Last 100 Days - Cambrai 27 Sep 1918

Battle of Canal du Nord and Cambrai

Less than 4 weeks after the success in the Battle of Arras, the Canadian Corps was again up to strength, and ready to take Cambrai, the last important transportation hub held by the Germans.

The Canal du Nord was a significant obstacle that the Germans had defended in depth and had blown all the bridges during their retreat across the canal. The canal was not complete in 1918, with a 2300 m stretch still dry. Gen Currie devised a bold plan to cross this narrow dry stretch then fan out to take Cambrai. Gen Horne, the British 1st Army Commander objected to the plan and complained to Gen Haig the British Commander, but at this point the Canadian reputation was so strong that Haig deferred to Currie. Horne then appealed to Gen Byng, Currie’s former boss, who asked Currie if he could do it, and then said, “if you fail it’s home for you”. The attack was risky as large numbers of troops had to assemble in a small area, then cross through a narrow channel, so they were very vulnerable to artillery fire or gas attacks.

As well as crossing the Canal, the Canadians had to clear the Marquion Line, Bourlon Woods and the Marcoing Line before reaching Cambrai.

The 1st and 4th Divisions managed to assemble in the woods outside Inchy-en-Artois, and at 0520 on 27 September launched an attack that completely surprised the Germans. They crossed the Canal and were quickly on the German Defences. The 1st Division quickly took Marquion and the Marquion Line and pushed all the way to Haynecourt. Their advance was so impressive that they had to wait for 3 days for the other Divisions to Catch up.

The dry canal was crossable by the infantry, but the Engineers had to build bridges for the Artillery and transport to cross. They began as soon as the infantry passed and built a number of bridges under heavy fire to allow the assault to proceed.

The 4th Division came under heavy machine gun fire, particularly from the Bourlon Wood area, and progress was much slower. The Germans employed barbed wire and multiple machine gun positions that had to be taken out individually, usually via a heroic action of a single person or small group. The 3rd Division took over the assault on 28 Sep, pushing forward, but suffering significant casualties.

On 29 and 30 September, the 3rd and 4th Division continued to push through so a coordinated assault on Cambrai could take place 01 October. The 1st Division pushed forward but could not progress due to heavy machine gun fire. The exhausted Divisions stopped the assault on 02 October. On the 8th of October, the Canadians pushed into Cambrai, but the Germans had gone and set the town on fire. This is Cambrai as the Canadians entered.

The Canadians pursued the Germans, taking Valenciennes on 01 November, and capturing Mons on 11 November.  43 Canadians were killed during the capture of Mons including Private George Lawrence Price who was killed by a sniper just two minutes before the fighting officially ended.

Battlefield Tour

This tour covers the crossing of the Canal du Nord, and the subsequent taking of Cambrai, the final major battle for the Canadian Corps.

This map shows the route taken.

The first stop was at the crossing of the Canal du Nord.

At the time of the battle, the Canal was not complete so the section between Inchy-en-Artois and Moeuvres was dry. The crossing was heavily defended, and a great risk to the Canadians as they had to cross a narrow region and fan out after taking the Canal.  Since they were crossing a narrow area, the troops were tightly bunched prior to the attack, making them extremely vulnerable to artillery or gas attacks. Fortunately, the Germans were unaware of their presence and at 0520 on 27 September, the Canadians launched a surprise attack.

The canal is now full, but the land remains remarkably unchanged. All of the bridges had been blown, and this crossing was at the northern end of the 2300 m dry area. View from the current bridge.

The canal was about 30 m across, with the west bank 5 m high and 3 m high on the east bank, so the infantry could cross, but bridges would have to be built to allow vehicles and artillery to cross.

Immediately after the infantry crossed, the Engineering Corps went to work building bridges to allow the support troops to cross.

They quickly built a heavy bridge made of pre-constructed wooden sections.

Next stop is the Ontario Cemetery, just on the other side of the canal.

Ontario Cemetery has 341 burials, 145 Canadians including 27 from Robert Connelly’s 1st Battalion.

Looking back across the canal, you can see the church spire of Inchy-en-Artois.

Looking north you can see the land the 1st Division travelled over, more gently rolling farmland.

As with many cemeteries, there are memorials to the previously buried who were lost due to battles over their original burial sites. These 5 soldiers had originally been buried in German cemeteries, but subsequently lost.

The next stop was the Canadian Bourlon Wood Memorial that commemorates the action at the Canal du Nord. The elevation across the blue line from the Canal du Nord to the Canadian memorial is shown. The memorial is at the peak of the hill.

The memorial is in a lovely park-like setting with several flights of stairs to access the memorial.

The memorial itself is the standard Canadian block of Granite. Each site is designed slightly differently, depending on the location.

The inscription on the stone reads:

The Canadian Corps on 27th Sept 1918 forced the Canal du Nord and captured this hill. They took Cambrai, Denain, Valenciennes and Mons then marched to the Rhine with the Victorious Allies.

The view from the top of the hill is beautiful, most of the battlefield is visible, indicating why this location was so fiercely fought over.

The next stop was the Quarry Cemetery on the northern flank of the 1st Division Advance.

Quarry Cemetery is a small cemetery with only 68 burials, located in a small depression.

The layout emphasizes the Cross of Sacrifice.

Bourlon Woods is visible in the distance.

The next stop was Crest Cemetery.

Crest Cemetery is another small battlefield cemetery with only 88 burials. All the headstones are close together as the bodies were buried close together in long trenches.

The town of Cambrai is visible in the distance. This is the second phase of the attack where the 3rd Division passed though the 4th Division to continue the attack, taking the Marcoing Line by the end of the day 29 September, two days after the 1st Division had taken the line in the North.

Next stop was Drummond Cemetery, just outside Tilloy.

Drummond Cemetery was built to accommodate men of the 3rd Division fighting just outside Cambrai on 28-30 September.

The Cemetery contains 88 Commonwealth burials, and was named for its first resident, LT J.R. Drummond, Royal Flying Corps, who was shot down in the area.

This area was subject to heavy fighting in the second phase of the attack.

There are also 4 German soldiers buried in this cemetery, including Karl Wolter.

The next stop was Sancourt British Cemetery. I visited this cemetery back in January, as it is the resting place Sgt Robert Connelly, C Company, 1st Battalion, an uncle of my late brother-in-law Lorne Ryan.

The 1st Division achieved their objective of reaching the Marcoing line on 27 September and had to wait until the Divisions to their south caught up before they could press the attack.  Although there was no large-scale assault, there was constant shelling and fighting, and on 30 September, Robert was killed by Machine gun fire close to where he was buried.

The sketch map shows the 1st Battalion positions on 30 September.

Google Street view shows the field Robert was likely killed in.

Sancourt British Cemetery has 236 Burials, all but 6 Canadians. 72 1st Battalion members are buried here, most of them from the failed attack of 01 October.

Again, the stones are close together as the bodies were buried in long trenches.

The cemetery is in the middle of a field, about 2 km either direction down an old cobblestone road.

It is not prime cemetery season yet, and not everyone signs the visitor’s log, but it was a bit disappointing when I signed the visitor’s log, and my name from 07 Jan was the last one in the log.

Robert Connelly was killed on 30 September. He had won the Military Medal at Passchendaele on 06 November for taking over a platoon after the officers and Senior NCOs had been wounded. He had been promoted to Sgt on 24 November 1917. He joined the 1st Battalion in Jun 1916, and fought with them through Courcelette, Vimy, Hill 70, Passchendaele, Amiens and Arras losing his life less than 6 weeks before the end of the war. As with all of the soldiers of the war, the question is not why did he die, but how did he survive as long as he did?

Rest in Peace.

The last stop on the tour is the Canadian Cemetery North of Cambrai, seen of the fighting during the final days of the battle.

Canada Cemetery has 264 burials from the later days of the battle for Cambrai. The headstones in this cemetery are offset, as the grave were close together but not quite as tight as seen in previous cemeteries.

The views across the cemetery are the open fields leading toward Cambrai.

I have visited many cemeteries during my travels, and have seen some faded lettering on the stones, and some that need the vegetation removed, but this is the first damaged stone I have seen. It must have been a recent occurrence, as these issues are usually fixed immediately.

Also buried in this cemetery are 8 members of RCAF 408 Squadron from the Second World War.  The crew was flying a Lancaster Mark II serial number DS688, squadron number EQ-R, on a mission over Cambrai on 13 June 1944 to bomb railway facilities. Part of a 671 aircraft force to further hamper lines of communications leading to the Normandy area. Cambrai and Caen attacks were scattered but Amiens, Arras and Poitiers were accurate. 23 aircraft were Lost (3.4%) including that of Andrew Mynarski VC, the subject of the Canadian Lancaster 'Vera'.

The aircraft was shot down by a night-fighter and crashed at Tilloy-les-Cambrai, NNW of Cambrai, France.

The crew included:

Pilot Officer John Albert Bergeron, Air Gunner

Flight Lieutenant Francis Thomas Brice, Pilot

Flying Officer Albert Glendenning, Navigator

Flying Officer Jack Gillard Gray, (RAF) Air Gunner

Pilot Officer Adam Mabon (RAF), Flight Engineer

Flying Officer Martin John McDonald, Air Bomber

Pilot Officer Elvin George Todd, Air Gunner

Pilot Officer Harry William Wilson, Wireless Operator.

The Lancaster usually has a crew of 7, and this crew had one extra Air Gunner. The Lancaster had an 8th crew member who was a Navigator if they were a Pathfinder Squadron. New Pilots flew one or two missions as “2nd Dickey” to get an appreciation of the bombing flight profiles. The most likely reason was that crew was operating an aircraft equipped with Airborne Cigar (ABC). A German speaking radio operator was added, whose job it was to scan for German night-fighter radio frequencies. Once he located one, he would tune one of serval jamming transmitters on board the aircraft to the frequency and there by present further information being transmitted by German ground controllers to the night-fighter pilots. 408 Squadron had several crews that had an 8th member who was identified as a Mid Upper Gunner to hide his true purpose.

This was an experienced crew having flown between 21 and 28 missions, close to the magic number of 30 missions required to complete your tour of duty.

The Canadian Corps had suffered more that 10,000 casualties in the Battle of Cambrai. The totals for the Final 100 Days were 8,227 Canadians killed and over 34,000 Canadians wounded. Over 20 percent of the total Canadian casualties occurred in the Last 100 Days. Although the efforts of the Canadians helped shorten the war, the losses so close to the end of the battle was a bitter pill for the serving members and the Canadians at home.

After the war Gen Currie was feted and lauded in Europe but was the target of a smear campaign by Sam Hughes, former Minister of Defence, stating that Canadian Lives were sacrificed for the glory of Gen Currie.

As a result, Currie never received acknowledgement of his tremendous efforts during his lifetime. It is only since his death that his leadership and the efforts of the Canadian Corps are receiving the deserved recognition.