On N. 51, in the Woods of Botrait and the Grandes-Garennes, attacks and counter-attacks followed each other during four days. The thickets were the scene of fierce hand-to-hand struggles. In the rare clearings the combatants sheltered themselves in hastily-dug trenches. This stubborn resistance exasperated the Germans; and after the battle witnesses found a company of Algerian sharp-shooters whose brains had been beaten out by blows from the butt-end of rifles. This fact is vouched for by the Inquiry Commission. Other corpses belonging to the same regiment had been placed in a ring round a fire which had burnt all the heads. The battle continued until the French, after having silenced the German guns at Le Thoult and Corfélix (see p. 157), finally reached Corfélix and the Morin. Advancing along the valley (seen in the views at the foot of p. 167, and at the top of p. 168), they debouched on the flank of the enemy's troops deeply engaged in the interior of the Plateau of Sézanne. The manœuvre of September 9 was decisive. Attacked on flank and front, and driven from the woods, the Germans re-crossed the Morin; while their rearguards fought desperate covering engagements, of which the chapel and its little cemetery (seen in the view above), the machine-gun trench (seen in the photograph at the top of p. 167), and the neighbourhood of the station of Talus-Saint-Prix were, in particular, witnesses. The retreat however continued briskly, and on September 10 the Tenth Corps, which had performed the outflanking movement, was able, setting forth from the Champaubert-Saint-Prix front, to sweep the whole of the north of the marshes. [Illustration: GRAVES AT SOIZY.] _Follow the zig-zags which_ N. 51 _makes to climb the slope and continue towards =Soizy-aux-Bois= (45 km.)._ On this road, and in the woods which border it, the 42nd Division met with a repulse at the hands of the German troops who, on the 7th, took Soizy and even pushed on to Chapton (we passed through this village before arriving at Sézanne). On the 8th, the 162nd Line Regiment counter-attacked and carried Soizy at the point of the bayonet; and on the 9th, as we have seen above, the Germans were driven back across the Morin. Soizy still shows the ruins of houses destroyed by bombardment or fire. _After glancing at them return to the entrance to the village and take (on the left looking towards Soizy) G. C. 44 in the direction of Oyes._ [Illustration: Botrait Woods. Crête du Poirier. North bank of Marshes. I. +PANORAMA OF THE "CRÊTE DU POIRIER" AND BOTRAIT WOODS+] Almost immediately after, on the left, below the level of the road, may be seen two large graves, where the French soldiers who fell during the combats at Soizy were buried (view p. 169). The Germans were buried to the right of these graves.