There was a preliminary bombardment, but the guns had been busy wire-cutting during the last three days, so that the great metal aprons which extended from the German position were ragged and torn. Hence they offered small impediment to the infantry who dashed through at the first rush, and easily captured the outlying trenches which stretched across a low hill. The village of Gagnicourt lay imbedded in the German trenches, and this was a centre both of attack and resistance. By 8 o'clock the Canadian infantry of the First Division had carried the village, while the Canadian Fourth Division was in Dury on the left, and had made its way into Dury Wood. The advance had already covered about 3000 yards. Both the barrage and the tanks were admirable, and {145} the combination beat down the German defence which at first was not formidable--indeed many of the German front-liners escaped the shrapnel by running in front of it and surrendering the moment the battle began. As the advance progressed the German resistance grew stiffer, especially in front of the Fourth Canadian Division at Dury Wood, where there was some very desperate fighting. All along the line, pockets of German snipers and machine-gunners did what they could to redeem the honour of the German Army. Astride the Cambrai Road there was a particularly strong point of opposition. The defenders were numerous all along the line--so much so that prisoners from six different German divisions were captured, including the First and Second Guards Reserve, and the Third Division which had only arrived the night before with orders to advance into the Canadian area. Many of them did so as far as the prisoners' cage. This splendid advance of the Canadians had been covered and supported on the right by the Fifty-seventh Lancashire Division of Fergusson's Seventeenth Corps, which had cleared up the villages of Riencourt and Hendecourt in a preliminary operation on September 1. The Lancashire men made good the Canadian flank, and then the Sixty-third Naval Division of the same Corps skirted the southern edge of Gagnicourt, passing the Canadian troops, and pushed on to Buissy, nearly two miles further east. This advance was on a front of a mile, and brought the victors into contact with six other German divisions, each of which provided samples for the cages. Not content with this fine performance, the Naval Division, who were now ahead of their guns {146} and without tanks, pushed on again in the evening, and inclining to the south they captured the village of Pronville, thus getting to the east of Quéant, which was still held by the Germans. The Drake, Anson, Hood, and Hawke battalions, together with the Royal Marine units, were all heavily engaged during this long day of fighting.