(Main articles: Battle of Albert, First day on the Somme, and Capture of Ovillers) La Boisselle was a French village 22 miles (35 km) north-east of Amiens, on the D 929 road at the junction of the D 104 to Contalmaison. To the north-west across the road, lay Ovillers. (By 1916, that village was called Ovillers by the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) to avoid confusion with Ovillers La Boisselle south of the road, which was called La Boisselle.) In 1914, the village had 35 houses. Military operations began in the area after the beginning of the Great Retreat, which followed the defeat of the Franco-British armies in Belgium in August 1914. In September, French and German armies moving north from the Aisne, made reciprocal attempts to outflank their opponent to the north, which led to the R