A Quick Firing 18-pounder gun with ammunition limber of the Royal Field Artillery, moving through a cutting in the Canal du Nord, which was being built when war broke out in August 1914.
The excavations for the Canal du Nord made a perfect defensive system, and the Germans incorporated the ‘canal’ into their famous Hindenburg Line. Still further, the marshy terrain on both sides of the Arras to Cambrai road, combined with the elevated German defences, made it a very difficult position to attack. Nevertheless, during the Battle of the Canal du Nord, 27th September – 1st October 1918, two Canadian divisions succeeded in breaking through the ‘canal’ defences at this point.
Original reads: ‘OFFICIAL PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN ON THE BRITISH WESTERN FRONT IN FRANCE. THE CAMBRAI ADVANCE. Artillery going through a cutting in the Canal du Nord.’
Original URL: http://digital.nls.uk/first-world-war-official-photographs/pageturner.cfm?id=74548954
Resource Type : image
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