_Follow the road through Ginchy, leaving on the left the roads to Longueval (passable) and Flers, and, on the right, the road to Morval._ There is a British cemetery in Ginchy, on the left. _Keep straight on to Lesbœufs._
[Illustration: GINCHY. WHERE THE CHURCH USED TO STAND.]
_Beyond Ginchy, the road is made of logs for several kilometres (photo above). It crosses a shell-torn plateau_ (Hill 154), on which numerous graves convey an idea of the violence of the struggle. In May, 1919, a large German material and ammunition dump, also a rail-track, were still to be seen there.
There is a German cemetery _on the left, this side of Lesbœufs_.
_=Lesbœufs= village, next reached_, was entirely destroyed; only a few shell-torn trees and (on the right) a mound of stones and rubbish (the church) remain.
_Cross the village and keep straight onto =Le Transloy=_, noticing the numerous graves on the right and left.
Of this important village only a few broken walls remain.
_After crossing the village N. 37 is picked up; 100 yards farther on_, the ruins of a large sugar factory are seen on the left.
_Take N. 37 on the right to Péronne_, passing through _=Sailly-Saillisel=, 4 km. beyond Transloy_.
[Illustration: LE TRANSLOY. SITE AND RUINS OF CHURCH.]
The Capture of Sailly-Saillisel by the French
Having taken Combles, the French hastened to consolidate their gains by carrying the height of Sailly-Saillisel (in October, 1916)--the last of the hills from which the Germans dominated the hollow of Combles. On this hill (altitude, 455-488 ft.) stood an extensive village formed by two agglomerations--=Sailly=, grouped around the Bapaume-Péronne road (N. 37) and =Saillisel=, built to the south-east and along G.C. 184.
Daily progress by means of grenade fighting having enabled the French gradually to encircle Sailly-Saillisel from the north-west to south-west during the first half of October, an attack was then launched against the defences proper of the village. This attack developed into one of the hardest and bloodiest battles in the whole of the Somme offensive, which, begun on October 15, lasted till November 11, 1916.
Sailly was captured first (October 15), the French attacking the defences of the castle, park and old church which flanked Sailly on the west. After desperate fighting, the Germans were forced to retreat. Following up their success, the French pursued the retreating enemy into their second lines and entered the village, reducing the fortified houses one by one, and occupying the whole of the village west of the Bapaume-Péronne road. By nightfall, the central cross-roads of Sailly was reached. On the 16th, a new block of houses was carried. On the 17th, the Germans counter-attacked furiously several times in force, and succeeded in regaining a footing in the defences lost the day before, to which they clung desperately. The capture of the village was only completed on the 18th, when the French consolidated their gains by carrying the ridges which dominate Sailly from the west and north.