Douai, like Lille, had been almost surrounded by our troops,
and was abandoned by the Germans on the same day. Our Second, Fifth, and First Armies now began kgerteral advance eastward on the fifty-mile-front between the Cambrai region and the Lys Valley beyond Courtrai, whence the Belgians and French continued the line to the Dutch frontier. By Wednesday our armies had reached the Schelde from Valenciennes to the north of Tournai and occupied the western suburbs of both these important towns. The French had crossed the Lys, to the south-west of Ghent, and the Belgians were across the Lys Canal towards Eecloo. The enemy's resistance was increasing, as if he meant to make a temporary stand on the line of the Schelde, which joins the Lys at Ghent, but the river barrier will not delay the Allies for long.
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