Judsonia weekly advance., 1917-07-04
KEY TO FLANDERS
Bapaume Has Been Objective of
 Many Great Campaigns.
It Was Here That D'Artagnan, Then Young Officer of Cadets, Won Last
 ing Fame.

Bapaume, which the Germans gave up after they had striven to make 1t 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 re- calls
 Strangely, the stubborn trench fight ing that has been going on before Ba- paume during the last gear is the re- occurrence of one of the notable fea- lures of the ThirtyY Years war, that long struggle that devastated Europe in the middle of the seventeenth cen tury. The armies of Ferdinand II 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 Ia 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 1t on three sides. French attacks were beaten back and finally the besiegers settled down to wearing, waiting struggle. Then as in 1916, the besieg- ing soldiers chafed under the mOnOt- onous strain of trench warfare. De Ia 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 Ia Meilleraye pre- ,rred to with. hold his attack longer but feared to do so. He assembled his subordinate generals for a conference as to the method or attack. One of them said that young officer of cadets named DArtagnan had observed point of weakness in the city's walls. D'Arta- gnan was called in and stated that at the point which attracted his atten- tion there seemed to be weaker de fense than elsewhere. Stimulate an attack on another part of the city and give me company of my comrades from Gaseogne, promise you I'll get into the place." he said
 'Well, sir" the marshal replied, 'a'll give you what you ask. but you will answer with your head for the sue cess of this audaciOus adventure"
 The following day Bapaure was talk en by assault, after D'Artagnan's men had pierced the defenses at the point he had promised. The same D'Arta- gnan later became marshal of France.
 Bapaume Is position of vital im- portance; 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 his- tory records as besieger of Bapaume. He destroyed the city. Francois be- sieged and took it. Later it fell into the hands of the Spaniards, and after that the Austrians held 1t for awhile. It has been French since It's capture in 1641 by De la Meillzraye. In the Franco-Prussian war the French won one of their few victories at Bapaume, General Faidherbe checking the Ger man advance at that point.
 Though Bapaume in time of peace had only 1000 inhabitants, it was an important manufacturing center with extensive cambric, calico, thread and sugar industries.