And here it was that the battle first really began. The French had repossessed themselves of Champagné, and had deployed artillery on the heights behind it. When their fire had been subdued by four guns of the brigade, two battalions advanced to an attack on the village. It was not till after an obstinate street-fight, that the enemy at eleven o'clock was driven back to the heights, and the bridge over the Huisne carried. General von Buddenbrock now let the two battalions remain in observation, sent a third to Lune d'Auvours, and at noon started with the rest of the brigade to rejoin the Corps.
Meanwhile the conflict had been raging with such fury all along the front of the latter that at twelve o'clock Prince Frederick Charles sent orders from St. Hubert to General Voigts-Rhetz, to hurry forward by the shortest roads to the battle-field with the Xth Corps; and at the same time General von Manstein was instructed to seize the heights of Auvours with the IXth.
It was already one o'clock when the advanced guard of the IXth climbed up the hollow way, deep in snow, followed by two battalions of the 12th Brigade, and by two batteries straining every nerve. The infantry plunged forward through the wood, strongly held as it was by the enemy, straight on Villiers; the skirmishers of the Fusilier battalion of the 11th Regiment seized three mitrailleuses in action, and when the French had abandoned the village, turned them against the wood.
Further to the left, at about three o'clock, two battalions of the 85th Regiment from the main body of the 18th Division, were directed on the western end of the ridge, supported by the Jägers and two batteries which were brought up near Les Hêtres. To cover them two companies moved on La Lune, and baulked for the moment the hostile rush along the high road. But against these movements the French opened a heavy fire from their commanding batteries behind Yvré. Regardless thereof the Holsteiners[68] on the left charged on a hostile battery and seized three of its guns. On the right they took possession of the neighbouring farmsteads; and soon after five the French abandoned the whole plateau as far as its western edge.
Over it, however, a strong counter-attack was delivered in the evening, when part of Gougeard's Division charged up the slope from Yvré. Its further advance was arrested; but the French could not be prevented from remaining there during the evening and night. Nevertheless, this offensive struggle on the part of the 18th Division had relieved the pressure on the rear and flank of the IIIrd Corps. It received the further order in the evening to secure the passage over the Huisne for use next day. Three battalions and one battery immediately crossed over to the northern bank and drove from the bridge the hostile detachments in its vicinity. The Division lost 275 men.