On Thursday week, the fifteenth day of the battle of
Amiens, the enemy made a great effort south of the Somme to improve his front between the river and Montdidier. By sheer weight of numbers he pressed back the British troops a short distance immediately to the south of the Somme from a line through Hamel and Vaire to a line east of Villers-Brettonneux. He flung eleven divisions, and then four more, in incessant attacks on the French lines to the south of us, and pressed back our Allies along the little river Luce to its confluence with the Avre, about nine miles south-east of Amiens. The French fell back to the west of the Avre, evacuating the villages of Mailly-Raineval, Morisel, and Castel in the valley, but holding fast on the wooded slopes above them. Higher up the Avre, and its tributary flowing through Monklidier, the French made a successful counter-attack near Grivesnes. They also counter- attacked further to the south-east near Lassigny, where the enemy has made no progress.
