Nab Valley lay on the east side, Thiepval was to the north, with the fortified Mouquet Farm and the village of Pozières to the north-west.

The 17th HLI pressed on to the next objective but were forced back to the Leipzig Redoubt and consolidated with parties of the 2nd King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry.

The divisions were to push forward to improve their positions and to prevent the Germans from withdrawing troops for operations against the Fourth Army to the south.

A French counter-attack from Hamel began in the evening and in the early hours of 30 September, two German companies were surrounded and had to break out to the east.

The Wundtwerk was an irregularly shaped six-sided trench network higher up the spur which, with the other fortified places and villages, commanded the approaches to Granatloch.

During the British preparatory bombardment, most of the sixty dwellings in the village were demolished but the house cellars were covered by fallen masonry, which protected them from all but super-heavy shells.

A chain of cellars, on the west fringe of the village, had been joined to form a connected line of machine-gun posts, which had been kept silent to surprise an attacker.

The spur from Auchonvillers to Mesnil and Aveluy Wood, gave good observation to the British and many posts were built along it, particularly a length called Brock's Benefit.

The northern part of the corps front had a better view over German positions than the south, which was blocked by Aveluy Wood and it was believed that more damage had been done opposite the 36th (Ulster) Division, the wire being cut well north of Thiepval and reasonably well at the Leipzig Redoubt.

The corps plan was to capture the Thiepval Spur in one attack, which would obtain positions from which the German front would be overlooked as far as Serre north of the Ancre and Pozières and Contalmaison to the south.

The commander of the 161st Brigade Royal Field Artillery (RFA) could see that the infantry advance had been halted that the barrage was moving into the German defences and that no troops from the III Corps on the right or the 32nd Division were following it.

The British hold on Granatloch (Leipzig Redoubt) was maintained and the Germans blamed a lack of hand grenades for the failure to complete the recapture of the salient.

The right flank companies of the 2nd KOYLI arrived at the redoubt and joined in the consolidation but attempts to renew the advance up the slope were costly failures.

The battalion pressed on despite devastating casualties and small groups on the left flank got into the redoubt and linked with the 17th HLI but most of the survivors were pinned down in no man's land and rallied in Authuille Wood later in the day.

The men rose to charge when the bombardment lifted and a great volume of machine-gun fire met them, from emplacements which were invisible to the artillery observers watching the attack.

[20] On the left flank, the 15th Lancashire were also swept by machine-gun fire from Thiepval but about 100 men of the leading companies got into the German front line, while the garrison was still underground and charged into the village.

At 10:30 a.m., Major-General William Rycroft, the 32nd Division commander, sent orders for the attacking brigades to hold fast, while an attempt to outflank Thiepval from the north was organised.

[21] At 9:10 a.m., Rycroft sent orders for the 96th Brigade opposite Thiepval to send the 2nd Inniskillings forward along the left flank, to reinforce the 15th Lancashire, who were reported to have broken through into the village.

[22] Dust and smoke over the battlefield and intermittent reports from artillery and contact patrol observers, had led to the commanders in the 32nd Division at first gaining the impression that the initial attack had gone well.

The commander of the 19th Lancashire behind the 1st Dorset, had a smoke screen made by the brigade 4-inch Stokes mortars to cover the right flank and then sent forward three companies to the Leipzig Redoubt.

[23] At 11:40 a.m. Rycroft contacted Lieutenant-General Thomas Morland, the corps commander, to report on the situation and suggested that another attempt be made to skirt round the north side of Thiepval and then work south to get behind it, the defences further down the Thiepval Spur and the Wonderwork to cut Zollern Graben and the other communication trenches leading back to Courcellete, 3 mi (4.8 km) east.

The 14th Brigade would reinforce the Leipzig Redoubt and attack Hindenburg and Lemberg trenches from the south and west, as the northern flanking move began.

German counter-attacks against the flanks of the redoubt were repulsed and the collection of wounded from no man's land began, helped by gunners and engineers who used blankets to carry casualties but took until 3 July.

Once the wounded had reached divisional dressing stations the facilities proved sufficient but the transport of supplies and water to the front line, was slowed by traffic jams.

[27] By the morning of 2 July, X Corps had gained a foothold in the Leipzig Salient and part of the German front line opposite the 36th (Ulster) Division.

The extent of British casualties north of the Albert–Bapaume road was not known at the Fourth Army headquarters and General Henry Rawlinson ordered that attacks were to continue.

At 7:00 p.m. on 5 July, the 25th Division attacked on a 500 yd (460 m) front at the Leipzig Salient; the 1st Battalion Wiltshire Regiment of the 7th Brigade got a foothold in Hindenburg Trench, then repulsed a determined counter-attack.

[34] The Leipzig Salient, was bombarded by German artillery with gas and lachrymatory shells on 15 July, followed by an attack at dawn by Infantry Regiment 185 of Division Burckhardt, accompanied by bombers and flame-thrower crews, which made little progress and was costly for both sides.

[36] In 1932, James Edmonds, the British official historian, wrote that III Corps had neglected the south side of Nab Valley, which made the neglect of the north side by X Corps worse, because the trenches in the Nab Valley re-entrant faced a large area of no man's land, from which enfilade machine-gun fire began as soon as the attack commenced.

The 3rd Company of Infantry Regiment 180, in Leipzig Redoubt, was annihilated in hand-to-hand fighting but the garrison of Thiepval, further to the north, was protected by the shelters beneath the village.