In the capture of Courcelette, Flers, and Martinpuich the British air service successfully cooperated with the movements of the artillery and infantry. During the day, September 15, 1916, thirteen German aeroplanes and kite balloons were destroyed, and nine others were driven down in a damaged condition. The British reported that four of their machines were lost.
On the following day, September 16, 1916, the Germans attacked the British positions around Flers and along the Les Boeufs road, and were beaten off. The British line which had been held and lived in for a day was now little more than a series of shell holes linked by a shallow trench. Though "the air was stiff with bullets" as an officer described it, the British troops climbed out of their shattered position and pushing on took possession of a more satisfactory trench ahead, where they consolidated and sat down. This last small advance cost the British more casualties than all the other operations during the two days' fighting.
Meanwhile the Allied troops--the French on the south, the British on the north--made steady progress in hemming in Combles. The French increased their gains by storming Le Priez Farm and against severe attacks held their gains north and south of Bouchavesnes. In another dashing attack they took by assault a group of German trenches south of Rancourt, some of their troops pushing forward to the edge of the village. South of the Somme they advanced east of Deniécourt and northeast of Berny, taking several hundred prisoners and ten machine guns. The closing-in process around Combles went steadily forward.
In the evening of September 17, 1916, the British forces in the vicinity of Courcelette extended their gains on a front of 1,000 yards, captured a strong fortification known as the Danube Trench on a mile front, and also the strongly defended work at Mouquet Farm which had been fought over for several weeks. On the same date the French made a spirited attack south of the Somme, wresting from the Germans what portions they still held of the villages of Vermandovillers and Berny, the ground between the two, and also between Berny and Deniécourt, breaking up all counterattacks and taking 700 prisoners.