North of Verdun, in a region that had witnessed many of the most desperate struggles of the campaign in France during the previous year, the French won a great victory on August 20, 1917. After three days of almost continuous shelling of the German lines the French armies attacked simultaneously on both banks of the Meuse and carried their objectives at all points. On the west bank of the river they gained Avocourt Wood, the summit of the famous Dead Man Hill, and the Corbeaux and Cumières Woods. The French advance reached at some points a depth of a mile and a quarter. Over 4,000 unwounded Germans were made prisoner. At 4.40 in the morning the French artillery preparations reached the final phase when vigorous attacks were made on Avocourt Wood and Bezonvaux. The first objective was won by 6 o'clock and German prisoners were on their way to the rear. The three days' artillery fire had so devastated Hill 304, Dead Man Hill, and Talou Ridge that the Germans were forced to abandon their first line. The French found less opposition from the enemy than they had expected, for the well-served French guns had taken much of the fighting spirit out of their opponents. At some points, however, where the French fire had been less felt there was hard fighting. The greatest advance made was on the right bank of the river to the north of Vacherauville. They occupied Talou Ridge, Mormont Farm, and Hills 240 and 344. To the east the Germans were driven out of parts of the Fosses and Chaume Woods. During the advance the French army was greatly aided in its operations by the brilliant and daring work of its aviators. Hovering low they showered machine-gun bullets on the enemy lines, dispersing assemblies forming for counterattacks and bombing German gunners at close quarters. In a series of combats in the air the French flyers brought down eleven German machines on the Verdun front, while two others were destroyed by antiaircraft guns. An interesting phase of the fighting on the French front at this time was the unusually large proportion of German officers captured, 201 being taken with about 6,700 men. This seemed to show that the German officer class had deteriorated, that the best trained had been killed or made prisoners, and that the new officers who replaced them were lacking in spirit or had not become steeled to war work. In the fighting on this front certain German army formations had been badly smashed. Three regiments which formed the Sixth Reserve Division of Brandenburgers and the kaiser's favorite troops were literally annihilated as fighting units, losing sixty-nine officers and about 2,800 men as prisoners.