The news that Bapaume had fallen on August 29th brought back, especially
to the British, memories not only of the previous year and of the great
forward movement which, on March 17th, had swept them over Bapaume and
Peronne, but also bitter memories of the retreat in the previous March,
which had carried them back under the overwhelming German pressure. The
capture therefore was balm to their spirits, and an English
correspondent, Mr. Philip Gibbs, who had accompanied the British on
their previous advance, found officers and men full of laughter and full
of memories.
On all sides were the battle-fields of 1916 and 1917; Mametz Wood,
Belleville Wood, Usna Hill, Ginchy, Morval, Guillemont. The fields were
covered with battle debris, and yet to the English it was sacred ground
from the graves of the men who fell there. Those graves still remained.
The British shell fire had not touched them, but as the English advanced
there were many bodies of gray-clad men on the roads and fields, and
dead horses, and a litter of barbed wire, and deep shelters dug under
banks, and shell craters, and helmets, gas masks, and rifles thrown here
and there by the enemy as they fled. Now it was the Germans that were
fleeing, and fleeing hopelessly, sullen, bitter at their officers,
impatient of discipline.
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