The first effect of the Flanders advance was seen on
Wednesday, when Sir Douglas Haig announced the enemy's retirement on a wide front north and south of La Mimeo, the southern bulwark of Lille. That implies the evacuation of Lille itself, and confirms tl e Dutch reports that the civil population of Lille have been sent away. It was no surprise on Thursday to learn that the enemy had evacuated Lens, La Basset., the Aubers Ridge, and Armentieres, and was still retreating, with our troops in hotpursuit. Now that Lens itself, with the chief French coalfields round it, is in our hands, Douai will follow. But the enemy must also give up the faint hope of clinging to the wreck of the Cambrai- St. Quentin line. This in turn will compel a retreat from La Fere, which is already outflanked on the north, and a French advance east of La Fere will make the St. Gobain hills untenable. The whole German line is thus on the point of being moved back. It rests with Marshal Foch, rather than with General Ludendorff, to say where the enemy will make a new stand.
Previous page
