FIGHTING FRONTS

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 79, 30 September 1918, Page 3

FIGHTING FRONTS

THE CAMBRAI DRIVE

SIR DOUGLAS HAIG'S REPORT^

PERFECT CO-OPERATION OF ALL

RANKS AND ARMS.

(ACS. AND N.Z. CABLE ASSN.' AND REUTEIt.)

eLONDON, 28th Sept., 2 a.m,

Sir Douglas Haig reports : • Portions of our First and Third Amies, under Generals Home and Byng respectively, attacked before dawn yesterday on a wide front in the general direction of Cambrai. Notwithstanding the great strength of the enemy's positions, espe,'cially in the northern sector, where the Canal dv Nord and the open ground sloping towards the enemy rendered the advance most difficult, all our objectives were reached. American detachments on our..extreme right captured a series of trenches and fortified farms forming the outer defences of the main Hihdenburg system south-west of, Le Catelet. More to the northward the Fifth Division captured Beaucamp, and combining with the' Lancashire ', men of the Forty-second Division, they cleared Beaucamp . and the ridge running north-east towards Marcoing. In the centre the Guards and Third Division of the Sixth Corps, under - General, Haldane, breaking through the enemy's defences eastward of Havrincourt, carried . the village of Flesquieres and took possession of the long' spur running eastwards from Flesquieres towards Marcoing. On their lefE the Scottish and naval units of;'the Seventeenth Corps, having stormed, the line of the Canal dv Nord east and south of Moeuvres; were first checked by the defences at Graincourt. Outflanking Graincourt from the north, they seized Anneux and carried forward the whole corps front. .We captured Graincourt, and continued the- advance to Cantaing and Fontane-Notre-Dame. On the left centre the Canadian Corps, unda 1 General Currie, attacking with the Canadian' First, Third,- and Fourth Divi-' nons, forced the passage of the Canal dv Nord and captured the villages of Sains-learMarquion and Bourlon, also the wooded heights of Bourlon Hill. ; Pressing on with the assitsance of the i English Eleventh Division/ they subS stantially progressed towards . EaillenI court and Haynecourt.i Our deep ad; vance astride the Arras-Cambrai road was greatly assisted by the 1 close coI operation of the Twenty-second Corps j under General Godley, operating south I and north of the Senses and Scarpe Rivers; and the Fifty-sixth (London) Division). This corps, crossed the Canal ■ dv Nord, arid, attacking northwards, captured Saucshy-I'Estree and Sauchy-Cauchy: North of the Scarpe/ on the extreme left, .the English and Scottish completed the capture of, Ar,-leux-en-Gohelie and the trench system thereabouts. Perfect co-operation between the commanders of the neighbouring units and between the infantry, the artillery, the tanks, and the aircraft, andi the gallantry and resource ■of all . ranks,: again enabled a complete success to be achieved at relatively, small cost. Several thousand prisoners and many guns were captured. , '