The 49th Division was moved to the south and joined the XXII. Corps at the end of August 1918. On 12th September they relieved the 51st in the Plouvain sector, east of Arras. They took part in the last great advance. Along with the Canadian Corps they were engaged in an attack on 11th October, north-east of Cambrai. On that date the fighting was stiff and the losses were severe, but on the 12th good progress was made. The advance continued on 20th October and the XXII. Corps drove the enemy across the Selle and the Écaillon rivers and in the last week of October were up against the Rhonelle position. In Sir Douglas Haig’s despatch of 21st December, 1918, paragraph 49, the Battle of the Sambre, 1st to 11th November, he says: “During these two days, 1st and 2nd November, the 61st, 49th (Major-General N. J. G. Cameron) and 4th Divisions crossed the Rhonelle river, capturing Maresches and Preseau after a stubborn struggle, and established themselves on the high ground two miles to the east of it. On their left the 4th Canadian Division captured Valenciennes and made progress beyond the town. As a consequence of this defeat the enemy on the 3rd November withdrew on the Le Quesnoy-Valenciennes front.” The following battalions were chosen for the Army of the Rhine: 1/5th and 1/6th West Yorkshire Regiment, 1/5th Yorkshire Light Infantry and 1/4th York and Lancaster Regiment.[3] FOOTNOTES: [2] As to the Lys battles see also 50th, 51st, 55th and 61st Divisions. [3] An account of some of the more important features in the history of the 49th Division and of its younger sister the 62nd will be found in _The West Riding Territorials in the Great War_, by Major L. Magnus (Kegan Paul and Co., 15s.). Some most impressive pictures of life in the Ypres salient and at Nieuport in 1917 are to be found in _Happy Days with the 47th and 49th Divisions_, by Benedict Williams (Harding and More, 1921, 7s. 6d.). 50TH (NORTHUMBRIAN) DIVISION FIRST LINE The 50th Division will always be associated with the Second Battle of Ypres, now designated “The Battles of Ypres, 1915,” which began on 22nd April, 1915, by a great discharge of gas, then seen and felt for the first time in warfare, and which lasted till 25th May. Their presence was of the utmost value when the British and French only held on with the very greatest difficulty and at tremendous cost. Some battalions of the Division had only arrived in France a few days before the commencement of the battle. In his despatch of 31st May, 1915, Sir John French “mentioned” officers and men of the following battalions of the 50th Division: 4th, 5th and 6th Northumberland Fusiliers and 5th, 6th and 8th Durham Light Infantry.