1 DECEMBER 1917, Page 13

Sir Douglas Haig issued last Sunday a Special Order of

the Day eongratulsting the Third Army on the capture of the important Bourlon position, " which crowns a successful operation and opens the way to a further exploitation of the advantages already gained." Cambrai, which is an important road-centre and railway junction, can now be subjected to the fire of our heavy guns from Bowdon, and the enemy's lateral communications behind the shattered Hindenburg line will thus be interrupted. Much depends on the prompt widening of the gap now made in the enemy's " impenetrable barrier." To the west of Bourlon our men were last Sunday in the third German line. Up to that day 9,774 prisoners, including 182 officers, had been taken, with more than a hundred guns. On Tuesday five hundred more prisoners were captured when the Guards recaptured Fontaine Notre Dame, between Bourlon and Cambrai, but had to fall back to the outskirts before a massed attack by two fresh German divisions.