The British Campaign in France and Flanders—July to November, 1918

by Arthur Conan Doyle

On October 11 the Second Canadian Division, together with the Forty-ninth Yorkshire Territorials, who had relieved the Eleventh, continued their advance, the Canadians met with heavy opposition from Iwuy, and in the forenoon there came a heavy counter-attack, led by seven tanks, six of which paid the penalty. On October 12 the First Canadian Division in the north found that their front was apparently clear, so they swiftly advanced and took Arleux and Estrées, while the Twenty-second Corps attacked on their right and reached Hordain. On this day was the fine attack, recorded elsewhere, of the Fifty-sixth British Division, which got across the Canal at Aubigny. On October 17 the whole line of the Canal was clear, and the First Canadian Division advanced towards Douai, which was occupied by the Eighth British Division from the north.

Oct. 12.

No further important services were exacted from the Canadian Corps, which had done its share, and more than its share, of the work, so that it retired from the line with the warm admiration and respect of every British soldier who had had experience of it. From its first dreadful baptism of fire, when it faced without masks the unknown horrors of the poison gas, down to the campaign in which it broke the great Quéant switch line, and forced the Canal du Nord, there was never one single occasion upon which the Canadians did not rise to the highest point of military virtue in actual battle. Their record will be fully set out in many a book which will deal fully and in detail with their great deeds. Such a chronicle as this can only hope to help the reader to fit that fuller and more worthy record into the general plan.

We shall now follow the work of Godley's Twenty-second Corps from the time that its right flank crossed the Canal du Nord in the Marquion sector, taking its operations consecutively, and linking them up with the Canadians on the south, who were now, as already recorded, advancing upon Cambrai, bursting through every obstacle as they went. Early in October Hunter-Weston's Eighth Corps extended down to the Scarpe. There was great preparation for the future, but no actual fighting, save for some outpost bickerings between the 12th Brigade of the Fourth Division and the Germans on the north of the Trinquis brook, in the course of which the British posts were attacked—one of them as many as eight times—but remained untaken. On October 7 the guns of the Twenty-second Corps co-operated in the attack made on that day by the Eighth Corps in the north which captured Biache St. Vaast, and a portion of the Fresnes-Rouvroy line. On October 9 there was a reconnaissance of the northern part of the Drocourt-Quéant line by strong patrols, but it was found that it was still strongly held. It was at this period that the Canadian Corps was brought across to the left of the Twenty-second Corps, while the latter moved south, so that it now lay between the Cambrai-Saulzoir Road and the Canal de l'Escaut. Whilst this considerable movement was in progress, on October 11 the Eighth Corps on the north captured the portion of the Drocourt line which was opposite to it. The Fifty-sixth Division and First Canadians, who were on the immediate south, took some part in the fray, the Londoners capturing Fresnes, and the Canadians the high ground which faced them. After the change was carried out, the front east of Cambrai was held by the Forty-ninth Yorkshire Division on the right and by the Fifty-first Highlanders on the left.

Oct. 11.

Immediately before these fresh dispositions were carried out in the south, there was a sharp action in this sector, in which, under the direction of General Currie, the Second Canadians and the Forty-ninth British attacked Iwuy and the ground south-west of it. This was on October 11. The attack gained ground and some hundreds of prisoners, but the losses were in excess of the gains, especially in the case of the Yorkshire Territorials, who suffered considerably in a counter-attack which was urged with the help of tanks. On the morning of October 12 the Fifty-first Highlanders had taken over from the Canadians and carried on the operation. All day there was sharp fighting in front of the British divisions. The Forty-ninth made good progress and followed up the retreating enemy, but the Fifty-first found a stiff opposition on the left, where the Germans held fast to Lieu St. Amand, powerfully supported by their guns on the north bank of the Canal de l'Escaut. The right of the Highland Division captured Avesnes-le-Sec, and so came level with the left of the Forty-ninth. This latter division had continual fighting at Haspres and Saulzoir on to the line of the Selle.

On October 13 the action was renewed, both the British divisions striving hard to push through the German rearguards, which were very strong and were backed by powerful artillery from north and east. Progress was slow, for the country was an open plain without a vestige of cover. The enemy were holding the Canadians to the north of the Escaut Canal, and so were able to keep their guns well forward on that side, to enfilade the advance to the south, and to support their position on the Selle. The British had come into the region of the civil population, so that they had to be chary and discriminating in the use of their guns, while gas shells could hardly be used at all. The Third Army had now got so far ahead that it was compelled to pause for supplies, and the First Army was forced to conform.

Cameron's Forty-ninth Division was much exhausted by its exertions, so the Fourth British Division came up about October 15 to relieve it. It met with a sad misfortune immediately after it had taken its place in the line, as its commanding officer, General Lipsett, was killed while carrying out a reconnaissance in front of the line. He had recently been transferred from a Canadian division, and had a great war record, extending back to near the beginning. It is indeed tragic when one who has played a great part in the drama leaves before the final curtain falls. General Lucas took over the division.

There was no change in the situation so far as the Twenty-second Corps was concerned until October 19, when the enemy began to retire in front of the Highland Division, in conformity with a movement which had already begun north of L'Escaut, and which spread down to the front of the Fourth Division. The Germans had prepared a line of defence upon the Ecaillon River in the rear, and were now letting go of the Selle in order to reassemble their forces upon this even stronger front. The withdrawal was irregular, so that some parts of his array remained hard when others had almost ceased to exist. Thus at Haspres and the part of the Selle to the north of it, there was still some stiff fighting. He abandoned Saulzoir, however, and the Fourth Division promptly established a bridge-head which should be the base for a future advance. On the Fifty-first Divisional front the pursuit was so rapid, both by the Highlanders and by the Corps Cavalry, that there was not much time for reorganisation.