The 8th Division planned to recapture Delville Wood on 18 July and the most advanced troops were withdrawn late on 17 July, for a bombardment which began at using the heavy guns of groups and , the field artillery of the 8th Division and three batteries of the 12th Reserve Division, about guns and guns, heavy guns and howitzers. The German bombardment turned Delville Wood into an "inferno", before slackening at around during a British attack. After German troops from I Battalion, Reserve Infantry Regiment 104 and II and III battalions, Reserve Infantry Regiment 107, attacked the wood in several waves from the north-east, as eight companies of Infantry Regiment 153 of the 8th Division attacked from the north, to reach a line from Longueval to Waterlot Farm road. Another attack from the north and north-west by five companies of Infantry Regiment 26 of the 7th Division, reached the southern edge of the village.