The+Battle+of+Cambrai

The Battle of Cambrai November 20 - December 7, 1917



-After the battles of the Somme and Passchendaele, the British military, as well as the British public, were weary and disheartened by the continual losses faced by the soldiers. It was nonsensical in some ways for the British to take on a new challenge at Cambrai. However, Douglas Haig was being pressured to compensate for crushing defeats, and he knew that to keep his job he needed a small, but sure success. He wanted a breakthrough, and even rejected a simple raiding plan.

-Cambrai was a strategic headquarters and railhead in northern France, very close to the Belgian border. The railhead was connected to supply routes from three other French towns. It was on a canal through which supplies could also be sent down. The terrain was well-suited to a battle with tanks, without any previous blasts in the fields to hinder the tank offense. However, the Germans at Cambrai had were notoriously well-defended.

-Enter: the Hindenburg Line. Three separate lines of trenches, a fourth line being built, as well as 50 to 100 yards of barbed wire made up a protection system considered unbreakable. It had never been crossed until the British tanks were introduced. The British used a strategy involving two tanks parading through the wires with the dropped anchors trailing behind. The anchors would grab the wire and tangle it into an immense cord which would cling and follow the tank. The cord of wires would eventually snap, and as soon as the tanks broke through the wire, they would separate, letting the wires drag behind to clear a path for cavalry or infantry divisions to march through.

-At first, Cambrai was a massive victory for the British. Nearly 300 tanks managed to pierce the Hindenburg Line and the British infantry were finally able to penetrate German territory. Without any preliminary bombardment, the Germans were taken by surprise and immediately surrendered; those who didn't were killed. 8,000 German prisoners later, the British believed they had the advantage. It was the first time since 1914 that church bells rang all over Great Britain. This celebration was premature, as the battle was far from over.



-At the village Flesquières, the British encountered their first problem of the first day of the battle. General George Harper, commander of the 51st Highland, distrusted tanks and so allotted his infantry to march 200 yards behind the tanks, while the tanks stormed in "straight forward line-abreast." General Harper's other mistake was to let his troops rest an hour before continuing on to Flesquières. This allowed the Germans to bring up artillery and soldiers. As the tanks moved over ridges, their un-armoured stomachs were revealed and they were easily shot down by German batteries. The British did not take hold of Flesquières.

-Another issue was the cavalry: it was positioned so far behind the front lines, that communication was extremely slow and difficult. By the time the cavalry commander got word that the tanks had broken through the lines, it was mid-afternoon. Only one squadron of horse got all the way through -- the Fort Garry Horse from Winnipeg. They defeated an entire German artillery battery with swords drawn. The early death of their captain, collapsed bridges and orders to retreat did not stop them, they continued disrupting the Germans until they rested and realized that they had only a third of the men left from the start of their mission. Knowing that they would not be able to complete their duty, they turned back through German lines and took 15 prisoners and important information on German positions back with them. Lieutenant Harcus Strachand, who assumed control of the squadron after the death of the captain, was awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest award given to members in the armed forces, for valour and bravery in the face of the enemy. The rest of the cavalry rode back to the general headquarters to rest their horses and selves, having been of no use whatsoever.

-Tanks were not an ideal workspace. It was jittery and uncomfortable, and too heavy to operate properly. Eight men would work around an extremely hot engine that was prone to carbon monoxide leaks. More tanks broke down than were taken out by the enemy. The tanks did not work well in forests, a most unfortunate problem, seeing as Cambrai was just beyond the Bourlon Wood. They were slow, their highest speed not beating 4 The Germans figured out easily how to break the tanks by continually shooting at them with adequate artillery and by throwing multiple grenades near them. With this sort of assault, the tanks were quickly destroyed. Less than half the tanks that started out on the first day were usable the next.

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-After the first day, the British attack fell to pieces. Bourlon Wood was mostly overtaken by British, but the objective, Bourlon itself, was never reached. Fontaine was also held by the Germans, as General Harper once again left the infantry much too far behind the tanks. Airplanes, at first only used by the British for reconnaissance during the first three days, were brought in by the Germans, along with the fearsome Baron von Richthofen.=====

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-At Bourlon Wood, the British were left with a salient. The Germans exploited this, and eventually surrounded the three open points. They intended to gain back the lost Hindenburg Line by crushing the British, and they came extremely close. The next day, the British were shocked to wake up to Germans firing at them with artillery and throwing grenades. This was the strategy the German army had been working on, shock troops, now called Storm Troopers. On the other side of Cambrai, at Masnières, the Germans began to bombard and attack. The Newfoundland Regiment was ordered in front of the village, ordered to stop the German advance. The Regiment held off the Germans for 24 hours, however, they were ordered by General Byng (the commander of the Third Corps attacking Cambrai) to retreat. Along with recognition for a previous battle, the Newfoundland Regiment was given the title 'Royal', the only regiment in the British Army to receive such an honour during the war. Still, although Masnières was not held, it severely delayed the Germans, and so they could not capitalize on their stunning counterattack.=====



-The battle was abandoned on December 7, 1917, when heavy snow began to fall. Today, Cambrai is known as the first successful battle using tanks en masse. Germans got a hold of 50 run down British tanks, and they were able to get 30 of them back in running order. They would keep these in store for the first tank-against-tank battle. Cambrai showed the Germans the damage tanks could wreak, ruining everything from whole batteries to taking out barbed wire. While Cambrai ended in a stalemate, It was a magnificent "what could have been" and showed the British armed forces what properly used tanks could do. It also gave them a taste of the feared German Stormtroopers. In all, the Battle of Cambrai was a turning point in the framework of, not only the Great War, but all subsequent wars to this day.

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__**Interesting Links:**__ A link to a very good video about the Newfoundland Regiment at Masnières. -[]

The Newfoundland Regiment's part in the battle. -[]

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (author of the Sherlock Holmes stories) wrote an account of the battle at Cambrai. -[]

A simple overview of the battle. -[]

__**Questions**__ 1. What acts of heroism did Canadians accomplish during the battle of Cambrai? What were they awarded? 2. What was the Hindenburg Line? How did it affect the British plan to attack Cambrai? 3. How were tanks used in the Battle of Cambrai? What were their advantages? Their failings? 4. What did the German counterattack entail? What do you think was the better tactic between the German and British strategies and technologies used in this battle? 5. What were the effects of the Battle of Cambrai?

__**Sources:**__ "1914-1919." //The Fort Garry Horse//. Fort Garry Horse Foundation, 2010. Web. 24 Oct 2010. . Baker, Chris. "The Cambrai operations November-December 1917." //The Long, Long Trail//. Chris Baker, 2010. Web. 24 Oct 2010. -. "Cambrai 1917: The Trial of the Tanks." //Line of Fire//. History International: 2001. Television. 24 Oct 2010. Palmer, Peter J. "Cambrai 1917: The Myth of the Great Tank Battle." //The Western Front Association//. The Western Front Association, 31 -May 2009. Web. 24 Oct 2010. . Duffy, Michael. "The Battle of Cambrai, 1917." //First World War.com//. Michael Duffy, 22 August 2009. Web. 24 Oct 2010. -. Young, Peter. "Cambrai." //The Marshall Cavendish Illustrated Encyclopedia of World War I//. 8. New York: Cavendish, Marshall Corporation, -1985. Print.