Page:Breaking the Hindenburg Line.djvu/153

Rh strong-points. Every effort was made everywhere to avoid unnecessary damage; stringent regulations against pillaging and pilfering were made (although, to do the troops justice, these were to a great extent superfluous); and, whenever they were out of the line, the Divisional Engineers were so far as possible employed in carrying out temporary repairs to dilapidated houses in civilian occupation. The inhabitants who were thus helped were intensely grateful, and, generally, the population of the towns and villages were eager to welcome their deliverers into their houses and to do the little that lay in their power to make them comfortable. The relations between French civilians and British soldiers remained excellent throughout, and the progress of the troops through the country was hailed with rejoicings everywhere.

The German retreat, thanks to the stand made by his rearguard on the Beaurevoir-Fonsomme line and the villages on which this line was pivoted, was at this period comparatively unhurried. He had managed to remove most of his munitions of war and the booty captured by the advancing British troops consisted mainly of ammunition, both S.A.A. and shells, with occasional small dumps of signal stores, and salvaged material he had collected, but had not managed to get away. Characteristic features of the evacuated country, however—and this was even more the case in the days which followed—were the small heaps of brass, copper, and iron utensils of all descriptions. These “spoil-heaps” from French homes were a most eloquent witness to the systematic way in which the country had been plundered to help towards the production of the very guns and projectiles which were laying waste huge districts of France and taking the lives of thousands of her best men.