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Updated: May 1, 2025
Later in the day the advance was continued and rapid progress was made at all points, English, Scottish, Irish, and Welsh battalions secured the crossings on the canal at Masnieres and captured Marcoing and Neuf Wood.
He played on Marcoing throughout the night, inflicted a few light casualties on the Normans, deprived a few more house of rafters, and ploughed an occasional portion of the road. One wondered grimly on looking up at a thin slate roof what protection it would form against a "heavy," and into how many unrecognisable fragments your person would be dispersed should he land one direct on you.
Havrincourt, Graincourt, and Anneux four and a half miles from the morning's front fell on the left; Ribecourt, Marcoing, Neuf wood, Noyelles, and Masnières in the centre; and La Vacquerie, Bonavis, and Lateau wood on the right.
Let coming generations marvel. The Farewell March of the First Ten Hundred. Before the sun had reached its noon many had crossed the Groat Divide and passed the portals of Valhalla to swell the throng of their Viking forefathers. The enemy advance had continued with remarkable rapidity towards Rues Vertes and Marcoing.
The field of view extended along the left flank of the Corps and Divisional front, and went a long way back to the high ground between Niergnes and Esnes. Flesquières, Ribécourt, Marcoing, Rumilly, and Masnières could all be seen. The next few days were spent in locating our surroundings and in reporting the traffic seen on the back roads.
Around Lavasquere, formidable defenses, known as Welsh Ridge and Coutilet Wood, had been, captured. Flesquires had been invested and the Grand Ravine crossed. Havrincourt was in British hands. Trench systems north of Havrincourt and north of the west bank of the Canal du Nord also had been captured. The Masnieres Canal was crossed, and the British had stormed and captured Marcoing Neufwood.
It was the greatest and most successful surprise of the war. There was no preliminary bombardment to warn the enemy, and the advance continued steadily for two days, when the towns of Masnieres, Marcoing, Ribecourt, Havrincourt, Graincourt, and Flesquieres, long occupied by the enemy, all were behind the British lines. Just before dawn on the 20th there was absolute quiet along the whole line.
Tho cause of this may, of course, be found in the knowledge that right up and during the British attack all these towns Marcoing, Noyelles and Masnières unvisited by shell fire, were still occupied by their owners.
The road from Masnières to Marcoing was strewn with the pitiful remnants of lost bundles, which, unable to carry further, sobbing women had cast down by the wayside. They had crowded in tearful, grateful groups around a few of the Guernsey and other battalions. Young and old. Old!
The advance was ended and there was every indication of establishing this new line for the quieter period of winter. The Normans, with the 80th Brigade, moved in the evening dusk out from Marcoing to Masnières a town that constituted almost the apex of the salient formed by the drive.
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