PÉRONNE. TRENCH IN CEMETERY.
Everywhere pillage preceded destruction. The houses, whose walls (more or less damaged) still remain standing, were completely emptied. The doors, partition-walls, windows and wood-work were taken out and burnt. All the safes, including those of the Banque de France, were broken open. All articles of any value were carried away, and the rest destroyed. In 1917, mattresses ripped open, battered perambulators and cradles, broken furniture, dislocated pianos, even books and family photographs, torn to pieces, were found among the ruins. In the gardens, the fruit-trees were either cut down or hacked at their roots.
PÉRONNE IN 1918. THE GRANDE PLACE. CAPTURED GERMAN GUNS.
Passing through Péronne
VISIT TO PÉRONNE.
On reaching the town by N. 37, cross the Faubourg de Bretagne, the roadway of which was, in places, destroyed by mines. In 1917 this suburb had suffered less than the other parts of the town. Many of the houses could easily have been repaired, had they not sustained in 1918 new and much more important damage.