The night passed without any German counterattack. In the darkness the French artillery brought forward their heavy pieces and several field batteries which had arrived immediately after the attack beyond the York trench. At dawn the reconstituted regiments made another forward rush which enabled them to establish themselves in immediate contact with the second German position from the Butte de Souain to the Butte de Tahure, and even to seize several advanced posts in the neighborhood. But on the lower slopes some of the wire entanglements remained intact; a successful assault on them would have been possible only after a fresh artillery preparation. Up to October 6, 1915, the troops remained where they were, digging trenches and organizing a defensive system which had to be constructed all over again on ground devastated by German fire.
(4) Sector of Le Mesnil: It was to the north of Le Mesnil that the French encountered the greatest German resistance. In the course of the engagements of the preceding winter the French had succeeded in securing a foothold on top of the hill numbered 196. The Germans remained a little to the east, in the "Ravin des Cuisines" (Ravine of the Kitchens). This the French now took by assault, but could get no farther. The German trenches, constructed on the northern slopes of Hill 196, were so concealed from field observation that it was difficult for the artillery to reach them. They were furthermore flanked on one side by the twin heights of the Mamelles, and on the other by the Butte du Mesnil. Some French units managed to penetrate into the trenches to the eastward on the 25th, but a counterattack and flank fires dislodged them again. To the west they did not capture the northern Mamelle till the night of October 1-2, 1915, thereby surrounding the trapeze works that surmounted the southern Mamelle.
(5) Sector of Beauséjour: The French attacks launched north of Beauséjour met with more conspicuous success. Throwing themselves on the first German lines the swarming invaders rapidly captured the defense works in the woods of Fer de Lance and Demi-Lune, and afterwards all the works known as the Bastion. Certain units won the top of Maisons de Champagne in one rush and darted past several batteries, killing the gunners as they served their pieces. The same movement took them across the intricate region of the mine "funnels" of Beauséjour up to the wood intersected by the road to Maisons de Champagne. There they encountered German artillerymen in the act of unlimbering their guns. They killed the drivers and the horses; the survivors surrendered.