Battle Of Cambrai (1917)
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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 World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, 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 German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...
(known to the British as the
Hindenburg Line The Hindenburg Line (German: , Siegfried Position) was a German defensive position built during the winter of 1916–1917 on the Western Front during the First World War. The line ran from Arras to Laffaux, near Soissons on the Aisne. In 1916 ...
) and capture of the town and the nearby Bourlon Ridge would threaten the rear of the German line to the north.
Major General Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of a ...
Henry Tudor,
Commander, Royal Artillery {{Redirect, BGRA, colour format, RGBA color model Commander, Royal Artillery (CRA) was a military appointment in Commonwealth infantry and armoured divisions in the 20th century. The CRA was the senior artillery officer in the division and commanded ...
(CRA), of the
9th (Scottish) Division The 9th (Scottish) Division, was an infantry division of the British Army during the First World War, one of the Kitchener's Army divisions raised from volunteers by Lord Kitchener to serve on the Western Front during the First World War. A ...
, advocated the use of new artillery-infantry tactics on his sector of the front. During preparations,
J. F. C. Fuller Major-General John Frederick Charles "Boney" Fuller (1 September 1878 – 10 February 1966) was a senior British Army officer, military historian, and strategist, known as an early theorist of modern armoured warfare, including categorising p ...
, a staff officer with the
Tank Corps An armoured corps (also mechanized corps or tank corps) is a specialized military organization whose role is to conduct armoured warfare. The units belonging to an armoured corps include military staff, and are equipped with tanks and other armo ...
, looked for places to use tanks for raids.
General A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of highest military ranks, high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry. In some usages the term "general officer" refers t ...
Julian Byng Field Marshal Julian Hedworth George Byng, 1st Viscount Byng of Vimy, (11 September 1862 – 6 June 1935) was a British Army officer who served as Governor General of Canada, the 12th since the Canadian Confederation. Known to friends as "Bun ...
, commander of the Third Army, decided to combine both plans. The French and British armies had used tanks en masse earlier in 1917, although to considerably less effect. After a big British success on the first day, mechanical unreliability, German artillery and infantry defences exposed the frailties of the
Mark IV tank The Mark IV (pronounced ''Mark four'') was a British tank of the First World War. Introduced in 1917, it benefited from significant developments of the Mark I tank (the intervening designs being small batches used for training). The main impro ...
. 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 ''History of the Great War Based on Official Documents by Direction of the Committee of Imperial Defence'' (abbreviated to ''History of the Great War'' or ''British Official History'') is a series of concerning the war effort of the Britis ...
'', 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. Numerous developments since 1915 matured at Cambrai, such as predicted artillery fire,
sound ranging In land warfare, artillery sound ranging is a method of determining the coordinates of a hostile battery using data derived from the sound of its guns (or mortar or rockets) firing. The same methods can also be used to direct artillery fire at a ...
, infantry infiltration tactics, infantry-tank co-ordination and
close air support In military tactics, close air support (CAS) is defined as air action such as air strikes by fixed or rotary-winged aircraft against hostile targets near friendly forces and require detailed integration of each air mission with fire and moveme ...
. 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.


Prelude


British plan

Proposals for an operation in the Cambrai area using a large number of tanks originated from Brigadier
Hugh Elles Lieutenant General Sir Hugh Jamieson Elles (27 May 1880 – 11 July 1945) was a British officer and the first commander of the newly formed Tank Corps during the First World War. Early life Born in British India on 27 May 1880, Hugh Jamieson E ...
of the Tank Corps, and the reliance on the secret transfer of artillery reinforcements to be "silently registered" to gain surprise came from
Henry Hugh Tudor Lieutenant-General Sir Henry Hugh Tudor, KCB, CMG (14 March 1871 – 25 September 1965) was a British soldier who fought as a junior officer in the Second Boer War (1899–1902), and as a senior officer in the First World War (1914–18), b ...
, commander of the 9th (Scottish) infantry division artillery. In August 1917, Tudor conceived the idea of a surprise attack in the IV Corps sector, he suggested a primarily artillery-infantry attack, which would be supported by a small number of tanks, to secure a breakthrough of the German Hindenburg Line. The German defences were formidable; Cambrai, was a quiet front and the Germans had built an elaborate defence in depth. Tudor's plan sought to test new methods in
combined arms Combined arms is an approach to warfare War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme vio ...
, with emphasis on joint artillery and infantry tactics to see how effective they were against German fortifications. Tudor advocated using the new
sound ranging In land warfare, artillery sound ranging is a method of determining the coordinates of a hostile battery using data derived from the sound of its guns (or mortar or rockets) firing. The same methods can also be used to direct artillery fire at a ...
and silent registration of guns to achieve instant suppression fire and surprise. He also wanted to use tanks to clear paths through the deep barbed wire obstacles in front of German positions, while supporting the tank force with the No. 106 Fuze, designed to detonate high explosive (HE) ammunition without cratering the ground, to supplement the armour.


Air support

Two weeks before the start of the battle, the
Royal Flying Corps "Through Adversity to the Stars" , colors = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = , decorations ...
(RFC) began to train its pilots in ground-attack tactics. Before the ground offensive, the RFC was assigned sets of targets to attack, including trenches, supply points and enemy airfields.


Battle


Third Army

The battle began at dawn, approximately 06:30 on 20 November, with a predicted bombardment by on German defences, followed by smoke and a creeping barrage at ahead to cover the first advances. Despite efforts to preserve secrecy, the Germans had received sufficient intelligence to be on moderate alert: an attack on Havrincourt was anticipated, as was the use of tanks. The attacking force was six infantry divisions of the III Corps (Lieutenant-General Pulteney) on the right and IV Corps (Lieutenant-General
Charles Woollcombe Lieutenant General Sir Charles Louis Woollcombe (23 March 1857 – 6 May 1934) was a British Army General during World War I. Early life and education Woollcombe was born in Devon, the eldest son of Rev. Louis Woollcombe, Rector of Petrocksto ...
) on the left, supported by nine battalions of the Tank Corps with about In reserve was one infantry division in IV Corps and the three divisions of the Cavalry Corps (Lieutenant-General
Charles Kavanagh Lieutenant General Sir Charles Toler MacMorrough Kavanagh, (25 March 1864 – 11 October 1950) was a British Army officer who commanded the Cavalry Corps at the Battle of Amiens. Military career Born the son of Arthur MacMorrough Kavanagh, ...
). Initially, there was considerable success in most areas and it seemed as if a great victory was within reach; the Hindenburg Line had been penetrated with advances of up to . On the right, the
12th (Eastern) Division The 12th (Eastern) Division was an infantry division raised by the British Army during the First World War from men volunteering for Kitchener's New Armies. The division saw service in the trenches of the Western Front from June 1915 to the e ...
advanced as far as Lateau Wood before being ordered to dig in. The 20th (Light) Division forced a way through La Vacquerie and then advanced to capture a bridge across the
Canal de Saint-Quentin The Canal de Saint-Quentin () is a canal in northern France connecting the canalised river Escaut in Cambrai to the Canal latéral à l'Oise and Canal de l'Oise à l'Aisne in Chauny. History The canal was built in two phases, the second much lo ...
at
Masnières Masnières () is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. Heraldry History Masnières figured into the 1917 Battle of Cambrai during which time it was briefly captured by the British on the first day of the battle, November 20, an ...
. The bridge collapsed under the weight of a tank halting the hopes for an advance across the canal. In the centre the 6th Division captured Ribécourt and Marcoing but when the cavalry passed through late, they were repulsed from Noyelles. On the IV Corps front, the 51st (Highland) Division (Major-General George Harper) was held at Flesquières, its first objective, which left the attacking divisions on each flank exposed to enfilade fire. Harper had used a local variation of the tank drill instead of the standard one laid down by the Tank Corps. Flesquières was one of the most fortified points in the German line and was flanked by other strong points. Its defenders under Major Krebs acquitted themselves well against the tanks, almost forty being knocked out by the artillery in the vicinity. The Lone gunner of Flesquières (a common explanation of the "mythical" German officer) ignored the fact that the British tanks were opposed by a specialist anti-tank unit benefiting from the experience against French tanks in the Nivelle Offensive. The Germans abandoned Flesquières during the night. To the west of Flesquières, the
62nd (2nd West Riding) Division The 62nd (2nd West Riding) Division was an infantry division of the British Army that saw active service on the Western Front during the First World War. History During the First World War the division fought on the Western Front at Bulle ...
swept all the way through Havrincourt and Graincourt to within reach of the woods on Bourlon Ridge and on the British left, the 36th Division reached the Bapaume–Cambrai road. Of the tanks, 180 were out of action after the first day, although only been destroyed. Of the other casualties, 71 had suffered mechanical failure and 43 had ditched. The British lost and took a casualty rate half that of the
Third Battle of Ypres The Third Battle of Ypres (german: link=no, Dritte Flandernschlacht; french: link=no, Troisième Bataille des Flandres; nl, Derde Slag om Ieper), also known as the Battle of Passchendaele (), was a campaign of the First World War, fought by t ...
(Passchendaele) and a greater advance in six hours than in three months at Flanders but the British had failed to reach Bourlon Ridge. The German command was quick to send reinforcements and was relieved that the British did not manage fully to exploit their early gains. When the battle was renewed on 21 November, the pace of the British advance was greatly slowed. Flesquières, that had been abandoned and Cantaing were captured in the very early morning but in general the British took to consolidating their gains rather than expanding. The attacks by III Corps were terminated and attention was turned to IV Corps. The effort was aimed at Bourlon Ridge. Fighting was fierce around Bourlon and at Anneux (just before the woods) was costly. German counter-attacks squeezed the British out of Moeuvres on 21 November and Fontaine on 22 November; when Anneux was taken, the 62nd Division found themselves unable to enter Bourlon Wood. The British were left exposed in a salient. Haig still wanted Bourlon Ridge and the exhausted 62nd Division was replaced by the 40th Division (Major-General John Ponsonby) on 23 November. Supported by almost and , the 40th Division attacked into the woods of Bourlon Ridge on the morning of 23 November and made little progress. The Germans had put two divisions of on the ridge with another two in reserve and was reinforced. The 40th Division attack reached the crest of the ridge but were held there and suffered more than in three days. More British troops were pushed in to move beyond the woods but the British reserves were rapidly depleted and more German reinforcements were arriving. The final British effort was on 27 November by the 62nd Division aided by Early success was soon reversed by a German counter-attack. The British now held a salient roughly with its front along the crest of the ridge. On 28 November, the offensive was stopped and the British troops were ordered to lay wire and dig in. The Germans were quick to concentrate their artillery on the new British positions. On 28 November, more than were fired into the wood.


German 2nd Army

As the British took the ridge, German reinforcements began to arrive. By 23 November, the German command felt that a British breakthrough had been prevented and began to consider a counter-stroke and twenty divisions were assembled in the Cambrai area. The Germans planned to retake the Bourlon salient and also to attack around Havrincourt, with diversionary attacks to hold IV Corps; it was hoped to at least reach the old positions on the Hindenburg Line. The Germans intended to employ the new tactics of a short, intense period of shelling followed by a rapid assault using '' Hutier'' infiltration tactics, leading elements attacking in groups rather than waves and bypassing strong opposition. Three divisions of (
Otto von Moser Otto von Moser (31 March 1860 – 11 October 1931) was a German army officer, originally from Stuttgart in Württemberg, who ended his army career as a lieutenant general. After the First World War he settled at Isny im Allgäu, near the frontier ...
) were to conduct the initial assault at Bourlon. On the eastern flank of the British salient, was to attack from Bantouzelle to Rumilly to capture Marcoing. advanced from Banteux. The two had seven infantry divisions. British VII Corps (Lieutenant-General Thomas Snow), to the south of the threatened area, warned III Corps of German preparations. The German attack began at on 30 November; almost immediately, the majority of III Corps divisions were heavily engaged. The German infantry advance in the south was unexpectedly swift. The commanders of the
12th (Eastern) Division The 12th (Eastern) Division was an infantry division raised by the British Army during the First World War from men volunteering for Kitchener's New Armies. The division saw service in the trenches of the Western Front from June 1915 to the e ...
and 29th Division were almost captured, with Brigadier-General
Berkeley Vincent Brigadier-General Sir Berkeley Vincent, (4 December 1871 – 29 January 1963) was a British Army officer and sportsman. Military career Educated at Wellington College and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, Vincent was commissioned into ...
having to fight his way out of his headquarters and grab men from retreating units to try to halt the Germans. In the south, the German advance spread across and came within a few miles of the village of Metz and its link to Bourlon. At Bourlon, the Germans suffered many casualties. British units displayed reckless determination; one group of eight British machine-guns fired over against the German advance. The concentration of British effort to hold the ridge was effective but allowed the German advance elsewhere greater opportunity. Only counter-attacks by the Guards Division, the arrival of British tanks and the fall of night allowed the line to be held. By the following day, the impetus of the German advance was lost but pressure on 3 December led to the German capture of La Vacquerie and a British withdrawal on the east bank of the St Quentin canal. The Germans had reached a line curving from Quentin Ridge to near Marcoing. The German capture of Bonavis ridge made the British hold on Bourlon precarious. On 3 December, Haig ordered a partial retreat from the north salient and by 7 December, the British gains were abandoned except for a portion of the Hindenburg line around Havrincourt, Ribécourt and Flesquières. The Germans had exchanged this territorial loss for a slightly smaller sector to the south of Welsh Ridge.


Aftermath


Analysis

The first day of success was greeted in Britain by the ringing of church bells. The massed use of tanks, despite being a further increase on previous deployments, was not entirely new but the success of the attack and the resulting Allied press enthusiasm, including in the United States, were unprecedented. The particular effectiveness of the tanks at Cambrai was the initial passage through barbed wire defences, which had been previously "supposed by the Germans to be impregnable". The initial British success showed that even the strongest trench defences could be overcome by a surprise attack, using a combination of new methods and equipment, reflecting a general increase in the British capacity to combine infantry, artillery, tanks and aircraft in attacks. The German revival after the shock of the British attack improved German morale but the potential for similar attacks meant that the Germans had to divert resources to anti-tank defences and weapons, an extra demand that the Germans could ill afford to meet, The German counter-attack showed the effectiveness of artillery, trench mortars and evolving stormtrooper tactics, adopted from a pattern introduced by General Hutier against the Russians. From the German perspective, questions arose regarding battlefield
supply Supply may refer to: *The amount of a resource that is available **Supply (economics), the amount of a product which is available to customers **Materiel, the goods and equipment for a military unit to fulfill its mission *Supply, as in confidenc ...
beyond railheads and the suitability of the
MG 08 The ''Maschinengewehr'' 08, or MG 08, was the German Army's standard machine gun in World War I and is an adaptation of Hiram S. Maxim's original 1884 Maxim gun. It was produced in a number of variants during the war. The MG 08 served during Wo ...
machine gun A machine gun is a fully automatic, rifled autoloading firearm designed for sustained direct fire with rifle cartridges. Other automatic firearms such as automatic shotguns and automatic rifles (including assault rifles and battle rifles) a ...
for rapid movement. By the end of the battle, the British retained some of the ground captured in the north and the Germans a smaller amount taken in the south. The British conducted several investigations, including a Court of Enquiry.


Casualties

According to the Statistics of the Military Effort of the British Empire during the Great War, British forces in the period of the Battle of Cambrai suffered 75,681 casualties, 10,042 killed or died of wounds, 48,702 wounded and 16,987 missing or prisoners of war. Nearly 180 tanks were destroyed. According to the German Army Medical report in the World War 1914–1918 German forces suffered 54,720 casualties at Cambrai, 8,817 killed and died of wounds, 22,931 wounded and 22,972 missing and prisoners of war. The British recorded casualties on the basis of a daily head count and the Germans counted the number of patients in hospital every ten days, which omitted lightly wounded, expected to return to service in a few days, not evacuated from the corps area.


Memorials and cemeteries

The Battle of Cambrai is commemorated annually by the Royal Tank Regiment on Cambrai day, a major event in the regiment's calendar. The contributions of the
Newfoundland Regiment The Royal Newfoundland Regiment (R NFLD R) is a Primary Reserve infantry regiment of the Canadian Army. It is part of the 5th Canadian Division's 37 Canadian Brigade Group. Predecessor units trace their origins to 1795, and since 1949 Royal New ...
at the 1917 Battle of Cambrai are remembered in the village of Masnières at the
Masnières Newfoundland Memorial The Masnières Newfoundland Memorial is a Dominion of Newfoundland war memorial that commemorates the actions of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment during the First Battle of Cambrai, of World War I. Located at the north end of the town of Masnià ...
. Cambrai Day is also celebrated by 2nd Lancers (GH) of the Indian Army on 1 December every year as Lance Dafadar
Gobind Singh Guru Gobind Singh (; 22 December 1666 – 7 October 1708), born Gobind Das or Gobind Rai the tenth Sikh Guru, a spiritual master, warrior, poet and philosopher. When his father, Guru Tegh Bahadur, was executed by Aurangzeb, Guru Gobind Sing ...
of that unit was awarded the Victoria Cross during this battle. The name Cambrai was chosen in 1917 as the new name for the South Australian town of Rhine Villa, one of many
Australian place names changed from German names During World War I, many German or German-sounding place names in Australia were changed due to anti-German sentiment. The presence of German-derived place names was seen as an affront to the war effort at the time. The names were often change ...
during the First World War. During the
Remilitarization of the Rhineland The remilitarization of the Rhineland () began on 7 March 1936, when German military forces entered the Rhineland, which directly contravened the Treaty of Versailles and the Locarno Treaties. Neither France nor Britain was prepared for a milit ...
in the late 1930s, Germany named a newly built
Kaserne ''Kaserne'' is a loanword taken from the German word ' (plural: '), which means "barracks". It is the typical term used when naming the garrison location for American and Canadian forces stationed in Germany. American forces were also sometimes hou ...
in
Darmstadt Darmstadt () is a city in the States of Germany, state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Area, Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it th ...
after the battle, which was later merged with the nearby Freiherr von Fritsch Kaserne to become Cambrai-Fritsch Kaserne. The
United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...
occupied Cambrai-Fritsch Kaserne from the end of
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
until 2008, when the land was returned to the German government.


British burial sites

The
Commonwealth War Graves Commission The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of Commonwealth of Nations mil ...
has four Memorials with the names or remains of 9,100 Commonwealth servicemen dead during the Battle of Cambrai: * Cambrai Memorial to the Missing - the monument lists 7,048 missing soldiers of the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
and
South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
who died and have no known graves. * Flesquieres Hill British Cemetery - 900 servicemen were buried, one third unidentified. * Orival Wood Cemetery - 200 servicemen buried. * Hermies Hill British Cemetery - 1,000 servicemen buried.


German burial sites

The German War Cemetery on the Route de Solesmes was established before the offensive in May 1917, currently it accommodates the remains of 10,685 German and 501 British soldiers.


Notes


References


Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * *


Further reading

* * *


External links


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



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
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cambrai, Battle Of, (1917) Conflicts in 1917 Battle of Cambrai Battles of the Western Front (World War I)
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) sinc ...
Battles of World War I involving Newfoundland Battles of World War I involving the United Kingdom Battles of World War I involving the United States Battles of World War I involving Germany Battle honours of the Rifle Brigade Battle honours of the King's Royal Rifle Corps
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) sinc ...
November 1917 events December 1917 events Tank battles involving France Tank battles involving Germany Tank battles involving the United Kingdom Tank battles involving the United States Tank battles of World War I