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Updated: May 28, 2025
Looking out from the Vimy Ridge six weeks ago, and driving thence through Arras across the Drocourt-Quéant line to Douai and Valenciennes, I was in the very heart of that triumphant stand of the Third and First Armies round Arras which really determined the fate of the German attack. The Vimy Ridge from the west is a stiffish climb.
Armentières was recovered on 3 October, La Bassée and the Aubers ridge were abandoned without a struggle, and the Germans surrendered the remaining section of the Drocourt-Quéant line, withdrawing to the Douai, Haute Deule, and Sensée canals which protected Lille and Douai.
On a day in September, when British troops broke the Drocourt-Queant line, I saw the Second German Guards coming along in batches, like companies, and after they had been put in barbed-wire inclosures they laughed and clapped at the sight of other crowds of comrades coming down as prisoners. I thought then, "Something has broken in the German spirit." For the first time the end seemed very near.
"Then, when the success of this bold manoeuvre had declared itself, and the enemy had begun the first stages of his great retreat, the next critical period arrived on the 2nd September, when the powerful defences of the Drocourt-Quéant line were attacked and broken.
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