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The brave defenders, badly hit, were forced to yield ground and retire, but they held the enemy in the wood, thus preventing him from advancing on Mort Homme, the next objective. This is a double hill, having a summit of 265 meters at the northwest and the main summit of 295 meters at the southeast. The road from Béthincourt to Cumières scales Hill 265 and divides it in two.
When it reaches Hill 295 it encircles it and bends toward the northeast. After a lull that lasted for four days the Germans at half past 10 in the morning began a terrific bombardment to capture Béthincourt, the Mort Homme, and Cumières. In this they employed a great number of heavy guns, and all the points of attack and the region around was flooded with shells of every variety.
Heavy fighting south of Douaumont, April 2-5; French successes in battle of Caillette woods, etc. Germans recapture Haucourt, April 6. Germans close in on Bethincourt salient, April 7. French withdraw from Bethincourt April 9, but hold lines south. French lines bombarded continuously, April 10-15, with violent assaults but no decisive results.
On 7 April the French had evacuated their salient at Béthincourt and re-formed their front on a straight line running just north of Mort Homme. On the 9th the Germans, having failed in their local attacks, attempted a general movement against the whole front west of the Meuse.
They had advanced their line to Béthincourt and Cumières, but the objective they had been so eager to capture, Mort Homme, was in French possession, and so strongly held that it could only be captured at an exceedingly heavy price. On the right bank of the Meuse the Germans on March 8, 1916, resumed their offensive against the French lines to the east of Douaumont Fort.
In the center the Germans were repulsed everywhere, except south of Béthincourt, where they succeeded in penetrating an advanced work. On the right bank, at the side of Pepper Hill, the Germans only gained a foothold in one trench east of Vacherauville. The main summit of Mort Homme, Hill 295, as well as Hill 304, the principal positions, remained firmly in the hands of the French.
The Germans held positions on the heights of Samogneux and Champneuville, and their operations were threatened by the French artillery in the line west of the river. On March 6, 1916, the Germans began to bombard the French positions from the Meuse to Béthincourt.
At first the French enjoyed every advantage, for though the Germans had penetrated the position, the French by a dashing attack occupied almost the whole of the wood. A mass attack made by the Germans against Béthincourt having failed, they counterattacked at Corbeaux Wood, during which their force was almost annihilated.
In order to clear the way for this great attack the German General Staff decided that it would be necessary first to capture the French positions of Mort Homme and Cumières on the left bank of the Meuse. At this time the French line to the west of the Meuse ran by the village of Forges, the hills above Béthincourt and Malancourt, crossed Malancourt Wood and passed in front of Avocourt.
Hill 265 was occupied, but the highest summit, owing to the valor of its defenders, remained in French hands. During the night the French succeeded in stemming the German advance by executing a brilliant counterattack which carried them to the slope between Hill 295 and Béthincourt, where they came in touch with the enemy.
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