Thursday Last night fired 150 rounds haressing [sic] I was on the off crews. The weather remains the same heavy mist all day today News from all fronts is very good especially from the north. No aerial activity these days. Am well.
The good news from the north is the German “helter-skelter” retreat from towns in Belgium and northern France, among them “Lille and Turcoing, those great industrial towns … which [the enemy] had held so long as his trump cards in his devil’s gamble of his war… it is the landslide of all their ambitions and their military power.” (1)
Lille is “virtually undamaged” (2), and the entering British patrols are “cheered by the people who have been prisoners of war in their own houses for all these dreary years under a hostile rule, which was sometimes cruel and always hard, so that their joy now is wonderful to see and makes something break in one’s heart at the sight of it, because one understands by these women’s faces, by the light in the children’s eyes, and by the tears of the old bearded men, what this rescue means to them, and what they have suffered.” (1)
Lille is only 17 miles (27 km) as the crow flies northeast of Lens, which the Germans left two weeks ago. The Lens front is where the Canadians (including Percy) spent months and months until called away for the Amiens Offensive at the beginning of August. Unlike Lille, Lens has been flattened.
“All that was left of Lens”
South of the Canal de la Sensée, there is “no visibility and very little activity” today. “Expect enemy has retired on this front.” (3)
After last night’s usual harassing fire on Wavrechain, (4) Percy is on the “off crews,” presumably back at Thun-Lévèque with the other guns after being at the sniping position since October 12th.
***
The headline is from tomorrow’s Globe.
The photograph (and its caption) is from Percy’s small album.
(1) Gibbs, Philip. “Allies Driving the Enemy Helter Skelter out of Belgium,” The Globe (1844-1936). October 18, 1918. 1. Archive available from ProQuest Historical Newspapers.
(2) “Smashing Attack,” The Globe (1844-1936). October 18, 1918. 1.
(3) War Diary of the 13th Brigade, Canadian Field Artillery. Vol. 21: 8. October 17, 1918. Library and Archives of Canada.
(4) War Diary of the 13th Brigade, CFA. Vol. 21: 8. October 16, 1918.
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Percy's War 