CAPTURE OF BAPAUME.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXII, Issue LXXII, 25 May 1917, Page 5

CAPTURE OF BAPAUME.

LETTER FROM A GENERAL

Writing from France to a Perth friend, an Australian general says: "We are having a most exciting time, and have had- so for the past fortnight. I am proud to say that it was my division that had the luck to take Bapaume, the place on which our eyes had been fixed for so long. There was continuous fighting going on for some considerable time, but we pressed the Boche on and out of the trenches, the men living and fighting absolutely at times up to their waists in mud. 'But they have been splendid, and never gave the Boche a moment's rest, and followed him, in fact, resolutely, on his heels, into Bapaume and Transloy. "I was able by the skill of my driver to get my car into Bapaume yesterday morning. It was the first car there after we captured it. It is a most' interesting and historical old place, as you know, and the enemy had turned it into a modern fortress of great strength. Fortunately he has been forced to leave without an assault actually on his prepared lines, but before he left he has done, as he invariably does, his best io burn, wreck, destroy and defile everything. "The country is ideal for open warfare, the sort of country one dreams of. I walked on to where my advance guard troops were hotly engaged with the Boche rearguards, but we are steadily pushing them back. How far they are going I know not. It is sufficient for our boys to know they are going. Our men will forget their past hardships and trials and forget they have been engaged night and day for weeks past, and their only trouble is they may not be allowed to press on the pursuit of the despised Hun, and they like it none the~ less because picked rearguard troops of tne enemy are contesting the way in the most obstinate manner. I believe the news has been cabled to Australia that it was Australian troops thai took Bapaume, and I hope it will arouse people in Australia ~+o further efforts to send us men. T':ey surely will give us the means to k «:> the divisions in the field going. They won't deny us ! the satisfaction of being in at the i death." „" I