Several of the objectives, including Vacherauville, Poivre Hill, Hill 342 and the first and second lines before Louvemont, were reached in a few minutes at a single bound. Albain and Chauffour Woods, those in front of Douaumont and Helly Ravine, took longer to capture. To the east La Vauche Wood was carried at the point of the bayonet, Caurières Wood passed, and the edges of Chaume Wood reached. The farm of Les Chambrettes and village of Bezonvaux were taken on the following days. The success was considerable, more than 11,000 prisoners, including 300 officers, 115 guns, several hundred machine-guns and important depots of munitions and material, being captured. The enemy who, in July, had been within a few hundred yards of Souville Fort, was now more than three miles away. In June, the _Frankfort Gazette_, celebrating the German successes at Verdun, declared: “We have clinched our victory and none can take it from us,” but on December 18th they had lost all the ground it had taken five months and enormous sacrifices to conquer.
[Illustration: _Hill 304 recaptured. (Photographed August 24th, 1917. See p. 24)_]
In congratulating the troops General Mangin reminded them that Germany had just invited France to sue for peace, adding that they had been “the true ambassadors of the Republic.”
[Illustration: _Fontaines Ravine, West of Bezonvaux._]
The French Offensive of August 20th, 1917
The Army of Verdun, under General Guillaumat, completed the clearing of the city on both banks of the Meuse.
On August 20th, 1917, eight divisions attacked from Avocourt Wood on the west to Bezonvaux on the east, along a fifteen-mile front. Avocourt Wood, Mort-Homme, Corbeaux Wood and Oie Hill on the left bank; Talou Hill, the villages of Champ, Neuville and Champneuville, Hill 344, parts of Fosses Wood, Chaume Wood and Mormont Farm, on the right bank, were captured by the French, who, the next day, also took Samogneux and Regnéville. Hill 304, which had thus far resisted, was likewise captured. On the 26th a further attack from Mormont Redoubt to Chaume Wood brought the French to the southern outskirts of Beaumont. From the 20th to the 26th August the captures include 9,500 prisoners, thirty guns, 100 trench mortars and 242 machine-guns.