March i6, 1916. 
LAND AND WATER 
the 
;e5 
Bethincourir 
Tfie Left U^in^\. 
c GOOSE CREST ^S'^'^ ^ 
j^ ^ — » -s >^Regaeville 
Homme 
I 
••\\ Tfie Rigid Witid 
Eix 
^ 
J2 
English Miles 
Showing ihe two wings cmmh of the French Lines, 
where ihey cover Verdun. 
IVlanheulle^**. 
Fresnes'*. 
Vaux whicli the French had retaken a httle while before 
from the Ciermans, was recaptured by the latter in a strong 
attack,^ the effect of which was not only to gain the few 
yards invoh'ed, but to permit of an advance into the 
ravine without fear of a flanking lire from the north. 
All the following Wednesday, the 8th, the ravine 
was bombarded (and what was left of the village of course 
laid in ruins) and after nightfall of that day the serious 
assault was delivered. At sometime in the night an 
clement of the Division delivering this assault, to wit, 
the Infantry Brigade consisting of the 6th and iqth 
Reserve Regiments from Posen (Polish units) got into 
■.-A i .imiJiMgji^ 
v«> 
OldFai-tof 
Douaumoiit 
A * 
w-J 
J-E 
f 
woo 3.000 2ooo'^^'ti3s 
Trench Line* 
Scale. 
' The Point of Assault on the Right Wing. 
The Village, Ravine and Heights North and South of Vaux. 
the ruins of the village and were immediately thrust out 
again by a French counter-attack delivered with the 
bayonet. 
It was this affair which gave rise, as we shall see in a 
moment, to the misconception at IBerlin, which a French 
( ommunique has since rectified. 
The check thus administered, though expensive to 
the enemy, was not heavy enough to prevent a massed 
attack during the daylight horn-s of the next day, Thurs- 
day the (jth, and this attack (in larger force than the 
former) was directed not only against the ruins of Vaux 
village, now in French hands, but also against the very 
steep slopes of the escarpment, just to the south, which 
leads up to the plateau on which the old fort of Vaux 
stands. The attack was continued all day and was par- 
ticularly violent against the escarpment, but it failed. 
On last Friday, the >ioth, (German reinforcements 
arrived and a further attack was prepared. Before it 
was fully launched it was checked and broken up by the 
French lire. But upon Saturday the nth, it was renewed, 
apparently in the early morning, or at anj' rate with a 
heavy mist upon the groimd such as had three weeks 
before covered the successful attack of the enemy upon 
the plateau of Douaumont. There was very violent fighting 
on the outskirts of the village, and at some time in the 
morning the Germans carried the ruins of the eastern end. 
Vaux is one long straggling street, the church on the 
north of the road right at the eastern end. Somewhere 
about noon, so far as I can make out from French 
accounts, the ruins of the church itself were entered by 
the enemy, and this seems to have marked the limit of 
their effort. All attempts of the (ierman bodies to mo\'e 
by rushes beyond this central part of the street failed. 
But meanwhile, and throughout a great part of the 
;ame day, a very formidable attack was being delivered 
just to the south of the village up the exceedingly steep 
grassy slope which takes you from the clay of the 
Woeuvre up to the plateau on which stands the old fort of 
Vaux. 
The hill is comparable in height and general outline 
to Boxhill in Surrey. It is similarly crowned with wood, 
the old fort standing upon its edge, and the escarpment 
plunging down on to the weald. The German attack 
succeeded in progressing some way up this slope, but it did 
not reach the wire entanglement in front of the fort 
(the expression " fort " mjans of course the dismantled 
works of the old fort of Vaux, the guns from which 
have been taken away long ago). 
The next day Simday, the German infantry failed 
to move. Only the guns were at work. 
During all these efforts to seize the two edges of the 
ravine of Vaux and to get a footing upon the heights of 
the Meuse, which form the plateau above the escarpment, 
other minor work was being done by the enemy 7 or H 
miles off to the south, and at points nearer to Vaux as 
well. He carried Fresnes in the Plain and tried hard to 
push beyond Manheu'Jes in the Plain, attacking also 
at Eix, and a few other points. But these efforts, 
undertaken so far with comparatively small forces, 
against the compar? tively weak continuations of tlie 
