ALLIED TROOPS TAKE CAMBRAI Most important town yet as German soldiers flee the fron
PREMIER’S DELIGHT AT ‘SIGNIFICANT SUCCESS’
tHE allies have moved into Cambrai, the most important town we have yet retaken, and the German armies all along the 20-mile front between Cambrai and st Quentin, 240,000 men strong, are in full retreat after their defeat by the British, americans and French.
Our troops are now out into open country, advancing fast upon the Germans’ heels and brushing aside their rearguards.
Yesterday our men made a leap forward at the deepest point of about six miles. at 2pm they were only 3½ miles from Le Cateau and still moving very quickly.
In the words of Mr Lloyd George, who has telegraphed congratulations to Field Marshal Haig and Generals Horne, Byng and Rawlinson ‘on the great and significant success’, this ‘ smashing of the great defensive system, claimed by the enemy to be impregnable, is a feat of which we are all justly proud’.
It is a great victory, and it has already brought splendid fruit. In tuesday’s fighting our men alone took over 11,000 prisoners and 200 guns, and the French took another 1,200 prisoners.
the number of villages we have cleared of the enemy is large. we have advanced two miles beyond Cambrai, and our line now runs from abancourt to Bertry, which is our most easterly point, near Le Cateau (famous as marking the most perilous stage of the retreat from Mons). we have crossed the railway at Busigny and the junction there is in our hands; we have also captured Bohain junction.
LINE IS BREACHED
From west of Bohain the front makes a bend southwestward and runs west of Fresnoy straight to the Oise at the Village of Mezieres. the battle went according to the allies’ plans and quite contrary to the enemy’s intentions.
Even Ludendorff, the supreme commander of the German forces, admits that a ‘breach’ in his line forced him to withdraw.
when we attacked he was holding the front in unusual strength with 19 out of the 23 divisions he engaged. He had also not removed the civilians, which is an invariable Hun practice when retreats are made ‘according to plan’.
a new British attack was opened yesterday northwest of Cambrai, at the northern end of the wotan line, where we advanced between Lens and the scarpe. the attack is making good progress, and with the advance made near Cambrai is threatening the Hun position at Douai, lately burned by the enemy.
the effect of the allied advance is to create two deep enemy salients, one 40 miles wide from Lille to Bertry and 15 miles deep, and the other in the direction of Laon, 50 miles wide and 25 miles deep.
the enemy will find great difficulty in supplying or withdrawing his forces from these, as his manoeuvring power has been greatly affected by the loss of so many junctions. and supreme allied Commander Foch still says: ‘I have not yet had my battle.’
ENEMY IN PERIL
the enemy will have to carry out further retirements, and with the ground in such bad condition he will find it difficult to get his heavy guns away.
a French expert thinks that as a result of the victory the eight German armies between Valenciennes and the Mense may have to retreat.
It is possible that the retreat has already begun in the neighbourhood of Laon, which has also been in flames and where the German peril is greatest.
the French yesterday continued their offensive west of the argonne (where they took 609 prisoners on tuesday), pressing forward towards the main railways which link the Huns with Germany. the americans also continued their attack east of the argonne, holding the enemy down firmly on their front.
In tuesday’s Frenchamerican assault north of Verdun, 3,000 prisoners were taken.
thus the German front is tottering, and where it stands it is protected more by bad weather than by the fighting quality of the weary troops now holding the line.