full of trenches, shell-craters and dugouts, which made it difficult for artillery to fire in close support. Towards the end of the battle, co-ordinated broad front attacks might have had more success. After the loss of Stuff Trench beyond Stuff Redoubt, Erich Ludendorff the (First Quartermaster General), deputy to the Chief of the General Staff of OHL and Crown Prince Rupprecht, the army group commander for northern France, were willing to contemplate a retirement from the salient that had formed around St Pierre Division and Beaumont Hamel. Below considered that the remaining positions south of the Ancre were well fortified and on high ground, giving good observation and should be retained. The capture of the redoubt was considered by some German officers to be a worse blow to morale than the fall of Thiepval. The 28th Reserve Division positions in the Ancre valley were exposed to British ground observation and made Grandcourt a death trap. The trenches were demolished and movement had to be from shell-hole to shell-hole; it was easy to get lost and blunder into British positions. Ludendorff and Rupprecht considered a retirement from the salient that had formed around St Pierre Division and Beaumont Hamel as the Germans had been pushed off the west end of Bazentin Ridge. Below objected because there were no better positions to retire to and preferred to counter-attack to regain and the positions nearby. In 2005, Prior and Wilson wrote that the attack on the Mounds succeeded because of detailed preparation, the attacking units being fresh, despite the bad weather and resting battalions being used for digging and carrying. The artillery preparation was considered excellent and the assembly for the attack was so well covered by the bombardment, that the attack was a tactical surprise. The infantry were more experienced, keeping close to the creeping barrage and the German artillery-fire was judged to have been feeble. In 2009, William Philpott wrote that it had taken the Reserve Army/5th Army more than a month to capture the north end of the Thiepval Ridge against a reinvigorated German defence. The advance was costly and the front line had been moved barely forward. Casualties On 1 July, the 36th (Ulster) Division had losses for the 11th (Northern) Division from 10–30 September were and were 70 percent of whom were wounded. Subsequent operations From the Reserve Army concluded the Battle of the Ancre Heights and fought