But it is significant of the intensity and costliness of this fighting that the Quadrilateral had cost the 6th Division over 3,500 casualties. Its capture, however, allowed the line to be pushed forward within 1,000 yards of Morval and Lesboeufs, against which a new attack was in preparation.

Bad weather, however, delayed the delivery of this attack until Sept. 25. On this day the frontage attacked started at the Albert-Bapaume road but reached as far as the Somme. The French had, since capturing Bouchavesnes, improved their position S. of the Somme considerably by completing the re- duction of Vermandovillcrs, Berny and Deniecourt, and they had on Sept. 20 successfully repulsed a strongly pressed counter- attack, N. of the Somme. Their objectives on this occasion included Rancourt and Fregicourt, Combles being dealt with indirectly by the capture of the heights on either side of it.

The " battle of Morval " the official title for the attack of Sept. 25 was one of the most successful of the separate incidents of the Somme offensive. Except in the British centre at Guede- court all the objectives were reached and carried before night- fall. On the left the soth, ist, New Zealand and 55th Divs. carried the line forward down the slopes N. of Flers and Martin- puich clearing two lines of trenches; on the right the Guards and 6th Divs. carried Lesboeufs and the 5th Div. took Morval, while Guedecourt also was captured next day (Sept. 26) by the zist Div. assisted by a tank. The French were equally success- ful, and early on Sept. 26 British and French met in Combles, which was found full of stores and of German dead and wounded, the garrison having withdrawn just in time. Over 1,500 prisoners were captured by the British and nearly as many by the French, while signs were not wanting that the Germans were no longer putting up the stout resistance they had offered in the long struggles round Delville Wood and Guillemont. At several points large numbers of Germans surrendered or evacuated their positions almost without fighting. The strain of the continual bombardments and of the steady advance of the Allies was beginning to make itself felt.

The substantial success of Sept. 25 on the Allied right and centre was promptly followed up by victory in another quarter. Since July i there had been only one serious effort to renew the direct attack on the British left and the attempt of Sept. 3 had been a failure. Thiepval and all N. of it remained untaken. What progress had been made in this quarter had been from the S. and E. and it had not been rapid. The first real gain had not been made till the last half of Aug. when the scanty foothold already secured in the Leipzig salient directly S. of Thiepval had been enlarged by the 48th Div. This had been followed up by the capture (Aug. 24) by the 25th Div. of a trench known as the " Hindenburg trench." A violent counter-attack by a Prussian Guard Div. was successfully beaten off and minor gains had followed. Finally, on Sept. 14, a formidable redoubt known as the " Wonderwork," and situated just S. of Thiepval, was