Beginning at 5:30 am, the New Zealand Rifle Brigade advanced from its starting positions east of the town, aiming to surround it and link up on the far side.

By late morning, this had been achieved and other elements of the New Zealand Division moved further west into the Mormal Forest, leaving the Rifle Brigade to capture the town itself.

Late in the afternoon, a scouting party located an unguarded section of the walls and the brigade's 4th Battalion managed to climb the ramparts and move into the town, quickly seizing it.

Accordingly, the Hundred Days Offensive began on 8 August, with an attack on Amiens which marked the beginning of a series of advances by the Allies that ultimately ended the war.

[1] By late October, the New Zealand Division, commanded by Major General Andrew Russell, along with part of the British Third Army, had advanced to the west of the town of Le Quesnoy.

The battle was to consist of a series of engagements mounted by the British First, Third and Fourth Armies across a 30-mile (48 km) front, extending from Oisy to Valenciennes, to advance to the eastern edge of the Mormal Forest.

[5] Positioned on high ground between the Ecaillon and Rhonelle Rivers, Le Quesnoy was a medieval town that had been fought over several times in previous centuries.

It guarded a natural approach across plains to the north-east and had fortress walls with ramparts designed by Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban, a 17th-century military engineer.

[6][8] Le Quesnoy was in the sector of Army Group Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria, with the area garrisoned by the German 22nd Division.

[12] The ramparts of Le Quesnoy clearly made a frontal attack undesirable and artillery could only be used sparingly on the town, due to the presence of the civilian population.

The 1st Infantry Brigade took responsibility for the front line, with the 3rd Rifle Battalion turning around and moving up to the eastern side of Le Quesnoy.

[18][20] This left the Rifle Brigade to complete its planned move into Le Quesnoy, the German garrison having been reinforced with around 600 soldiers of Infantry Regiment 167 who had evaded capture by the New Zealanders and retreated into the town.

Gunfire from the main ramparts soon drove them off but Lieutenant Colonel Leonard Jardine, commanding the 2nd Rifle Battalion, co-ordinated the movements of his companies, which gradually moved forward.

By 4:00 pm mortar fire was able to be brought to bear on the main ramparts and this silenced the German machine-guns and allowed entry to the town for the 2nd Rifle Battalion.

[24][25] In the meantime, the 4th Rifle Battalion, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Harold Barrowclough and positioned on the "Blue Line" a distance from the west wall of the ramparts, had carried out scouting expeditions to explore the defences.

With the benefit of covering mortar fire, Averill and a platoon of the battalion reserve company managed to cross the moat and found themselves at the inner ramparts.

At the same time, a party from 2nd Rifle Battalion, seized the gate guarding the road into Le Quesnoy from Valenciennes and began entering the town from the north.

[24][28] A postwar history of the 167th Infantry Regiment complained of looting carried out by the New Zealanders, with prisoners of war being stripped of watches and wedding rings.

[31] An advance into the Mormal Forest was continued the next day by the 2nd Infantry Brigade but the capture of Le Quesnoy was the last major engagement of the war for the New Zealand Division.

[34] St. Andrew's Church, in Cambridge, has a memorial window depicting New Zealand soldiers scaling Le Quesnoy's ramparts.

[35] At Le Quesnoy, a monument commemorating the town's liberation by the New Zealand Division is set into the rampart wall, near where Averill scaled them.

A bell in the Wellington National war memorial carillon is named Le Quesnoy and is dedicated to the New Zealand Rifle Brigade.