By the summer of 1916 the summit of this now innocuous slope concealed a veritable hornet's nest of interlinked trenches, strongpoints and underground shelters. Although it was briefly occupied by units of the 36th (Ulster) Division on July 1st, reinforcements attempting to cross no-man's land from Thiepval Wood were flayed by machine gun and artillery fire from the Thiepval & Beaucourt flanks, where the British attacks had failed. Eventually the exhausted survivors, depleted of ammunition, bombs and water and under sustained bombing attack from the German garrison, filtered back into their start lines. The enemy positions here held out until late September, the final corner of the battered Schwaben finally yielding, after repeated and costly assaults, on October 14th.

It is precisely within the area shown in this photograph, and during the closing days of that tragic September, that a young subaltern in The Bedfordshire Regiment, Tom Adlam, having the previous day shown extraordinary courage in assaulting the German lines in Thiepval village, led a party of men along the trench - the ghost of which is visible as a dark shadow on the hillside - hurling bombs and urging his men forward, finally driving the defenders out of this section of the redoubt. His exploits earned him the Victoria Cross.