April 6, 1916 
I- A X D .S: \^' A T E R 
exception of a tiny belt just near the redoubt. The lane 
was recovered b\' the French and at the same time all 
the western part of \'aux which had been lost three days 
before. 
.•^uch, so far as I can follow it in the communiques 
and private accounts, including the French semi-othcial 
summary and letters in the Paris press, has been the 
story of the German efforts against this subsidiarv salient 
of Douaumont during the last week. 
The Salient of Bethincourt 
NMien we turn to the other subsidiary salient, the one 
on the west, that of Bethincourt, we find something 
characteristic enough of all this duel upon the Verdun 
sector ; a much more pronomiced- enen>y advance, and 
vet no appreciable enemy gain. \'au.\ for a moment 
was a real gain for the enemy, which liad to be eliminated 
in its last stages. The work upon the Bethincourt salient 
was not an\*thing of the kind. 
Let me turn, then, to the details of what the enemy 
has attempted and done against this second salient. 
The main defence of Verdun upon this western side of 
the Meuse is marked upon Sketcli I. and is already 
familiar to the reader as the ridge of Charnv. It corre- 
sponds to, and prolongs the main advance, beyond the 
river. Now, within the salient of Bethincourt, some four 
or five miles in front of Charny ridge, there is. as all the 
world knows now, a height called the Mort Homme, or 
Hill 293, which the French hold. If the French lose this hill 
they would probably have to retire to Chaniv Ridge, 
for there is no other good position in between. At anv 
rate they would have lost the whole of the Goose Crest, 
which runs from Hill 295 to the river and which, though 
the most of it is in German hands, is of no use to them 
until the summit of the Hill 205 is taken. All the German 
work on this side, therefore, has been concerned with the 
effort to carry or turn — at any rate at least to occupy 
Hill 295. They have tried to rush it : to get round it : 
to dominate it by selling the neighbouring higher Hill 
304- 
As with the Vaux salient on the east so with this 
Western or Bethincourt salient, and its vital point, the 
Mort Homme, there has been the continuous double 
effort upon either side of its base, and to follow this we 
must turn to Sketch V upon a larger scale. 
Upon Sketch Map V the reader will re,\ rather roughly 
and only approximately, I am afraid, the contours of the 
neighbourhood. The original French line ran as does the 
full line upon Sketch Map \'. covering Malancourt and 
Bethincourt, the village upon the brook in the bottom 
of the valley. The capture of positions upon the east 
of this line by the Germans and in particular their capture 
of the Crows' Wood, brought the hne on the east back to 
the dashes also shown on Sketch V and close up to the 
,Mort Homme, or Hill 295. Eflforts spreading over three 
weeks were made to force this commanding position from 
the eastern side. Tliey were, like :il\ the eft'orts which we 
have to retail in the present account, immensely expen- 
sive : they were begun o\ct and o\er again and they led 
to nothing. The enemy tiien began attacking the further 
side of the salient. 
It will be remembered how he carried the projecting 
horn of the woods at A and the hill above Haucourt at H, 
after which action he had thrust into the French hues 
trenches following the line of dots on Sketch I\'. The 
French recovered the outlying part of the wood at A, 
advancing about as far as the double line upon the 
Sketch, and in particular taking the redoubt which 
the Germans had established on the edge of the wood. 
Why the French here made one of their very rare 
counter-attacks will be explained a few lines lower 
down. This was upon Wednesday last, the 29th, in the 
morning. Meanwhile for 24 hours past the enemy had 
been charging again and again down the open slopes in 
front of Malancourt and Haucourt, which is a small 
hamlet attached to Malancourt. These villages down in 
the valley obviously form a very exposed projection and 
the enemy attacked with the object of reducing it. On the 
afternoon t)f the Wednesday, after being repulsed all the 
Tuesday and all the morning of the Wednesdav, the 
enemy got into the first houses on the extreme north- 
west of Malancourt at C. Then he waited more than 24 
hours to bring up fresh men. He brought them up in 
^•ery great force and this is what happened : 
He attacked after nightfall on Thursdav from down 
the hill which he held on the west at H and from down 
the hills in the direction of the arrow at D. He was 
thrown back. This was about 9 o'clock." ' He attacked 
again at about 11. adding new troops to those already 
so severely tried. The attack was broken up with 
very heavy loss. He brought up yet more troops and 
attacked again at about one in the morning of Friday 
and got into the first houses on the south-west side of the 
village from the direction of H. 
From that moment till about six in the morning, that 
is up to dawn, he fought his way into the ruins, the 
French, who had been holding this projection — or such of 
them as survived— gradually falling back. By Saturday 
morning last he had established his line where the dots 
are marked upon Sketch V. 
There now remained, as a result of all these efforts, a 
very pronounced little salient round the village of Bethin- 
court, which the French might have to give up at anv 
moment. But not, presumablv, until the enemy had led 
up again the effectives of at least a division and had had 
another slaughter. 
Note what followed, because in its own way it illus- 
trates as clearly as the contemporary fighting near 
Douaumont in the Caillettes \\ood the manner in which the 
French are conducting these opierations. It was certain, 
as I have said, that the enemy would attack and at heavj' 
loss reduce .the salient north' and west of Bethincourt. 
The concentration on the enemy side for this purjwse 
Malatxcourt 
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IV 
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VERDUN 
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