From March to June 2nd, the fort and its surroundings received no less than 8,000 large calibre shells daily. Only one entrance was left, _i.e._ the north-west postern, which enemy artillery fire rendered unserviceable. The commander of the fort (Raynal) and his men were imprisoned in the underground chambers of the fort, being no longer able to hold their ground outside. To economise food and water, the surplus contingents were ordered to leave the fort. On the night of the 4th a first detachment made its escape under the direction of Aspirant Buffet, who returned to the fort the next evening with orders. The same night 100 more men managed to get away. Carrier pigeons and optical signals now furnished the only means of communication with the French lines. On the 4th, the last pigeon was released. On the morning of the 5th, thanks to two signalmen who volunteered to change a signal post which the Commandant had difficulty in observing, communications were maintained. The same night the Commandant sent his last message that could be read in its entirety, and which ended: “We have reached the limit, officers and soldiers have done their duty. Long live France!” Nevertheless, the fort continued to hold out and refused to surrender. On the night of the 6th reinforcements tried to relieve it and reached the moat of the counter-scarp, but after losing nearly all their officers they were compelled to fall back. The Germans gained a footing in the ruins of the superstructure, and eventually succeeded in driving the French out of the casemates by lowering baskets of grenades with retarded fuses and by using liquid fire and poison gas. Driven back into the underground passages, the French continued the fight with grenades and bayonets. The 2nd regiment of Zouaves and the Colonial regiment of Morocco made a last effort on the morning of the 8th to relieve the garrison. They reached the approaches of the fort, from which clouds of thick black smoke, caused by a violent explosion in one of the casemates, were pouring. Exposed to the fire of the enemy machine-guns installed in the superstructure of the fort and attacked by constantly increasing reinforcements, they were unable to hold their ground. [Illustration: THE APPROACHES TO VAUX FORT IN MARCH, 1916 The Fort is on the left at the back] When, on the night of June 8th, after seven days and nights of continual fighting, the heroic defenders of the fort were at last overpowered, the unwounded among them had not tasted a drop of water for two days. Five months later (November 2nd) the Germans were driven out of the fort, which they hurriedly evacuated (_see pp. 63–64_). [Illustration: THE SOUTH-WEST SIDE OF VAUX FORT] III.—From Vaux Fort to Souville Fort