. Battlefields of the World War, western and southern fronts; a study in military geography . ^]20-40 > 100m Fig. 50—Battlefield of Villers-Bretonneux, showingplateaus forming eastern defenses of Amiens. (FromBritish Geogr. Sect., Gen. Staff, 1:100,000 map.) attack, which was delivered on April 4. On this day ten suc-cessive assaults in compact masses were to follow one another,formidable battering-ram blows by an enemy whom each checkmade furious. Two days longer the struggle raged. But theblow which the German high command had believed irresistible,had merely bent the line and forced it u
. Battlefields of the World War, western and southern fronts; a study in military geography . ^]20-40 > 100m Fig. 50—Battlefield of Villers-Bretonneux, showingplateaus forming eastern defenses of Amiens. (FromBritish Geogr. Sect., Gen. Staff, 1:100,000 map.) attack, which was delivered on April 4. On this day ten suc-cessive assaults in compact masses were to follow one another,formidable battering-ram blows by an enemy whom each checkmade furious. Two days longer the struggle raged. But theblow which the German high command had believed irresistible,had merely bent the line and forced it up the slopes beyond theriver. The double strength of the barrier could not be over- 182 BATTLEFIELD OF THE SOMME. SECOND SOMME BATTLE 183 come, and the Montdidier obstacle, like the Lassigny massif,remained unshaken. East of Amiens the British had checked the German advanceacross the Santerre on a north-south line just east of Villers-Bretonneux, on the battlefield where the Germans in 1870 hadfought for the control of Amiens. The village of Villers-Bre-tonneux lies at the western extremity of a low, broad mound ofthe loam which has great tactical importance (Fig. 50). Anyonewho walks out north of the village for a few hundred yards andfaces westward will have before him such a panorama as fewplaces on the Somme plain can offer. The towers of Amiensten miles away down the valley are in full view, and all thatlength of the marshy Somme barrier that lies between. Portionsof the Hallue, Ancre, and Luce valleys, to say nothing of partsof the Somme to the north and east (Fig. 51), are likewise domin-ated by this plateau, as the British called it in recognition of itscommanding importance. Southwest of
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Keywords: ., boo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, booksubjectworldwar19141918
