Officers Other Ranks Killed 126 1,688 Missing 9 436 Wounded 444 8,659 ------ ------- Total 579 10,783 Considering the number of German divisions engaged, and the results achieved, the casualties were very light. CHAPTER XVIII THE ATTACK AGAINST THE HINDENBURG LINE Canadian Headquarters were moved from Hautecloque to Noyelle Vion on August 23, 1918, and at noon General Currie assumed command of the front then held by the Seventeenth (British) Corps, extending from Neuville-Vitasse to Gavrelle in the Arras-Lens sector. The First and Fourth Canadian Divisions returned to the corps from the Amiens front on August 25 and 28, 1918, respectively. The corps thus was again with the First Army. The general military situation at this time on the Amiens-Arras front is described by General Currie in his official report of these operations as follows: "In sympathy with the severe reverses suffered on the Marne, and consequent upon the actions now fully developed in the Somme salient, signs were not wanting that the enemy was preparing to evacuate the salient of the Lys. This evacuation began under pressure of the First Army on August 25, 1918. "All these attacks and their results, direct or indirect, enabled the Allies to recover the ground they had lost in the course of the German offensive operations. "The recapture of that ground was, however, of secondary importance as compared to the moral results of these successive victories. "The German armies had been impressed in the course of these operations by the superiority of our generalship and of our organization, and by the great determination of our troops and subordinate commanders. "The Hindenburg system, however, was intact, and the enemy Higher Command hoped and believed that behind this powerfully organized area the German armies might be collected and reorganized. "Fighting the most determined rear-guard action in the Somme salient, they expected that our armies would be tired and depleted by the time they reached the forward area of the Hindenburg system. "The Battle of Cambrai, now about to be begun, shattered their hopes. By breaking through the Drocourt-Queant line, itself but a part of the Hindenburg system, the Canadian Corps carried the operations forward to ground that had been in the hands of the Germans since 1914. "This advance constituted a direct threat on the rear of the German armies north and south of Cambrai. "Dominated at all times, paralyzed by the swift and bold strokes on vital points of their line and by the relentless pressure applied everywhere, the German Higher Command was unable to take adequate steps to localize and stop our advance. After the Drocourt-Queant line was broken, the retreat of the enemy became more accelerated, and our attacks met everywhere with less organized and determined resistance.