and Maurepas, the first troops to cross the Maurepas–Ginchy road between When Reserve Infantry Regiment 51 reached Guillemont, two battalions of Bavarian Infantry Regiment 16 between Waterlot Farm and Longueval was to advance south towards Montauban Alley, Montauban and Pommiers Redoubt, Reserve Infantry Regiment 51 was to recapture Dublin Redoubt, La Briqueterie and Montauban. The eastern side of the salient formed at Montauban and the ridge was threatened by the attack but it took until midnight until the Maurepas–Ginchy road was reached and it was dawn before the infantry passed either side of Bernafay Wood. Bavarian Infantry Regiment 16 stumbled into a British outpost north of Montauban early on 2 July and overran it but the alarm was raised and a British SOS barrage fell on the area, forcing the Germans back into Caterpillar Valley. In the south, the infantry of Reserve Infantry Regiment 51 arrived at La Briqueterie in an exhausted and disorganised state; looking like "a mass of drunken men", they were forced to retreat by British machine-gun fire. French troops repulsed the other two regiments and took several prisoners. The attack had been made on a front of with exhausted troops, who suffered many casualties; the survivors were withdrawn to an intermediate line about in front of the second position between Maurepas and Guillemont. A new defensive front was established after the failure of the counter-attack at Montauban, from Assevillers to Herbécourt, Hem, Maurepas, Guillemont, Longueval, Bazentin le Petit Wood and from there along an intermediate line through Mametz Wood to La Boisselle. The line on the north bank was held by the XIV Reserve Corps which could not attack again on 2 July, because the 10th Bavarian Division had been used to reinforce the most threatened sectors of the front and to take part in the failed counter-attack of the 185th Division had occupied the new line and also provided reinforcements. The VI Reserve Corps had already sent the 12th Reserve Division and the 11th Reserve Division would not be available until 3 July; the 3rd Guard Division, 183rd Division and 5th Division were the only reserves close to the Somme front. Pannewitz had been allowed to withdraw by Below, which led Falkenhayn to sack Below's Chief of Staff General Grünert and order that "the first principle in position warfare must be to yield not one foot of ground and if it be lost to retake