"The German armies had been impressed in the course of these operations by the superiority of our generalship and of our organization, and by the great determination of our troops and subordinate commanders.
"The Hindenburg system, however, was intact, and the enemy Higher Command hoped and believed that behind this powerfully organized area the German armies might be collected and reorganized.
"Fighting the most determined rear-guard action in the Somme salient, they expected that our armies would be tired and depleted by the time they reached the forward area of the Hindenburg system.
"The Battle of Cambrai, now about to be begun, shattered their hopes. By breaking through the Drocourt-Queant line, itself but a part of the Hindenburg system, the Canadian Corps carried the operations forward to ground that had been in the hands of the Germans since 1914.
"This advance constituted a direct threat on the rear of the German armies north and south of Cambrai.
"Dominated at all times, paralyzed by the swift and bold strokes on vital points of their line and by the relentless pressure applied everywhere, the German Higher Command was unable to take adequate steps to localize and stop our advance. After the Drocourt-Queant line was broken, the retreat of the enemy became more accelerated, and our attacks met everywhere with less organized and determined resistance.
"The moral effect of the most bitter and relentless fighting which led to the capture of Cambrai was tremendous. The Germans had at last learned and understood that they were beaten."
The Canadian Corps, on the right of the First Army, was to attack eastward astride the Arras-Cambrai road, and by forcing its way through the Drocourt-Queant line south of the Scarpe to break the hinge of the Hindenburg system and prevent the possibility of the enemy rallying behind this powerfully organized defended area.
The ground to be attacked lent itself peculiarly to defense, being composed of a succession of ridges, rivers, and canals, which formed natural lines of defense of very great strength. These natural positions, often mutually supporting, had been abundantly fortified. Their organization was the last work in military engineering, and represented years of intensive and systematic labor. Barbed-wire entanglements were formidable, machine-gun positions innumerable, and large tunnels had been provided for the protection of the garrison.
The four main system of defense consisted of the following lines: The old German front system east of Monchy-le-Preux, the Fresnes-Rouvroy line, the Drocourt-Queant line, and the Canal du Nord line. These, with their subsidiary switches and strong points, as well as the less organized, but by no means weak intermediate lines of trenches, made the series of positions to be attacked without doubt one of the strongest defensively on the western front.