It was 6.20 in the morning when the tanks first pushed forward to break down the wire entanglements and clear the way for the advance of the British infantry. An hour later the troops were rushing through the gaps made in the German defenses. At 7.47 British troops operating west of Havrincourt had forced their way up and over the elevation known as Mount Vesuvius. It was fortunate that the movement was carried out with dispatch, for a few minutes later the knoll, which had been mined, was blown up by the Germans. Havrincourt was captured in less than an hour, the Germans evacuating the place in such haste that they had not time to inflict any serious damage. The West Riding Territorials, who captured Havrincourt, also occupied enemy trench systems to the north of the village, while Ulster battalions, covering their left flank, pressed on northward up the west bank of the Canal du Nord. La Vacquerie and the strong defenses known as Welsh Ridge were won by English rifle regiments and light infantry. In the course of the advance east, County troops took the hamlet of Bonavis and Laffaux Wood after a bitter struggle that resulted in heavy casualties to the Germans.
Later in the morning the British troops extended the advance at all points. Crossings were effected of the canal at Masnières and English, Scottish, Irish, and Welsh battalions fought together in the capture of Marcoing and Neuf Wood. East of the Canal du Nord the West Riding troops that took Havrincourt made important progress. They stormed and captured the villages of Graincourt and Anneux. In conjunction with Ulster men operating west of the canal they carried the whole German line northward to the Bapaume-Cambrai road.
Important points of the Hindenburg line were penetrated east of Epihy by the West Lancashire Territorials, while Irish troops won important sections of the line between Bullecourt and Fontaine-les-Croisilles.
In the morning of the second day of the advance the British were within three miles of Cambrai. After breaking through the German's last defense line at Anneux and Cantaing, British tanks, cavalry, and infantry were operating along a line running from west of Cambrai to the south of that town. On the left, in the region of Bullecourt, the German line had been pushed back, widening the salient which the British drove into enemy territory south and southwest of Cambrai. In the attack around Bullecourt the British took 700 prisoners.
The Germans had now recovered their fighting spirit, which suffered a decline during the first stages of the British advance, and everywhere opposed a stiff resistance. At Noyelles, Rumilly, and Bullecourt they made desperate counterattacks during the night, but were unable to overcome British resistance.
In the two days' fighting the British had captured more than 9,000 prisoners.
There was heavy fighting during the morning of November 22, 1917, near Bourlon Wood, Fontaine Wood, and the village of Fontaine Notre Dame east of it, less than three miles from Cambrai. When the British captured the last place named, they were able to release more than a hundred civilian prisoners, who hailed their rescuers with cheers and many wept for joy. At Masnières the same scene was enacted, where some hundreds of civilians were freed from the odious rule of their German oppressors. They had been kept from starving almost entirely by the American Relief Committee, and after America entered the war by the Spanish-Dutch Committee. The men had been forced by the Germans to work long hours in the fields and workshops, and the women had to sweep the roads, wash the soldiers' dirty linen, and scrub their quarters.
"For three years we lived in a nightmare," said the Mayor of Masnières, "and now we seem to be in a dream too good to be true!" One man had been living for three years in the cellar of his own house, where German officers were billeted, being fed by his wife out of the extra ration given to the baby born since the war began. Every week the house was searched and husband and wife would have been punished with death if the man had been found.
In the morning of November 23, 1917, the British drove back the Germans from an elevation known as Tadpole Copse west of Mœuvres, commanding a large section of the Canal du Nord, which runs east of that place and the village itself, still in German hands. At Fontaine Notre Dame, west of Cambrai, where the British had been pushed back, the fighting was renewed. In the eastern part of Crevecœur village the Germans had concentrated an intense machine-gun fire against the British in the western outskirts.
Heavy fighting continued throughout the day of November 23, 1917, at Bourlon Wood, and around Fontaine. The British held a line on the low ground about the southern edge of the wood, and from these positions had to charge up the slopes under the fire of many machine guns.