_On leaving Cléry, return by the same road to Hem Wood, where take the Feuillères-Maurepas road (G.C. 146), on the right towards Maurepas. The road runs alongside Hem Wood (cut to pieces), crosses a ravine in which ran the Albert-Péronne railway, and then rises towards a crest from which starts, on the left, a road (500 yards from the fork) leading to =Maurepas=_ (completely destroyed). The Germans strongly fortified the village of Maurepas which protected Combles from the south-west and formed the junction of six roads coming from all directions. It was an agglomeration of large farms, each of which possessed a meadow surrounded with trees. These farms had to be carried almost one at a time, and the advance was therefore very slow. [Illustration: MAUREPAS POND.] The first assault against the village was launched on August 12 by troops coming from Hardecourt-aux-Bois; only the southern and western parts of the village--including the fortified cemetery and the church--could be carried. The northern part fell a few days later. Finally, on August 24, the last centres of resistance--notably the houses alongside of the roads leading to Combles and to Forest--were captured. _In the village, near a cross, take the road to =Combles=, on the right, crossing the north-west part of the village_. The site of the church is on the right, while on the left is a small German redoubt _(photo below)_, from which there is a line view of =Hardecourt-aux-Bois=. Hardecourt, which cannot be reached by road, stood at the junction-point of the French and British forces during the offensives which aimed at the investment of Combles. It had been captured in less than three hours by the French on July 8, 1916, together with the eminence which protects it on the north. A few scattered ruins are all that remain to-day of the village. _The road runs straight from Maurepas to =Combles= (3 km.)._ [Illustration: MAUREPAS. GRAVES AROUND A GERMAN REDOUBT.] [Illustration: PANORAMIC VIEW OF COMBLES AND THE SURROUNDING COUNTRY. A.--_Trônes Wood_; B.--_Guillemont_; C.--_Ruins of Church_; D.--_Entrance to the Underground Shelters_; E.--_Combles-Guillemont road_; F.--_Bouleaux Wood_; G.--_Quarry used as howitzer emplacement_; H.--_Morval_; I.--_Combles. Morval road_; J.--_Maurepas-Combles road_.] Investment and Capture of Combles by the Franco-British Troops in September, 1916 Combles formed the last redoubt in the German defences until September, 1916. Nature had made the position an exceedingly strong one. Enclosed at the bottom of a small valley and completely surrounded by a girdle of hills, Combles was out of reach of the artillery. For two and a half years the Germans had been fortifying this position, building formidable entrenchments and extensive subterranean defences in and around the village.