AFTER BAPAUME.

Taranaki Daily News, 31 May 1917, Page 5

AFTER BAPAUME.

AN INTERESTING LETTER. Wellington, May 29. , Sir James Allen recently received ' from an officer of high rank in the Brit- , islv Army a personal letter, from which ho gives for publication the following [ extract.— "I am sure you will be glad to know that,my corps has had the honor of taking Bapaume—the goal that had been before the 1 eyes of the whole army on the Somme since June last. We had np . very heavy fighting at .the last, probable , owing to the fact that we hadLbaen i able to keep up a continuous, aurrelentI ing pressure on the Germans day after . day, for so long, which finally broke j down their resistance. I hope we threw . away no chances, while equally we were i not rushing, so I am thankful to say we [ had very few casualties. The fact of having driven the Germans out like this, and keeping them on the run, as we are still doing, has had a most extraordinarily beneficial effect on everyone. My men simply have their tails right over - their backs, th'ey are so pleased with 1 themselves. Rightly, too, for s deserved success. At the present moi ment we are seven miles beyond, in lovely rolling country, over which it has been a great pleasure for me to ride today, especially after the hateful shellswept country, with mud to one's girths, from which we are delighted to have escaped. It is quite impossible, without !- seeing it, to realise the appalling state d in which the Germans left Bapaume, y and the country and villages round it—l if fancy very much what the Russians did when retiring before Napoleon. Every single thing in the country has been destroyed—houses, sheds, trees, and all else. It is really awful to think what the existence of the people over these miles of country must be for years to e come. A good deal of destruction has y be,en absolutely wanton. For instance, ' 3 small fruit trees growing against a wall, J- or ornamental shrubs, monuments, etc., have all been cut down or blown up. The women, we hear, have been treated most disgracefully, and, in fact, the Germans have behaved themselves like real beasts. One would almost think they would have learned something during the war, but apparently this is not the case."