one trench to three, apart, the first trench to be occupied by sentry groups, the second () to accommodate the front-trench garrison and the third trench for local reserves. The trenches were to be traversed and have sentry-posts in concrete recesses built into the parapet. Dugouts were to be deepened from to , apart and large enough for An intermediate line of strong points (the ) about behind the front line was also be built. Communication trenches were to be dug back to the reserve position, renamed the second position, which was as well-built and wired as the first line. The second position was built beyond the range of Allied field artillery, to force an attacker to stop and move field artillery forward before assaulting the line. German artillery was organised in a series of (barrage sectors); each infantry officer was expected to know the batteries covering his section of the front line and the batteries ready to engage fleeting targets. A telephone system was built, with lines buried deep for behind the front line, to connect the front line to the artillery. The Somme defences had two inherent weaknesses which the rebuilding had not remedied. The front trenches were on a forward slope, lined by white chalk from the subsoil and easily seen by ground observers. The defences were crowded towards the front trench, with a regiment having two battalions near the front trench system and the reserve battalion divided between the and the second line, all within of the front line. 1916 After the (Autumn Battle) in Champagne during late 1915, a third line another back from the was begun in February 1916 and was nearly complete when the Battle of the Somme began. More fortifications were built, especially in the intermediate, second and third positions, near the and redoubts. Stuff Redoubt () was in the second position, north-west of (Goat) Redoubt, also in the second position and east of Redoubt. Beyond the redoubt was Stuff Trench () on the far slope, which led from Redoubt eastwards to Stuff Redoubt and on to Courcelette. The redoubt was about halfway between Pozières and Grandcourt. New battery positions were built to accommodate artillery reinforcements, dugouts were deepened and extra exits were added. Engineers sited and designed new trenches and stringently inspected the building work performed by the infantry. In early March 1916 and from the chief engineer of the 2nd