RUE GAMBETTA
The Cathedral is seen at the end of the street.
On March 8, terrifying fires broke out again. On April 29 and July 20 more than 500 shells, many of them incendiary, were counted. In April, 1916, more than 1,200 projectiles struck the different quarters of the town in one day. On August 13, whilst the town was being bombarded, seven German aeroplanes dropped incendiary bombs, which burnt the Hôtel Dieu Hospital. On October 25, the Germans fired more than 600 shells into Rheims and more than 1,000 on the 27th.
THE BOMBARDMENT OF THE CATHEDRAL QUARTER
Part of the striking-points of the shells which fell around the Cathedral, as noted by the architect of the latter (M. Sainsaulieu). The shells which struck the Cathedral were far too numerous to allow all of them to be shown on the above plan.
On April 1, 1917, more than 2,800 shells fell in the town, and on the 4th, 2,121. According to the Official Communiqué, on the night of the 5th and on Good Friday, the number of shells was 7,500. Easter-Day was likewise terrible. On April 15, 19 and 24 the town received large numbers of 8-in., 12-in. and 15-in. shells. On May 3 the Town Hall and 108 houses were burnt. On the 4th the fires spread to fifteen neighbouring streets.
From April 8 to the 15th the enemy rained incendiary shells on the town without respite, and completed their work of destruction, in the course of the afternoon of the 21st, by burning the centre of the town. Hardly anybody was left in the latter, except the firemen, who, despite their prodigious activity and valour, were unable to cope with the flames.
Whole streets, often the finest, were burnt down, more than 700 houses being destroyed.
When, on October 5, the Germans retreated, the havoc caused by this continual bombardment was incalculable. Of the town's 14,000 houses, only about sixty were immediately habitable when the people came back.
In addition to the material losses, there were, unfortunately, numerous irreparable artistic and archæological losses.