# The New York Times/1916/11/22/British Securing Grip on Grandcourt

BRITISH SECURING GRIP ON GRANDCOURT
Bombers Cling to Outlying Ruins of the Ancre Village—Line Being Strengthened.
TROOPS PASS A QUIET DAY
Artillerymen of Both Sides Are Busy, but Infantry Are Inactive.
By PERCEVAL GIBBON.
WITH THE BRITISH ARMY ON THE SOMME, Monday, Nov. 20, (Dispatch to The London Daily Chronicle.)—Slowly, by little adjustments and the enterprise of patrols, our new line to the north and south of the Ancre becomes definite.
The bombers who held the outlying ruins of Grandcourt, lying out there among the brick heaps waiting for counterattacks to come rolling down on them, are now the foremost point of the troops who yesterday and last night made good their footing upon the ground which extends up and into the village.
The men in the south end of Puisieux trench upon the ridge of that name that runs down to the channel of the Ancre are now linked with the forces beyond the Bois d’Hollande. At a score of points lonely little groups of British soldiers, hanging to strings of shell-holes out in the open, have seen the line crawl up toward them and make them one with itself again.
It is not a battle, it is not even fighting on the scale of attention in the official communiqué. It is rather a process of isolated obscure heroisms working like strenuous yeast in the mud and fire. Out of it grows to sight a new firm front, a springboard for fresh victories.
There are reported to be no great dugouts in Grandcourt. The German engineers found the ground there too wet for subterranean barracks, but as many as 900 men have been billeted in the village. Miraumont, further back and bigger, held 2,700.
Prisoners in ones—very wet and humble and stiff about the arms through the exercise of holding them up while walking—and twos still come trickling in from their hiding places among the reeds of the river side. Those from the neighborhood of Grandcourt are nearly all Hessians, fine physical types enough when they have been cleaned and fed and have lost the droop of their fear and weariness.
The average age of the prisoners whom I have seen is about 26. The poorest physically and in point of general quality are the Saxons. As regards their youth and strength they say that being in the line insures them at least good food and plenty of it so long as the British shellfire allows them to bring it up.
If evidence is needed to prove the fierceness of the fighting upon the Ancre it is furnished by the ground toward Beaucourt, where every step was forced by the bayonet. Here are yet the bodies of many who fell in that superb advance, Germans as well as British, waiting till the overworked burial parties can put them out of sight.
There had been an alarm of gas, for most of the men have gas helmets out, either in their hands or on their heads, and where hand to hand struggles took place many of them are still lying as they died, the Germans as they were when a shell or bullet killed them.
The weather continues to improve. Today broke sunny and clear, and the newly drenched ground is drying. All along the line spades are at work and trenches are sinking to their level. Opposite the German in his prepared positions is shoveling back to its place what the British shells overthrow. The better he works the better for the British, for they will be needing those trenches of his before long.