Bourlon and Bourlon Wood. From The Tank Corps by Major Clough Williams-Ellis & A. Williams-Ellis.
The Bapaume-Cambrai Road.12. L.O. 28.57º Bourlon & Wood2.12.17.10.
"The British part in the great general attack upon the whole German front was timed to begin in the early morning of September 27th. On the evening before a great bombardment opened on a thirty-mile front, from a point about two miles northwest of St. Quentin, as far as the Sensée River northwest of Cambrai. Then in the gray light of early dawn the 4th, 6th, 17th and Canadian Corps, thirteen divisions in all, of Byng's Third Army and Horne's First Army advanced on the Cambrai front, stormed the immensely strong Canal du Nord, swept beyond Bourlon Wood and Fontaine-Notre-Dame, the extreme limits of our advance in the first battle of Cambrai of November, 1917, and captured Sailly, more than six miles from their starting point, taking over 10,000 prisoners and 200 guns."
Returning to his headquarters on September 22, 1918 after a tour of the front, Allied Commander-in Chief Ferdinand Foch settled on a plan for a 'great general attack': four offensives launched on four consecutive days beginning September 26, 1918. The second was the assault British General F. Maurice summarizes above. The British offensive of the First Battle of Cambrai in November, 1917 had demonstrated how successful tanks could be.
The Great Events of the Great War in Seven Volumes by Charles F. Horne, Vol. VI, 1918, p. 291, copyright © 1920 by The National Alumnia, publisher: The National Alumni, publication date: 1920
1918-09-27, 1918, September, Cambrai, Bung, Horne, Canal du Nord, Bourlon, Bourlon Wood
