end of the battle in November. Late on 8 July, after a meeting with Haig, at which several sackings of senior commanders were agreed, Rawlinson and the Fourth Army corps commanders met to discuss the forthcoming operation to capture the German second position from Longueval to Bazentin le Petit. The operation order was issued for an attack possibly at on 10 July but the date was left open until the effect of the preliminary operations and the weather were known. Hard and costly fighting did not secure all the objectives and it was not until 12 July that the time of the attack on the second position was fixed at on 14 July, with the capture of Trônes Wood to be completed before midnight on "at all costs". German preparations Despite considerable debate among German staff officers, Falkenhayn laid down a continuation of the policy of unyielding defence. On the Somme front, the construction plan ordered by Falkenhayn in January 1915 had been completed. Barbed wire obstacles had been enlarged from one belt wide to two, wide and about apart. Double and triple thickness wire was used and laid high. The front line had been increased from one line to three, apart, the first trench () occupied by sentry groups, the second () for the front-trench garrison and the third trench for local reserves. The trenches were traversed and had sentry-posts in concrete recesses built into the parapet. Dugouts had been deepened from to , apart and large enough for An intermediate line of strong points () about behind the front line had also been built. Communication trenches ran back to the reserve line, renamed the second line, which was as well built and wired as the first line. The second line was built beyond the range of Allied field artillery, to force an attacker to stop and move field artillery forward before assaulting the line. 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 began. On 12 May, the 2nd Guard Reserve Division was moved out of reserve, to defend Serre and Gommecourt, which reduced the frontage of the XIV Reserve Corps and its six divisions from between Maricourt and Serre, making the average divisional sector north of the Albert–Bapaume road wide, while the frontages south of the road were