curlu

Updated: June 13, 2025

Then we came to the hill-crest and to the last of our trenches, and, standing there, looked down upon the villages of Vaux and Curlu, separated by a piece of marshy water. In the farthest village were the Germans, and in the nearest, just below us down the steep cliff, our own men. Between the two there was a narrow causeway across the marsh and a strip of woods half a rifle-shot in length.

Philip Gibbs - Now It Can Be Told

The Germans one day made a pounce on Frise, that little village in the loop of the Somme, and "pinched" every man of the French garrison. There was the devil to pay, and I heard it being played to the tune of the French soixante-quinzes, slashing over the trees. Vaux and Curlu went the way of all French villages in the zone of war, when the battles of the Somme began, and were blown off the map.

Philip Gibbs - Now It Can Be Told

Our men used to steal out along the causeway which crossed the marsh a pathway about four feet wide, broadening out in the middle, so that a little redoubt or blockhouse was established there, then across a narrow drawbridge, then along the path again until they came to the thicket which screened the German village of Curlu.

Philip Gibbs - Now It Can Be Told