The initial artillery bombardment blasted the Germans’ positions, but an intense, week-long battle followed, resulting in more than 11,000 Canadian casualties. The Canadians opened their attack on 26 August. But the enemy positions at the D-Q Line and along the Canal du Nord were strong and deep, bristling with machine-guns, and forcing them would not be easy. A successful operation would outflank the Germans’ vaunted Hindenburg Line of prepared defences, forcing them to retreat.
In the first of these attacks, the Canadians spearheaded the British First Army’s attack on the Arras front, through the Drocourt-Quéant Line (D-Q Line) and across the Canal du Nord to capture the town of Cambrai. The ensuing campaign, known as the Hundred Days (August – November 1918), ended in the defeat of German forces in the West. Canadians Spearhead the AttackĪfter the victory at Amiens, Allied commanders agreed on a multi-army offensive along the Western Front against German forces that, for the first time in the war, appeared vulnerable.
The hard-fought victories at Arras and the Canal du Nord remain among the most costly but impressive engagements fought by the Canadian Corps during the First World War.
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