The Final 100 Days: October 3, 1918 - The Canal du Nord Aftermath
A decisive victory had been won in Arras.
In 6 days of battle, the Corps had defeated 12 German Divisions supported by 13 independent machine gun companies. The difficulty of the operation was not lost on the men, nor on High Command - roughly speaking, the Canadians had incurred around 10,000 killed, wounded, or missing throughout the battle.
On October 3rd, Corps Commander Arthur Currie issued a special order to all members of the Canadian Corps, commending them for a job well done. It was apparent that the operation could only have been carried out by experienced, daring, and courageous troops - though those were in increasingly short supply.
Between the dates of August 22nd and October 11th, the 100,000 strong Corps had suffered 30,806 killed, wounded, and missing. Most of these men had survived the trial by fire in Ypres, the Somme, Passchendaele, Hill 70, Lens, and Vimy Ridge, only to fall during the last 100 Days of the war.
For now, though, the Corps would sit on their heels and wait. The 9th Brigade continued to wheel around the northern edge of Cambrai, and the Canadians waited for the British Third Army to the south to complete the encirclement.