On September 29 all three brigades of the Sixty-third Division were across the Canal. Before mid-day the Fifty-seventh Division had managed to clear the Marcoing line from the Bapaume-Cambrai Road to the Canal. The men were getting terribly worn, but it was reckoned that the Germans were even more so and that, at all costs, the long-drawn fight should continue. Therefore on September 30 both the Fifty-seventh and Sixty-third Divisions made some advance east of the Canal de l'Escaut. On October 1 the Fifty-seventh Division pushed out to the north and north-east of Proville, but the advance was not successful. Later in the day there was a renewed advance, but again it was not pushed, and did not get very far. The nearest enemy post, the Faubourg de Paris, was strongly held, and there were several small counter-attacks, one of which overwhelmed a British trench containing 40 men and 2 machine-guns. There followed a considerable pause while fresh dispositions and reorganisations were made along the whole line of the Army. These changes included very radical alterations in the Seventeenth Corps, which lost the Fifty-second Division, while it was strengthened by the addition of the Nineteenth (Jeffreys), the Twenty-fourth (Daly), and the Sixty-first (Duncan). With this strong reinforcement General Fergusson turned with confidence to his next task. [Sidenote: Oct. 4, Oct. 8.] We shall now return to the operations of the rest of Byng's Third Army from the time that they fairly {219} settled down to the crossing of the Escaut Canal, and the final occupation of the whole of the Hindenburg Line. We shall begin as before with Shute's Fifth Corps on the right. The attack of this Corps on October 4 was largely dependent upon the success of the Second American Corps, and as this was only partial some modifications had to be made. The immediate result of the American operations was that Morland's Thirteenth Corps, which was on their left and on the right of the Fifth Corps, had to undertake an advance against Le Catelet and Gouy on October 3. During this movement the Fiftieth Division on the left of Morland's Corps was to take possession of the high ground 1500 yards north of Le Catelet, and were then to be relieved by the Welsh Division of the Fifth Corps. This was duly carried out by the evening of October 4. The rôle of the Welsh Division was afterwards to attack northwards across the front of the Fifth Corps so as to clear the Hindenburg Line as far north as Rancourt Farm. It was found, however, on October 5 that as a result of the operations of the Fourth Army the enemy had withdrawn and crossings were effected by the Twenty-first and Thirty-third Divisions along the whole Corps front, while the Welshmen east of Vandhuile found that the line to the north of them had been abandoned. They pushed on, therefore, and took possession of the Nauroy-Le Catelet line, finishing up to the