Situated on the road of invasion, at the intersection of the highways leading to Amiens, Arras, Cambrai and Soissons, Bapaume, in the course of past centuries, was several times besieged, destroyed or plundered. The town dates from the early Middle-Ages, and owes its origin to a fortified Castle built at the exit of the immense Arrouaise Forest, which at that time extended from the Ancre to the Sambre, and was infested by robbers and cut-throats. Mention of this particularity is found in an eleventh century heroic poem "En Aroaise a mauvaise ripaille." [Illustration: BAPAUME. THE RUE D'ARRAS, SEEN FROM THE PLACE FAIDHERBE.] Under the protection of the Castle, the town grew rapidly, and soon became an important city, made wealthy by the trading between France and Flanders. Conquered by Louis XI., it afterwards fell into the hands of the Spaniards, and was transformed into a fortified town by Charles Quint. Recaptured by Francis I., it was lost again, and retaken only in 1641. Several years later, the Treaty of the Pyrenees (1659) ceded it definitely to France. Bapaume in 1917 Utilising the ruins around and inside the town, the Germans had built very strong lines of defences at short distances, one behind the other, and preceded by deep barbed wire entanglements. But after the capture on March 11-13, 1917, of Louppart Wood and Grévillers, west of Bapaume--the only village in the district, whose houses and roofs were practically intact--the British were masters of all the crests of the Bapaume Plateau, and encircled the town so closely from north to south, that the Germans decided not to defend the latter, in spite of the powerful defences which they had accumulated. Before withdrawing, they destroyed the trenches, devastated the entire district, set death-traps everywhere, stretched chains, connected with mines, across the roads and paths, and set fire to the shelters, etc. Neither the destructions nor the companies of machine-gunners which were left behind as rear-guards could stop the British, who occupied Bapaume on March 17, 1917, while the fires lighted in the town by the Germans were still burning. [Illustration: BAPAUME. THE PLACE FAIDHERBE.] Bapaume in 1918 Whereas, in 1917, the British captured Bapaume by a frontal attack, they retook the town in August, 1918, by a wide turning movement. As early as August 24, the New Zealanders of General Byng's Army, after carrying Louppart Wood, reached Avesnes-les-Bapaume, one of the suburbs of the town. The next day they advanced beyond the Bapaume-Arras road, and on the 27th conquered Beugnâtre (5 km. north-east of Bapaume). The town was furthermore surrounded on the south by the capture of Warlencourt Ridge. Unable to hold out any longer, the Germans evacuated or set fire to the immense stores in the town. [Illustration: THE HÔTEL-DE-VILLE, BEFORE THE WAR.]