JOURNEY INTO TOWN WAS ONE TO REMEMBER
YesterdaY, the enemy fought and in places surrendered. Last night, he fled and he is still fleeing.
He fled first from the stronghold of his resistance, the roads and railways of Cambrai.
I spent the better part of the morning in the town, which was penetrated by Canadian and english troops at dawn. they went forward at 4am and were holding a line well on the eastern edge soon after dawn.
the entry to Cambrai was a journey to remember. as I approached, it looked as if the whole place was in the grip of fire, and miles away in the direction of douai the horizon was branded with smoke.
the nearer view was less mournful, and the nearer we drew the smaller and more separate the centres of destruction appeared.
the little neat village of sainte Olle was a roofed and habitable spot, but here the reek of war began.
an anti-tank gun lurked in a niche of broken wall. Were they two of the crew who lay with their faces to the fresh autumn sun on the pathway, or had they fled farther down the road, where three men had met their fate along with a team of horses who served as a barrier to the entrance of the town?
the first street was almost untouched and a new church had no gaps save in its windows.
CANAL CROSSING
soon we arrived at the scheldt Canal, which guards the town proper. a soldier met us with a 2lb bream in his hand, killed by the explosion in the canal where the bridge was blown up.
Bream and roach lay in masses along the edge of the wreckage, some of them still just alive.
I made my way into the town. as I stopped to talk with one of the first company to go through, there came down the street three Germans, one a young and very pale Wurttemberger of the 222nd regiment, who with a score or so of others had stayed behind to be taken. He was in a terror of nervousness in spite of the ludicrous peacefulness of the scene.
Not a single shell fell in the place all the while I was there, though the antiaircraft batteries and machine guns were unusually busy outside.
Our planes in quantity were swinging low and dropping their parachute messages telling of the extent and speed of the German retreat, and German planes dived through the haze to catch a glimpse of the rapidity of our pursuit.
In a slow and sentimental patrol of the town, I was everywhere astonished at the number of intact houses which showed no sign at all either of shelling or of that scientific devastation we have come to regard as normal.
LOOTING SOLDIERS
the cathedral was at that time untouched and the smaller houses share its integrity. Pictures and furniture were left in some of them; the tables and shelves were littered with china, and pots and pans, some with food in them, were in the kitchens and larders.
I went into one charming garden with its fruit trees and standard roses neatly trimmed and stout orange pumpkins growing in the vegetable patch. Of course everything of value had been looted. even a degenerate German has not quite lost his master instinct.
In some of the rooms wooden beds covered with rough shavings had been put up. the remaining garrison notices about the town were for the most part in both French and German.
the one thing I took out of Cambrai was a German notice written in French, giving full instruction for the evacuation which was to take place by boat and train between september 6 and 8.
three trains a day, each carrying 1,500 persons, carried away the people provided with white tickets. Only necessities were to be taken. each person was to take food for three days and any disobedience would be severely punished.
Not far off I found the office where the spanish-american food supplies were distributed, and sacks of the food tickets lay about in bundles of various colours. One notice, only in German, called attention to a dug-out for 300 theatre-goers in case of bombing raids.
I came upon no destruction of any account until we reached the theatre square. Here the German for some reason has utterly wrecked an acre or more of houses, leaving in one place an open avenue of brickbats that may possibly have been meant for defence purposes.
Within this destroyed area one large fire was raging, and I heard an explosion or two on the far side.
No civilian was left in the whole town, and no fighting soldier. By way of temporary defence a string of rifle pits, each manned with two men, was garrisoned about two miles on the far side of the town.
Lamentably, the areas that I visited yesterday, and that had survived so many years of war, may already have been razed.
Late last night, I received reports that multiple explosions have occurred in Cambrai, destroying much of the town. I have been unable to ascertain the extent of the damage.
Before I left, the Canadians had quite encircled the northern and eastern suburbs, and the english troops the south- eastern. the two had joined hands and were in touch with this rearguard.
We could just see the scene of the fight to the south, where the gallantry of the arsons and other battalions of the 63rd (Naval) division had forced the evacuation in a hurry.
at dawn yesterday they stormed Niergnies, taking some 600 prisoners and several guns, when they were counter-attacked from the ambush of a sunken road by seven tanks, some of them our own which had been repaired by German engineers. the only tank we had in position to resist them at the moment had spent its ammunition. the 63rd lost some ground.
CAPTURED GUNS
Within an hour, though, two of our commanders got hold of two German antitank rifles and stopped and knocked out four tanks. another officer with some men managed to swing round one of the German field guns, and with the small amount of ammunition that remained they directly hit another, and the rest vanished into the lair.
the naval men at once organised a second attack, retook the ground and brought their tally of prisoners up to more than 1,000. With this point lost it was impossible for the enemy to stay a moment longer in Cambrai without fear of capture. this was one of the outstanding exploits of a day of fine exploits. there is now a stretch of open country immediately in front of our troops.
Later, the Welshmen’s storming of Villers-Outreaux was even more difficult and more glorious than I knew it to be yesterday, and north of them the americans overran a large net of guns, besides taking about 2,000 prisoners and putting large numbers out of action.
the gunners, too, did great work and seem to have quite stopped a counter-attack by two divisions and to have annihilated a storm troop.
the German has never run away quite so fast as today. and some 20 uninjured villages must be in our hands as a result of the advance.
It seems that the retreat was prepared as soon as the Hindenburg Line fell, but our assault of yesterday was just in time — in time to
take pretty well 10,000 prisoners, I should reckon, and a large number of guns, to kill many and break many units, and to prevent the deliberate plans of demolition that, according to prisoners, had been prepared and are to be carried out at remoter places.
explosions and fires in Caudry and other villages indicate that the enemy is rapidly destroying dumps there is no time to remove. his troops all along the front from near St Quentin to Cambrai have joined that procession.
Our troops are in pursuit or in touch over all the country that is on our side of the Le Cateau-Cambrai road. Scenes along this area of pursuit boggle imagination.
Some villages are full of inhabitants — indeed, had all their inhabitants except the men between 16 and 69 and about 1,000 others, including 400 women, whom the whole district was forced to supply as hostages. At Sevigny and Serain, where 500 were freed, the folk waved cloths as our men came over the fields, and went into ecstasies of gratitude.
GERMANS GIVING UP
Indeed, this morning they could not forbear to wave and speak thanks to any men in khaki they met.
they passed on their way through our lines, groups of prisoners and prisoners in cages and shouted ‘La, la, las!’ at the spectacle.
In one village where the people had retired to cellars with three days’ food they had been hoarding for this occasion, the German had hoisted a Red Cross flag on the church tower to tell that civilians were in the town, and we forbore to shell it. Within an hour of his departure the German guns were hounding these same civilians in their village.
Many of the prisoners are much depressed. Soldiers of the German 201st Division say they are being punished, they do not know why, by extinction.
they have now only one battalion to a regiment, and the companies are down to 40 men.
the mere ghost of a division remains. One group consists of a cyclists’ corps from Russia.
they left their cycles some way back and came forward to surrender. Officers clad in fine mauve coats showed a gorgeous contempt of the rest, as a symptom, no doubt, of the new democracy they profess in Germany.
All seem to have heard of the request for an armistice, but say that orders have gone forth to destroy villages.
this may or may not be true, for none of the places I have seen or heard of are in ruins.
the blowing up of roads and dumps and some large fires are though visible portents.
the pursuit continues.