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July 27 English take Delville wood; Serbian forces begin attack on Bulgars in Macedonia. August 2 French take Fleury. Aug. 3 Sir Roger Casement executed for treason. Aug. 4 French recapture Thiaumont for fourth time; British repulse Turkish attack on Suez canal. Aug, 7 Italians on Isonzo front capture Monte Sabotino and Monte San Michele. Aug. 8 Turks force Russian evacuation of Bitlis and Mush.
During the night the French counterattacked; they recaptured a part of the ground lost between Hills 320 and 321 and drove the Germans back as far as the Thiaumont works. The battle raged with varying fortunes to the combatants all day long on June 24, 1916. The village of Fleury in the center was directly under fire of the German guns, and they succeeded in occupying a group of houses.
Toward Hal and Chester they came, making for the protection of the next line of entrenchments just beyond Thiaumont farm. Hal and Chester stepped within the farmhouse to watch the flight. "We can't remain here long," Chester shouted to make himself heard above the din and crash of musketry. Hal nodded his understanding and turned again to the window.
The Thiaumont works and some near-by trenches were carried by the Germans. One of their strong columns succeeded in penetrating the village of Fleury, but was speedily ejected. To the west in the woods of Chapître and Fumin all the German assaults were shattered.
"The French Fourth Regiment, charged with taking the quarries of Haudromont, went beyond their objective, which was the trench of Balfourier. The division under General Guyot de Salins had taken Thiaumont and Douaumont, while that of General du Passage had seized the wood of Caillette and advanced to the heights of La Fausse-Côte.
Not one, but dozens of assaults were made either upon the Mort Homme and Hill 304 positions, or upon the plateau of Douaumont, extending at times to the farm of Thiaumont, and later, after weeks and weeks of conflict, to the fort of Vaux and the trenches south of it.
There came a time when the French were sick of slaying, and the German dead were piled mètres high on the slopes of Mort Homme and Cumières; in those weeks at the end of May, when the Germans, conscious that their prestige had suffered irreparably in the hundred days which were to have been four! of desperate and indecisive fighting, were at the opening of that fierce last effort which gave them Fort Vaux and its hero-commander, Commandant Raynal, on June 7th put them in short-lived possession of Thiaumont and Fleury later and was then interrupted at the end of the month by the thunder of the Allied attack on the Somme.
The soldiers billeted in the house read the inscription, which met with their approval, and so far each regiment in passing had cleaned out the little dwelling and left it in perfect order. From the citadel we went down into the trenches which led to the lines at Thiaumont. The heat in the city was excessive but in the trenches it was delightfully cool, perhaps a little too cool.
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