The church was spared by the first bombardments, on account of two spies who, hidden in the top of the tower, made signals to the Germans, but as soon as they had been discovered and shot, the church became a target for the enemy artillery. The walls of the façade soon showed large gaps in many places. The roof fell in and the belfry was badly damaged, especially on the south side. A shell struck the top of the dome and burst against the socle of the statue of the Virgin. The base gave way, but did not entirely collapse, and the statue overturning remained suspended in mid-air _(photo, p. 34)_. For several years the statue remained in this precarious position, and there was a saying that "the war would end when the Virgin Statue of Albert would fall." The bombardments in the spring of 1918 completed the ruin of the church. Not only did the belfry collapse, carrying in its fall the statue of the Virgin, but all the upper structure which had until then resisted, fell down, so that to-day the immense building is a shapeless heap of stones, bricks and _débris_ of all kinds _(photo, p. 34)_. [Illustration: LA BOISSELLE. THE SIGN IS ALL THAT REMAINS OF THE VILLAGE.] _Leave Albert by the Rue de Bapaume, then take N. 29 which_ climbs La Boisselle Hill. _2 km. beyond Albert_ there is a large cemetery _on the right_. The site of Boisselle village (completely destroyed) _is reached 2 km. further on_. The Mine Warfare at La Boisselle In October, 1914, the front line became fixed, west of this village. A fierce trench-to-trench struggle continued throughout 1915, when it developed into ceaseless, desperate mine warfare. At the end of December, 1914, the French captured that part of La Boisselle which lies south of the church. German counter-attacks, launched almost daily, failed to drive them out. On January 17, 1915, after a violent bombardment, the French were compelled to withdraw from that corner of the hamlet, but the next day they succeeded in re-occupying the still smoking ruins. These attacks and counter-attacks had brought the German and French trenches so close together that it became impossible to fight in the open. The struggle was therefore continued underground. On both sides subterranean galleries were bored under the opposing trenches, generally to a depth of 20 to 26 feet. Mine-chambers, filled with cheddite, at the end of the galleries, were fired electrically. In the ensuing upheaval the trenches entirely disappeared, giving place to huge craters, for the possession of the edges of which bitter hand-to-hand fighting followed. [Illustration: BRITISH CEMETERY, BETWEEN ALBERT AND LA BOISSELLE, ON THE RIGHT.] During the night of February 6, 1915, the Germans fired three mines in the southern part of La Boisselle occupied by the French, and captured the craters, but were unable to debouch from them. The next day a spirited French counter-attack drove them back.