The Story of the Great War, Volume 6: History of the European War from Official Sources
History
The Story of the Great War, Volume 6: History of the European War from Official Sources
World War, 1914-1918
The entire front on which the British attacked was over 8,000 yards.
On the right, or east, the advance began from the western end of
Regina Trench from the British position about 700 yards to the north
of Stuff Redoubt. From this point a German trench known as the Hansa
line ran northwestward to the Ancre, directly opposite the village of
Beaucourt. On the extreme right, north of Stuff Redoubt, to reach that
trench meant an advance of only a score or so of yards. To the
westward, above Schwaben Redoubt half a mile, the advance was nearly
1,000 yards. By St. Pierre Divion, along the valley of the Ancre
itself, the advance was over 1,500 yards. Everywhere in this sector
the British troops were successful. They gained in this offensive a
stretch of 3,000 yards north of the Ancre to an average depth of about
a mile. The victory of the British troops was especially notable,
because they had struck frontally at the main German first line with
tier upon tier of trenches which the Germans had strongly fortified
and wired for two years past. One English county battalion alone to
the south of Beaumont-Hamel took 300 prisoners, and in the village
itself 700 were captured, mostly soldiers from Silesia and East
Prussia. At the close of the day over 2,000 German prisoners had been
taken, and the ground won by the British amounted to about four square
miles. During the night of November 12, 1916, and during the day
following in the clean-up of the labyrinthian defenses which the
Germans had skillfully constructed 2,000 more prisoners were added to
the number already captured in this sector. The British advance had
brought them to the outskirts of Beaucourt-sur-Ancre, which was taken
on November 14, 1916. Pushing on through the village to the left of
it, the British troops advanced over the high ground to the northeast
of Beaumont-Hamel, on to the road from Serre to Beaucourt, having
gathered in another thousand prisoners on the way.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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