_At the bottom of the hill, opposite and below_ =Haudromont Quarries=, _tourists desirous of visiting_ =Helly Ravine= (_see photo below, and map, p. 73_), which was the scene of terrible fighting during the offensive of December, 1916 (_pp. 20–21_), _should turn to the right for about 300 yards_. _Return to the starting-point and continue straight along the_ =Bras Road=. _On the right the tourist comes to the uphill road to_ =Louvemont=, _which crosses the southern slopes of Poivre Hill. This road is impracticable for carriages beyond Louvemont._ [Illustration: HELLY RAVINE (_photographed in May, 1919_).] [Illustration: ROAD FROM LOUVEMONT TO ORNES (Farthest point accessible to motor-cars in May, 1919)] Louvemont and Poivre Hill At 2.20 p.m. on February 24th, strong enemy forces debouched between =Louvemont= and =Hill 347=. During the night the first French reinforcements, belonging to the 20th C.A., repulsed them. On the 25th, the enemy, in dense formation, outflanked the village on the W. and E. They were checked several times by units of the 37th D.I. and artillery fire, but succeeded in entering the village at 3 p.m., after having practically levelled it by shell fire. [Illustration: LOUVEMONT VILLAGE IN APRIL, 1917.] Zouaves, who were still clinging to the outskirts, ran short of ammunition, but on being reinforced by a battalion of Tirailleurs with 50,000 cartridges, continued with the latter to defend the S.E. approaches of the village until the morrow. [Illustration: FROIDE-TERRE REDOUBT IN 1915] Owing to their heavy losses, the French 37th D.I. was compelled to fall back, but the fire from a hundred 75 mm. guns concentrated at Froide-Terre held the Germans in check and prevented their debouching from the village. The French 39th D.I. promptly took up positions in front of the 37th, between Poivre Hill and the Meuse, and barred the road to Bras. Louvemont and its approaches were brilliantly retaken during the French offensive of December 15th, 1916. While a brigade of the 126th D.I. captured Hill 342 in several rushes, the 4th Moroccan Brigade of the 38th D.I., in a running attack, carried the first and second enemy lines, Louvemont and Hill 347, as well as a fortified cavern known as the camp du Henrias, before which one of the victors of Douaumont, Major Nicolaï, was killed. On August 20th, 1917, four successive lines of trenches were taken by the French 165th D.I., in an attack to the north of Louvemont. _On leaving Louvemont, return by the same way to the Bras Road and take it on the right. Bras village is reached shortly afterwards, where the Itinerary follows the Meuse Valley and_ N. 64. =Bras.=—The Prussians camped here in 1792, during the occupation of Verdun. [Illustration: THE LAST TRAIN TO PASS AT THE FOOT OF POIVRE HILL IN 1916. IT WAS WRECKED BY ENEMY ARTILLERY] In 1916 the Germans could not capture it, although they took Poivre Hill which dominates the village to the N.