After turning the car round at Vaux Pond, return by the same road to the cross-ways at St. Fine Chapel (_see pp. 66 and 67_), continue another fifty yards, then take on the right the road to Douaumont. About 500 yards farther on is the site of what was the village of =Fleury-devant-Douaumont=. [Illustration: FLEURY. THE GRANDE RUE IN JULY, 1916.] From June 21st to September 30th, 1916, the village was often disputed. After violently bombarding it from June 21st to 23rd, four German Alpine regiments carried it, pushing forward to the south of the Fleury-Vaux railway where the French 75’s checked them with very heavy loss. On the 24th–25th the French reoccupied the eastern part of the village. On the 27th two battalions of the French 241st line regiment entered Fleury, but were soon driven out, after which they clung to the southern and western parts. The enemy bombardment of July 9th–10th levelled the village. On the 11th, picked German troops attacked and outflanked it on the south. French counter-attacks succeeded on the following days in driving the Germans back somewhat, 800 prisoners being taken in ten days. On August 2nd–3rd the village was reoccupied and 1,350 more prisoners taken. It was lost, then partly retaken on August 5th at the point of the bayonet. Two weeks of constant grenade fighting, from hole to hole, by battalions of Alpine Chasseurs from Alsace, carried all that remained of the trenches adjoining the positions “Trois Arbres” and “Montbrison.” On August 17th the Moroccan Colonial Regiment finished the conquest of the village with their usual dash. _In the ruins of Fleury, on the right, there is a road which, after passing through Caillette Wood, comes to an end about 400 yards from_ =Douaumont Fort=. _The latter can be reached from here on foot._ _One kilometer after the ruins of Fleury the road divides. Take the right-hand one, the other leads to Bras by the northern slopes of Froide-Terre Hill._ The uphill road follows the ridge, at the end of which is Douaumont Fort, then passes south of =Thiaumont Redoubt=. [Illustration: FLEURY IN RUINS, OCTOBER, 1916.] =Thiaumont Redoubt=, S.W. of Douaumont Fort, dominating Froide-Terre Hill and the Bras road to the W., and the Fleury road to the S., formed the left extremity of the last but one line of resistance which passed in front of Verdun, _via_ the village of Fleury and the forts of Souville and Tavannes. For five months (May–September, 1916), which saw some of the hardest fighting in the battle of Verdun, the Germans wore themselves down against this line. Neither the repeated furious attacks, nor poison gas, nor the incredibly intense bombardments could break the resistance of the French, who clung desperately to their positions. _A little further on the road passes the site of_ =Thiaumont Farm=, _all traces of which were swept away by the battle_.