Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 151, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 July 1917 — ‘KEY TO FLANDERS’ [ARTICLE]

‘KEY TO FLANDERS’

Bapaume Has Been Objective of Many Great Campaigns. It Was Her* That D’Artagnan, Then Young Officer of Cadets, Won Lasting Fame. Bapaume, which the Germans gave up after they had striven to make it an impregnable fortress, has been the' scene of many battles and sieges. As the “key to Flanders," it was the objective of more than a dozen great •campaigns In the last 600 years, a writer In the Kansas City Times recalls. Strangely, the stubborn trench fighting that has been going on. before Bapaume during the last year Is the reoccurrence of one of the notable features of the Thirty-Years’ war, that long struggle that devastated Europe in the middle of the seventeenth century. The armies of Ferdinand H of Austria and of Maximilian of Bavaria had pushed across Germany and into France and held Bapaume and the important territory which lies about it. Marshal de la Meilleraye, with a strong French army, laid siege to the city. The Austrians and Bavarians had strongly fortified it and had dug powerful intrenchments around it on three • sides. French attacks were beaten back and finally the besiegers settled down to a wearing, waiting struggle. Then, as in 1916, the besieging soldiers chafed under the monotonous strain of trench warfare. De la Meilleraye, though regarded as one of the most brilliant commanders of his day, was freely criticized and the imperious and impatient Richelieu sent word finally In 1641 that Bapaume must be taken.

De la Meilleraye preferred to withhold his attack longer, but feared to do so. He assembled his subordinate generals for a conference as to the method of attack. One of them said that a young officer of cadets named D’Artagnan had observed a point of weakness in the city’s walls. D’Artagnan was called In and stated that at the point which attracted his attention there seemed to be a weaker defense than elsewhere. “Simulate an attack on another part of the city and give me a company of my comrades from Gascogne, I promise you Til get into the place,” he said. “Well, sir,” the marshal replied, ‘Til give you what you ask, but you will answer with your head for the success of this audacious adventure.” The following day Bapaume was taken by assault, after D’Artagnan’s men had pierced the defenses at the point he had promised. The same D’Artagnan later became a marshal of France. Bapaume is a position of vital Importance; it marks the last limit of the last ridge of the Artois hills to which an army pressed from south and west can cling. After Bapaume come the plains of Flanders, with Cambrai Valenciennes and Douai in plain sight.

Louis XI is the first commander history records as a besieger of Bapaume. He destroyed the city. Francois I besieged and took it. Later it fell into the hands of the Spaniards, and after that the Austrians held it for awhile. It has been French since its capture in 1641 by De la Meilleraye. In the Franco-Prussian war the French won one of their few victories at Bapaume, General Faidherbe checking the German advance at that point. Though Bapaume in time of peace had only 4,000 inhabitants, it was an important manufacturing center with extensive cambric, calico, thread and sugar industries.