Katana VentraIP

Battle of Cambrai (1917)

The Battle of Cambrai (Battle of Cambrai, 1917, First Battle of Cambrai and Schlacht von Cambrai) was a British attack in the First World War, followed by the biggest German counter-attack against the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) since 1914. The town of Cambrai, in the département of Nord, in France, was an important supply centre for the German Siegfriedstellung (known to the British as the Hindenburg Line) and capture of the town and the nearby Bourlon Ridge would threaten the rear of the German line to the north. Major General Henry Tudor, Commander, Royal Artillery (CRA), of the 9th (Scottish) Division, advocated the use of new artillery-infantry tactics on his sector of the front. During preparations, J. F. C. Fuller, a staff officer with the Tank Corps, looked for places to use tanks for raids. General Julian Byng, commander of the Third Army, decided to combine both plans.[a] The French and British armies had used tanks en masse earlier in 1917, although to considerably less effect.[4]

Not to be confused with War of the League of Cambrai.

After a big British success on the first day, mechanical unreliability, German artillery and infantry defences exposed the frailties of the Mark IV tank. On the second day, only about half of the tanks were operational and British progress was limited. In the History of the Great War, the British official historian Wilfrid Miles and modern scholars do not place exclusive credit for the first day on tanks but discuss the concurrent evolution of artillery, infantry and tank methods.[5] Numerous developments since 1915 matured at Cambrai, such as predicted artillery fire, sound ranging, infantry infiltration tactics, infantry-tank co-ordination and close air support. The techniques of industrial warfare continued to develop and played a vital part during the Hundred Days Offensive in 1918, along with replacement of the Mark IV tank with improved types. The rapid reinforcement and defence of Bourlon Ridge by the Germans, as well as their counter-attack, were also notable achievements, which gave the Germans hope that an offensive strategy could end the war before American mobilisation became overwhelming.[6]

– the monument lists 7,048[46] missing soldiers of the United Kingdom and South Africa who died and have no known graves.[47]

Cambrai Memorial to the Missing

Flesquieres Hill British Cemetery – 900 servicemen were buried, one third unidentified.

[48]

Orival Wood Cemetery – 200 servicemen buried.

[48]

Hermies Hill British Cemetery – 1,000 servicemen buried.

[48]

Fasse, A. (2007). (PDF). Im Zeichen des "Tankdrachen". Die Kriegführung an der Westfront 1916–1918 im Spannungsverhältnis zwischen Einsatz eines neuartigen Kriegsmittels der Alliierten und deutschen Bemühungen um seine Bekämpfung [The "Tank Dragon": Warfare on the Western Front 1916–1918 and the Conflict Between a New Allied Weapon of War and German Efforts to Counter It] (PhD) (in German). Berlin: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. pp. 312–466. OCLC 724056938. Retrieved 12 January 2015.

"Chapter 9, 'From mud, through blood, to the green fields beyond'. Tanks and tank defence in the Battle at Cambrai, November–December, 1917"

Hammond, C. B. (2005). (pdf). University of Birmingham. OCLC 500192984. uk.bl.ethos.433696. Retrieved 14 January 2018.

The Theory and Practice of Tank Co-operation with other Arms on the Western Front during the First World War

Smithers, A. J. (2014) [1992]. Cambrai: The First Great Tank Battle. Barnsley: Pen & Sword.

U.S. Army Center of Military History: World War I Campaigns

The Cambrai Operations: 20 November to 7 December 1917 from the British Army in the Great War

the battlefield today

Map 1914–1918.net

Photos of the battlefield taken 89 years to the month of the 1917 battle

Lists of individual tanks and their actions at Cambrai