the German retirement and the 77th and 13th divisions made a converging attack on the sugar refinery. Engineers rebuilt trenches in the captured area ready for an attack on Souchez on 14 May. At Neuville the 11th Division and part of the 39th Division attacked again on 12 May, despite the costly failure on 11 May, when some units had casualties. The 39th Division advanced, the infantry moving behind a shower of hand grenades and trench mortar bombs but was forced back when the left-hand regiment was repulsed. The 11th Division was bogged down in Neuville and the . The 39th Division commander, General Nourrisson, objected to the continuation of large attacks but d'Urbal insisted that they continue as new defences were dug and fresh troops were brought forward. Until 15 May large rushed attacks continued, with many failures and a few costly successes. On 15 May a larger general attack was made and was another costly failure. Artillery support was inadequate due to losses from German counter-battery fire and barrel explosions from inferior ammunition. Artillery tactics were unchanged and the density of shell-fire diminished, which gave German reinforcements, which had arrived from 13 to 14 May time to dig in many new machine-guns and meet the attack with massed machine-gun fire supported by a heavy bombardment by the artillery, which stopped the attack as soon as it began. On 18 May, d'Urbal asked for the XVII and X corps to be withdrawn by 24 May because of the costly failure of their attacks but was over-ruled by Foch, who ordered an end to rushed attacks. Foch ordered a pause of eight days, to prepare an attack with the thoroughness of 9 May; in the interim, local attacks were to be made with massed artillery support on limited objectives. Joffre supported the intervention by Foch and also ordered d'Urbal to restrict attacks to piecemeal efforts against local points of tactical importance. Until 15 June the French made many limited attacks on the flanks of the 77th and Moroccan divisions, using the same troops and same tactics. On 23 May the XXI Corps captured the rest of the Lorette Spur and on 27 May the 70th Division took Ablain cemetery, then the sugar refinery on 31 May, which made Souchez vulnerable to an attack from the west as well as the south. The limited narrow-front attacks were much better supported by