In 1914, during their rapid advance on Paris, the Germans entered Péronne (August 28), but were driven out on September 15. They reoccupied the town ten days later (September 24), and remained there until March 17, 1917. A year later (March 25, 1918) the British were compelled to evacuate the town, outflanked as they were from the north and south by the ever-increasing numbers of the German columns marching on Amiens. They re-entered the town on September 1, after a series of very fierce engagements which lasted the whole day.
SAFE DYNAMITED BY THE GERMANS.
Péronne was totally destroyed, partly by the Franco-British artillery, but especially by the systematic destructions on the part of the Germans.
Before retreating in 1917, the Germans set fire to or blew up a large number of houses. Special detachments in charge of the destructions made large rents in the masonry-work, before firing the mines, to ensure total destruction.
The fighting in 1918 completed the ruin of the city, which will have to be entirely rebuilt. A few name-plates on the broken walls, and broken shop-signs alone made it possible to identify the heaps of ruins which lined the streets.
The streets leading from the castle to the southern part of Péronne, and thence to the suburb of Paris (completely ruined), were devastated. The long Rue Saint-Fursy, especially, was almost entirely destroyed.
To the east of the town, the railway-station—connected with Péronne by an embankment across the marshes of the Somme—has retained a portion of its shell-torn frame-work, but the bridges across the marshes, as well as the railway-bridge, were broken.
The cemetery (about 1 km. 800 beyond the town) was devastated. Many graves were desecrated, and trenches dug among the violated sepulchres. A battery of artillery was even posted on the site of ancient vaults. These profanations did not prevent the Germans from burying their dead in a corner of the cemetery, or erecting funeral monuments to their memory.