LAND & WATER 
November i6, igi6 
New Advance on the Somme 
By Hilairc Belloc 
THE news of the new British blow upon the 
Somme front, deUvcred upon cither side of the 
Ancre vallcv, has reached London in the hours 
when the last part of this article is written, and 
there are, as yet, no details upon it. We have onlv thr 
communiques carrying us so far to the occupation of the 
ruins of Beaumont-Hamel and the outskirts of Beau- 
court, and the total of some 5,000 prisoners. 
It is impossible, writing thus with no more than the 
first brief message before one, to do more than sketch 
the affair at very insufficient length. 
But even while we are waiting for details of the achieve- 
ment, we can appreciate its general nature and conse- 
(juence. 
The German front attacked was from the rounded crest 
just north of and above Thiepval to the neighbourhood 
of the farm of Tousvents, near Serre, a distance of 8,000 
yards, or as nearly as possible five miles. 
The blow was "thus delivered, for the main part, to 
^ 
Honnjscamps 
Area captured by 
Cast assault //////' 
Contours in Metre 
the north of the Ancre valley. The lesser portiori of the 
line, about two-fifths of it, was concerned with the 
attack south of that depression. The attack began 
with its extreme right in front of the Stuff Redoubt, and 
the sector from that point to the marshes of the Ancre 
comes to about 3,000 yards in length. 
On this southern sector success was complete and 
immediate. The strongly fortified hamlet of St. Pienc 
Divion was isolated on the east down the slope (it was 
only connected with the northern shore by a causewa\- 
of 500 yards across the flooded marsh joining it to Bean- 
court station). Thus isolated it was stormed, and the 
Germans paid the price that always has to be paid for 
too deep digging in the shape of a specially large batch 
of unwounded prisoners. 
On the northern sector, some 5,000 yards in length 
and reaching from the Ancre marshes to the western 
fields of Tousvents Farm, fortune fluctuated more. 
There is, at the moment of writing this, no confirmation 
of the holding of the ruins of Serre, the little hamlet in 
the dip north west of Beaumont, but Beaumont Hamel 
itself was captured in the course of Monday. The height 
above it (Hill 143), apparently held (this point is not yet 
<iuite clear), and the wave reached the outskirts of 
Beaucourt. And we may take it that from.^he neigh- 
bourhood of the farm of Tousvents right, down to the 
river and the railway flanking the marshy Ancre valley 
floor, the whole of the original German first Hne. with its 
elaborate defences, went down. ,|t 
The tiny hamlet of St. Pierre Divion, which lies just 
on the edge of the valley floor, and which, ^s, we have 
seen, was seized in the first phase of the fighting, was a 
local point d'appui of very great strength. 
It is a point worth noting that the blow being struck 
advantage. The Ancre valley floor, between Grand- 
court and the place where the German lines crossed it. 
has long been flooded (I understand it is flooded still) 
forming a sort of long shallow lake, dammed up through 
the effect of bombardment, and this sheet of water 
covers what were in normal times the marshy water 
meadows of the little stream some 500 to 600 yards 
across. The result of this inundation is that there is 
difficulty in lateral communication from north to south 
across the \-alley, and that a specially hard-pressed point 
upon. the one side could not be relieved from the other. 
We cio not know to what extent this detail affected the 
action, but it is worth noting. 
The most general effect of the stroke, and it is one which 
will certainly be of moment in the immediate future, is 
the extension of the front upon which pressure is now 
exercised upon the enemy. 
When the Anglo-French ofYensive was first launched 
four and a half months ago, it struck from Gommecourt 
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on the extreme left down to a little north of the Chaulnes 
region on the extreme right. As will be remembered, the 
three main sectors of this first blow enjoyed varying 
fortunes. The I'rencii, south of the Somme on the right, 
advanced rapidly to the immediatt! neighbourhood of 
Peronne, The l-'rench left and tlie Knglish riglit between 
the Ancre and the»Somme, advanced more slowly. Tiie 
English left, between the Somme and (Jommecourt, did 
not succeed in breaking the original German line at all. 
It was held up. 
This last blow has fallen for the most part upon that 
sole unbroken portion of the original front. It has not 
carried the German first line as far north as Gommecourt, 
but it would seem to have carried it nearly half way from 
the Ancre to the ruins of that village. It has begun 
the flattening out of what I have called the Beaucourt 
