Threatened by the British thrust toward Lille the enemy began the evacuation of the city. Farther south, in the crucial area north of St. Quentin, British forces again broke through the Hindenburg system of defenses. They crossed the Scheldt Canal on the eight-mile front between Crèvecoeur and Le Catelet and won a section of the famous line on the plateau of La Terrière in this sector, the Germans hurriedly retiring from the high ground east of the canal. French victories in the Champagne continued with clockwork regularity every day, and it might be said with truth every few hours of the day. German resistance was broken on a front of about twenty-eight miles in the Rheims salient, where as the result of pressure east and west the enemy was compelled to surrender his strongest positions. The French continued in pursuit through the night of October 5-6, 1918, the whole front along the river Suippe. Other French troops having crossed the Aisne Canal had advanced to the outskirts of Aiguilcourt and pressing on north of Rheims captured a number of villages to the northeast of the city, reaching the Suippe River at Pont Faverger, which was conquered and occupied. In the fighting on the British front on October 6, 1918, the village of Fresnoy, ten miles west of Douai, was won. Between Cambrai and St. Quentin after the capture of Abencheul-au-Bois the British established themselves in strong positions on the high ground toward Lesdain. Montbregain and Beaurevoir, villages to the northeast of St. Quentin which had changed hands several times in the recent fighting, were won by the British at a late hour in the day. During the night Marshal Haig's troops established a post at the crossing of the Scheldt Canal, five miles northwest of Cambrai, and advanced their lines south on the west and southwest. By the advance north of Wez Maquart the British were now within about five miles west of the city. At times during the British pursuit the enemy's rear guards attempted to make a stand, but in every instance they were annihilated. The Germans seemed to have become panic-stricken, for, while they could maintain a stubborn defense, there was no method in their fighting; it was the desperate struggle of men who know they are playing a losing game. The continued French pressure in the Champagne yielded daily results. On October 7, 1918, Berry-au-Bac at the junction of the river Aisne and the Aisne Canal on the left wing of the offensive was captured. On the rest of the Champagne front the French held their gains, and pushed on to the north and east of the Arnes River. Early in the morning of October 8, 1918, British and American troops with the French cooperating on the right launched an attack on a twenty-mile front from Cambrai southward, shattering the remains of the Hindenburg system to a large extent, and advancing along the whole fighting line a distance of three miles.