Germans occupy Bapaume
- Category:
- Military operations
- Front:
- Western Front
- Date:
- 26 September 1914
- Author:
- Natalia
- Tags:
- France, Germany, Race to the Sea, German occupation
On 26 September 1914 German troops occupied Bapaume, a small town in northern France on the road from Albert to Cambrai, halfway between Albert and Arras. This happened during the so-called Race to the Sea, when both sides were moving troops further and further north in an attempt to outflank the enemy. South of the town the fighting at Albert was then under way, and the Germans were approaching from the east, from the direction of Cambrai.
The French failed to recover Bapaume. The front came to a halt a dozen or so kilometres west and south-west of the town, and Bapaume found itself behind the German lines, becoming an important centre of the German rear, with staff quarters and depots.
In 1916 Bapaume was one of the objectives of the British offensive on the Somme, but the British never reached it. The Germans left the town only in March 1917, when they withdrew to the Siegfried Line (known to the Allies as the Hindenburg Line). On 17 March Australian soldiers entered it and found only burning ruins. The retreating Germans had mined many buildings. On 25 March a delayed-action bomb exploded in the cellars of the town hall. The explosion destroyed the building and killed two French deputies, Raoul Briquet and Albert Tailliandier, who were spending the night there, as well as a dozen or so Australian soldiers.
In March 1918, during the German spring offensive, Bapaume again fell into German hands. It was finally recaptured by the New Zealand Division on 29 August 1918, during the Second Battle of Bapaume.
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