Nelson's history of the war. Vol. XI., The struggle for the Dvina, and the great invasion of Serbia

110 HISTORY OF THE WAR.

ments and defences were constructed just below the crest on the reverse or northern side of the ridge, and the French gunners could not operate against them by direct observation.

In the last week of September the French artillery had been moved forward, a work of great labour in those days of persistent rain among the chalky mud. On Wednesday, 29th September, as we have already seen, a violent attack, which for the moment was successful, was made against the German final line in the vicinity of Navarin Farm. The next effort was directed against Tahure and the Butte beyond it. The Normandy regiment had constructed a line of trenches facing the Butte to the west of the village, and just north of the SouainTahure road. Ground was won at the same time to the south-east in the Toothbrush Wood, and it was possible to devise from three sides a converging bombardment of the village and the Butte. On 6th October, after a heavy preparation by the massed guns, the Picardy division from the west of the village carried the crest of the Butte, and looked down on the valley of the Py and the lateral railway. This meant that the defence of the village was now taken in the rear. From the west and from the south through the Toothbrush Wood, where the Germans had seven parallel lines of trenches, the French pressed in on Tahure, and the village fell. Over 1,000 prisoners were taken, many of them starving, for the curtain of fire on the Butte had cut them off from their supplies, and the piles of dead were proof of the fatal work of the 75’s. The result of the day’s fighting was to give the French Tahure and all the country half a

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