After a terrible shell fire during the night of the 15th the Germans launched a strong assault in dense numbers, and the ruins were strewn with new dead beside the old dead. Despite the intense fire from British machine guns some German troops penetrated advanced posts and barricades and desperate fighting with bomb and bayonet followed. The British fiercely counterattacked, driving the enemy back, and gained more ground than they had held before. At Bullecourt there was the same story to tell. This place, to use the expression of an eyewitness, "had become a flaming hell." In twelve counterattacks the Germans had only succeeded in destroying a few of the British advanced positions. They had only been able to maintain a hold on the southwest corner of the village owing to the tunnels in which they were protected from the heaviest fire. A German counterattack of unusual strength was delivered in the morning of May 16, 1917. No bloodier struggle was fought during the Allied offensive in 1917 than here at Bullecourt. From shell crater and from behind bits of broken wall the British with bombs and bayonets hung on until relieved by the arrival of fresh troops. In the orchards and gardens and in shallow trenches the opponents struggled in close combat, springing at each other's throat when the supply of bombs was exhausted. The British obtained a grip on Bullecourt for the time being, but they knew the respite would be brief, when the Germans would return and renew the bloody struggle. The old Hindenburg line having been breached at Bullecourt and Wancourt, the Germans were now busy strengthening their new line of defense which ran through Montigny, Drocourt, and Queant. The British had improved their defenses to the east, and had pushed forward a little nearer to Lens. Here the Germans continued to wreck and destroy buildings and machinery, so that the great mining center would prove of little value to the Allies when they occupied it. Early in the morning of May 20, 1917, a British attack broke into the Hindenburg line between Fontaine-les-Croisilles and Bullecourt, southeast of Arras. The Germans made several violent attempts to recover their lost positions, but were unable to make any gains during the day. The purpose of the British attacks in this sector was to capture the last salient on the front southeast of Arras. With this accomplished the German support line from Drocourt to Queant would be seriously endangered. The French lines on the Chemin-des-Dames north of the Aisne continued to be subjected to attack, the Germans throwing great masses of troops against the positions on the heights.