"Deliver these immediately," said the British commander.
Hal and Chester saluted, left the tent, mounted their horses, and dashed rapidly away.
They reported to General Sir Julian Byng at 6 o'clock.
CHAPTER XVI
THE ADVANCE
The advance of the British troops under Sir Julian Byng, who was to win in this engagement the sobriquet of "Bingo" Byng, marked a departure from rules of warfare as it had been conducted up to date in the greatest of all conflicts. Heretofore, heavy cannonading had always preceded an advance in force. Heavy curtains of smoke from the great guns had been flung over the enemy's lines to mask the movements of the attackers.
While this smoke curtain had protected, to some extent, the movements of the assaulting party, it also had the effect of "tipping off" the foe that an attack was about to be launched. Now the British were about to advance without the protection of the smoke screens.
But General Byng's army moved forward in the wake of even a more formidable protection than smoke.
British "tanks," armored tractors, showed the way.
General Byng's attack covered the whole length of what had become known as the redoubtable and supposedly impregnable "Hindenburg line," so called because it had been established by that greatest of all German military geniuses, Field Marshal von Hindenburg. From Drocourt, just to the northwest of Douai, the line stretched for forty miles in a fairly straight line down through Vitryen-Artois, Villiers, Cagnocourt to Queant and Pronville, thence on to Boursies, Havrincourt, Gour Zeacourt, Epehy and St. Quentin.