14 
Land & Water 
August 15, 19 1 8 
lield, and the advance would have been badly checked. 
As it was a firm tlirust liad been made, established, and held 
Tight through the enemy positions, and a larger area covered 
than had yet been mastered by any offensive in the west, 
Allied or enemy, during its first fifteen hours. 
THE SECOND DAY 
riie second day, Friday, saw, in the first part of it, little 
movement. In the first place the enemy resistance had time 
to stiffen ; in tlie second place Chipilly Hill was still in 
German hands and commanding the main road eastward, 
and in the third place certain dispositions were being taken 
for renewed action, which dispositions bore their fruit in 
the latter part of the afternoon. This fruit was the great 
French attack beyond Montdidier and the final recapture of 
Chipilly Hill. 
Of the troops under the command of General Debeny — 
the 1st French Army — only the left wing north of Braches 
had hitherto been engaged. The right wing, which was the 
more considerable part of these forces, extended beyond 
Montdidier eastward to the Oise, .across the old battlefield 
of the Matz where tlie Germans had received so serious a 
check in the second week of June. This right wing and 
main portion of the French ist Army had as yet remained 
quiescent, and the enemy was more inclined to believe that 
it would not come into play because in the great counter- 
offensive upon the Marne pocket, which recaptured the initia- 
tive for Marshal Foch, he had deliberately abstained from 
extensive action on both sides of the bulge ; he had confined 
his main pres.sure to the western side alone. He had done 
tliis on the s.ound maxim that unless you have very great 
superiority of force an attempt at envelopment is dangerous : 
because in stretching your line too far round your enemy 
inside maj' crack it. 
THE FALL OF MONTDIDIER 
Generals Hutier and Marwitz commanding the armies 
opposed to us in the Montdidier salient undoubtedly argued 
that since the pressure had come on the northern part of this 
salient, nothing on a large scale would be done upon the 
southern side. When, therefore, the French suddenly 
attacked in the late afternoon at an hour as unexpected as 
was the place, they had immediate success. They took 
befr)re night first I.e Fretoy and then Assainvillers in front 
of it to the north, so that the town of Montdidier was already, 
at the approach of darkness, in a pocket so narrow as to be 
most perilous. The local enemy commander (to whom the 
action would seem to have been left) hung on too long. He 
decided to retain the enemy garrison in Montdidier for the 
night. But the French did not cease their operations with 
the daylight. They went on through the darkness, reached 
Faverolles, thus cutting the main road and railway by which 
alone the enemy could retire, and the German garrison in 
Montdidier was doomed. In the course of the Saturday 
morning it surrendered, with great quantities of material, 
and the nature of the operation was such that the town 
probably suffered little. The French at once pursued 'this 
advantage eastward. They pushed on from Faverolles to 
Lignieres, before the end of the day pushed still further east 
on the south of that hamlet to La Boissiere, and on the. south 
of the road reached Fecamps, whence their line passed on 
south-east through Conchy and so across the Matz. The 
-Montdidier salient had gone, and on this, the third evening 
of the battle, the great main railway line from Amiens to 
Paris, which it had threatened or interrupted so long, was 
completely freed. At the same time the Allies were now 
in possession of the double line from Amiens to Montdidier, 
up the Avre valley, and of the road which follows it, a 
most important addition to their powers of manoeuvre. 
THE STRUGC.LE FOJ{ LIHOXS 
In this same afternoon, the Australians and Canadians 
who were already well south-east of Framerville reached and 
occupied the height on which stands the large village of 
Lihons. This position is decisive. With Allied troops upon 
that rising roll of land, the railway junction at Chaulnes is 
as unusable as though it were actually occupied and cut. 
It lies under direct observation just below at a range of less 
than 3,000 yards. This continued pressure eastward, however, 
vvould still be hampered so long as the enemy remained in 
possession of Chipilly Hill and had the main Peronne road 
under their guns. It was therefore determined to make 
a last effort to recapture this important height and the effort 
was successful. American reinforcement had come upon 
this sector, the assault was delivered at half-past five, covered 
by very heavy artillery work, and the height was won in 
little more than half an hour. 
By the nightfall of the third day of the battle, Saturday, 
the .■\llied line ran evenly in a great new salient pressing 
French Infantry leaving their Trenches to attack. 
This photograph was taken fiom an aeroplane during the first battle of the Somme, in the Autumn 
of 1916. The new Allied Oftensive astride the bomme will cover this devastated batdefield. 
