CAPTURE OF BAPAUME

Taranaki Daily News, 26 November 1918, Page 7

CAPTURE OF BAPAUME

NEW ZEALANDERS' ENTRY,

AN ADVANCE O? 14

■leading hounds m the pack.

Describing the capture of Bapaume iby the New Zealanders on August 29, Mr. Philip Gibba writes:—

There is a sentiment about the recapture of Bapaume for all our soldiers and for me, it is the time that we hav« entered it with triumph after stern fighting up a long, long trail. I shall never forget the thrill of the first entry on March 17 last year, when I had th* luck to go in with the Australians up tho long road from Albert, past Pozicreand Le Sars and Butte de Warlcncourt, and those frightful places where thousands of our men had fallen on the wayIt seemed then that Bapaume was a goal of victory, and in spite of the dreadful sights about one's spirit rose as one passed each shell-crater and drew nearer to the town- The repetition of an experience is never quite so fresh in sensation as the first adventure; yet to get again into Bapaume after its loss last March, when the German army eame in a rolling tide back over the Somme battle-fields, was a thing worth doing. It was another landmark of history, made this time by New Zealanders and English regiments fighting beside them. I set out early to get there, and saw the dawn rise fnr this r.ew day of wiir. Tile fields were pale in the first sight of day, and there was a white mist over all the war-zone until it was soaked up by the rising sun.

For a picture of war ail artist like Orplujn should have been here. But the men hereabouts had other work to do. They were getting up with_the business, briwjing up their guns across wild wa»-les of cratered ground, filling up pits in the roads for transport to pass, tearing up broken rails tha)t new ones might be laid, riding and marching forward to support their comrades in another flav of fighting. They were mostly New Zealanders on this wav, and although bad stuff was flying about—the enemy was crumping Grevillers and Achiet-le-Petit, and scattering 'high velocities about in a vicious, random way—many of these lads did not trouble to wear their steel helmets, but kept to their slouch hats with the dandy red band. 1 poked my head into a tent to pet some direction, and found a New Zealand officer just waking up from a too brief sleep. "How ar3 things goine?" I asked, and he said: "Oh' fine. Our boys have done grandly, and are still going ahead." 110 sat up to tell me some of their adventures; how they had fought machine-gun nests: how tho Germans had counter-attacked a day or two ago. and trot very rear to their field batteries, which were far liehind. "What do you think?" he said. "Those gunner 3 of ours fought at pointblank range until the Germans were nearly up to their muzzles, anil, took seven prisoners on their own. which is not in the'artillery contract. They are amused with themselves, and have reaenn In

—Town Changed but Little.—

So I went on to Bapaume with quickened pulse, over trenches taJcen only yesterday, and still bristling with parts of German machine-guns, which were densely emplaced along the lines. New Zealanders were organising their own defences in the old German trendies, oiling their rifles. They pointed out the best way into Bapaume, through belta of wire, and I went on across the railways, which I crossed first in March of 1917, on another day of victory. Bapaume had changed but little since I last saw it, before the German avalanche a few months age. Since then our guns have pounded it, and our flying men have gone over it at night dropping down tons of explosives, and now this morning tho enemy was shelling it again, but what difference can there be in a place already ruined, a scrap-heap of broken houses, except more holes in walls, broken roofs re-broken, brickwork smashod into smaller dust I prowled about the streets of Bapaume, through gaping walls of houses, over piled wreckage, and found it the same old Bapaume a: when I had left it, except that some of our huts and an officers' club-house, and some Y.M.C.A, tents and shelters have been blown to bits, like everything else. This was the chief difference, except again for many signboard* showing the recent occupation of the enemy. One notice caught my eye, and I saw the same message of warning in Grevillers and Acliiet, and other places near Bapaume, showing how effective had been the work of our airmen in terror to the German soldiers. It said: "Keep off tho streets. Here you will find hostile airmen." These pi-'tieos were even in open country down tho battlefield tracks, telling how our airmen had swooped over them all with tweir constant menace.

Prowling about those sinister streets of Bapaume I met a fellow in a steel kit \viin had a valuable box of matches, which was good for r. cigarette, and in friendly conversation he told mo that I'clore he became a rifleman of the New Zealanders lie was the editor of n newspaper in this country, and r, literary man. ' We exchanged views on tlie war and life and shellfire rninn, and he tokl me ,'liow. some days ago, when he was unt'ido Puis'eux with his platoon, tlie.v were badly troubled by a German ma-chine-gun in front of tliem. The editor was one of six who went, out to get ricl of this trouble, if thov had thn luck, and they not only brought in the ma-.•Uine-gnn, but 30 prisoners as well, being the first batch from Puisieux. It was

:>W)ior little experience for a man who ■was more ready with a fountain pen I'nn a ride before the world went to war.

—The Battle Renewed

At half-past eight o'clock this morn ing another action began outside Ha-

paiime. and for half an hour or mote our drumfire was very fierce and heavy. It was amazed to find our trims so far forward, heavy guns as well as fieldguns, but all through the recent fighting the New Zealand gunners have been like grevhouniis on the scent, and have followed their infantry with amazing -i ■ "il and skill. Tho Xew Zealnnders and English trodni were at fad ing Frenikourt and tlie high ridge south-east oi Tiapaume overlooking Bougny, while Rienconrt was being approached bv other English troops; and further south our men were work ins towards Beaulencourt. Rnocpqa i*i Ihpsp attacks would give lis the si roncest. defensive lines round l»a----pimrce. and nut- the enemv into a perilous position.' The New Zealnnders have never been =t.ill since T went union? tliem on" month apvt in -Mebutenie and T;,«c;,r no l Wood, when even (hen th«> vere linrrvln", the er">u"- out 'if hi" V.,-.,v. <S|pep tV.ni, i.irrpst S tiler l-nrp ndvppee'l f-" ''"" purl pjto.vh. s on" of their ofiice I ' B t'''d nie to-

day, have teen tho leading hounds in tlie pack, on the way to Bapaume. At the beginning of our advance they attacked Puisieux, and joined up on the right with English troops, in the Valley of the Ancre, and helped to take Beauregard dovecot, an important spot which the enertiy defended desperately, so that there was hard fighting there. Three forward observing officers of the New Zealanders, very gallant fellows, took 23 prisoners unaided, and about 30U Germans were hauled out of the dovecot bv their men, They then joined with our troops in the big attack on Bucquoy, Irles, and Achiet-le-Grand, and afterwards captured Loupart Wood, which I saw this morning, as many times in olden days, with its thin fringe of branchless trees staring away for miles over the Somme battlefields on the left side of the Albert-Bapaume road. Grevillers fell to them, Grevillers with its ruined church, through which the sunlight streamed to-day, and into which German shell came crumpling, and then, with English, troops fighting iaost splendidly on their right, they fiung a loop round Bapaume by the memorial outside, and the suburb of Favrenil- The taking of Beugnatre — f, Bug Nature" as our men call it—by the English troops sealed the fate of Bapnnme, and when the New Zeaianclcrs and their English comrades swung down north-east of tho town almost to the railway, the enemy saw that his game waa up in this part of the world and decided to leave. The New Zealand boys had no need lu take it by storm They entered fighting through tftb machinegun posts outside and took possession of its streets, having only three casual- ; n the town itself.

That was yesterday, and to-day Bapaume is safely ours, with our men dribbling away over th:e heights beyond. Not many casualties have come back from this new battle. I saw some lightly wounded men here and there in advance dressing stations fixed up in old ruined farmsteads behind our present lilies, where the Bed Cross flag floats over the broken walls or is thrust in the rafters of tileless roofs—little pictures of war which remain m one' 3 heart as the. stretchers are carried in Mid strong fellows help 111 their limping comrades as tenderly as women, while round about big shells are bursting from lomr-range guns. In all these places there were German wounded, and down the tracks from Bapaume came Jnany German prisoners. captured a few hours ago in the new battle on the heights outside- They seemed to me a most wretched-looking lot of men, and I saw some hundreds of them newly caught. They had a dazed, senseless look, and were drooping and downcast, ljke beaten animals. The worst-looking set of Sermans I have seen in' recent days. - And no wonder, for they must have had a dreadful and terrifying time, without rest from the pursuit of our men, and have been driven into the fight relentlessly bv officers behind the lines.

The roocs on my table, plucked in Brpnume. are a sweeter sight, than the things that lie about the battlefields, but the sweetness of life to,our soldiers is that their courage and their sacrifice have not been in vain. To-day, as on manv recent days, they are reaping the fruits of victory from one end of the line to the other, *nd the whole British army is moving forward with a rrreat vision in front of it—the vision of the lt=t victory which will end all this fighting.