On the same date late in the afternoon the French forces to the north of the Somme carried out a well-planned attack which resulted in the capture of a line of German trenches between the Hem Wood and the river. The French took 120 prisoners and a number of machine guns.
On August 8, 1916, the British positions north and east of Pozières were heavily bombarded by German artillery. In the evening of the same date British troops pushing forward engaged the enemy near the station of Guillemont. A bomb attack made by the Germans on the eastern portion of the Leipzig salient south of Thiepval was driven back with some casualties. Two British raiding parties about the same time succeeded in entering the German lines north of Roclincourt and blew up some dugouts. On this date a squadron of ten German aeroplanes endeavored to cross the British lines on a bombing expedition, but were driven off by four British offensive patrols. Two of the German aeroplanes were forced to descend behind their own lines, while the others were scattered and did not return to attack. In the evening of the same day the Germans made four attacks on the British lines to the northwest of Pozières, and in one were successful in occupying a portion of a British trench.
During this day the French north of the Somme, while the British were fighting at Guillemont, advanced east of Hill 139, north of Hardecourt, and took forty prisoners. The Germans, making two attempts to recapture the trenches won from them by the French on the previous day, were beaten back, leaving a great number of dead on the field. In the evening French troops captured a small wood and a heavily fortified trench to the north of the Hem Wood, making their gains for the two days, an entire line of German trenches on a front of three and three-quarter miles and a depth of from 330 to 350 yards.
In the battered and shell-pitted region to the northwest of Pozières fighting between the British and German troops continued unceasingly. The slight gains made by the British troops were won only by the greatest risk and daring, for the whole plateau between Thiepval and Pozières (about 3,000 yards) lay open to the German fire from the former place. A great part of it could be reached by machine guns, while German batteries at Courcelette and Grandcourt commanded the ground at close range. A network of German trenches, well planned, stretched in almost every direction. Flares and shell fire made the region as bright as day during the night, and it was only by rushing a trench from saps made within a few feet of the objectives or by breaking into a trench and bombing along it that the British were able to achieve any small gains. And gains were made on this terrible terrain daily, though only a few yards might be won, and a dozen or more prisoners captured.