Line of Fire (29/41) : Cambrai "1917" - The Trail of the Tanks
For educational purposes
At Cambrai in November 1917, a tank force of over three hundred tanks punched a hole four miles deep into the German lines in the space of a single morning, an advance comparable in size to that made at Passchendale in four months.
But the Germans counterattacked and the result of the battle was a virtual draw, with the front lines shifting slightly.
However the battle of Cambrai marked a major turning point in the course of the war - and military history as a whole.
The era of trench warfare was coming to an end and technology was beginning to reign supreme on the battlefields of Europe.
At Cambrai in November 1917, a tank force of over three hundred tanks punched a hole four miles deep into the German lines in the space of a single morning, an advance comparable in size to that made at Passchendale in four months.
But the Germans counterattacked and the result of the battle was a virtual draw, with the front lines shifting slightly.
However the battle of Cambrai marked a major turning point in the course of the war - and military history as a whole.
The era of trench warfare was coming to an end and technology was beginning to reign supreme on the battlefields of Europe.
Transcript
00:00You
00:30You
00:55The 21st of November
00:581917
00:59Across the whole of Britain the church bells were ringing
01:03After three terrible years of the Great War there was at last a clear-cut victory
01:08fast emphatic and one at little cost
01:17The British Third Army had broken through the German line to a depth of five miles and taken 10,000 prisoners
01:30The
01:37Bells were also celebrating something more than what seemed to be the first victory in years
01:43The British had used a wholly new weapon of war and on a grand scale
01:50The bells were celebrating the triumph of the tank which had won its first battle
02:00You
02:05The tank proved to be a tremendous
02:09Psychological weapon they terrified the Germans for the first time because they were used in numbers
02:15The British Army was able to make the kind of penetrations what could have only have dreamed in the Battle of the Somme
02:22After two years of fighting both the soldiers on the Western Front and the population at large really needed a boost to their morale
02:30two years of trench deadlock
02:32huge casualties and huge sacrifices
02:35Meant that the tank gave a signal for hope the Battle of Cambrai was the beginning of that hope
02:42But then the attack ran out of steam
02:45Days of stalemate set in and then on the 30th of November just 10 days later
02:52The Germans delivered a stunning counter-attack
02:57The British lost 6,000 prisoners and all their gains from the first day
03:03Snow started to fall and the battle petered out a miserable and bitterly disappointing draw
03:09We
03:14Can ask the question is
03:16Battle of Cambrai was a success for the British
03:19I think that the Battle of Cambrai was a success of one day after the Battle of Cambrai was like all the other battle
03:28terrible
03:29disastrous and
03:30lost from everywhere
03:33Cambrai is one of the great might-have-beens of the First World War
03:37Each side won a great first day success
03:40But each side was unable to follow up and exploit that success
03:49It was an odd battle too odd that the British started it in the first place
03:55They had just ended a long and difficult war
03:58Started it in the first place
04:00They had just ended a long and exhausting battle at Passchendaele with over a quarter of a million casualties
04:07The whole army needed a rest not another offensive
04:13There were however urgent pressures on Douglas Haig the British commander-in-chief
04:19Only a few days earlier the Prime Minister David Lloyd George had publicly expressed his and the British cabinet's frustration
04:27Over Haig's apparently futile attacks at the Somme and Passchendaele
04:32Haig badly needed a victory to save his own position and the nation needed one, too
04:43Haig's career was on the line. He knew that Lloyd George was coming for him
04:48He needed a victory. I didn't have to be a big victory
04:52But it had to be a victory and where the church bells were rung throughout England
04:58The other pressure on Haig came from some of his officers who thought they now knew the formula for success
05:05And were desperate for an opportunity to try it out
05:08This was the element of surprise new artillery methods and tanks
05:17Surprise is always crucial for victory everyone knew that
05:21But for infantry now to penetrate the barbed wire and machine guns a week of artillery bombardment was necessary
05:28And this made surprise simply impossible
05:34By late 1917 however
05:36British gunners had learned how to fire accurately at targets straight from the map with no need for ranging shots
05:44The guns were pre-calibrated
05:46So if the batteries were secretly bought up at night and hidden from observation
05:51Complete surprise might be achieved when they opened fire
05:58This still left the barbed wire for a few hours of shelling would never cut it and
06:04The wire on the new Hindenburg line was from 50 to a hundred yards deep
06:11To counter this a new weapon had been developed the tank
06:20Weighing 28 tons these steel monsters could crush their way through the wire
06:28Under normal circumstances barbed wires no problem to a tank it simply drives into it and
06:34Under normal circumstances barbed wires no problem to a tank it simply drives into it and squashes it flat and
06:42Normally in doing so will leave a path
06:45Adequate at least for the infantry to follow they pick their way a bit lift their feet up
06:49But they can step across that without any trouble
06:52Their six-pounder cannon and Lewis guns were designed to destroy German machine gun nests which had previously
07:00decimated British attackers
07:03The gun is a 57 millimeter we would call it six pounder in the British Army
07:08They tended to use Nelsonian terms and talking about guns
07:11It was really intended in the first place for taking out what we would call hard targets
07:17That would be pillboxes enemy vehicles and that kind of thing
07:21The problem was there weren't any not really on the Combré front
07:24You could fire high explosive at machine gun positions and strong points that sort
07:29But since the real target was human beings the tanks with machine guns were actually far more valuable
07:39New artillery tactics in the tanks made surprise possible and these three together made victory possible
07:52Many people contributed to the development of the tank
07:56The single most influential person however was Winston Churchill
08:02What you're looking at here is the very first tank
08:06it's known as Little Willie, which apparently was an unkind name for the Kaiser and
08:13What makes it outstanding historically is that it was designed
08:18Under the auspices of the British Admiralty the army had nothing to do with this
08:22Winston Churchill first Lord of the Admiralty at the time
08:26Impatient with the way the war is going in France and convinced there's better ways of doing it
08:30Gets his people the director of naval construction and a team of inventors to come up with the solution
08:36And at the end of their period of doing this this is as far as they have got
08:42The prototype tanks and the original weapons were of course naval weapons
08:46They were they were pioneered by Churchill in the naval department. They were supposed to be
08:51landships, but very quickly the potential of these vehicle was
08:56Recognized by anyone who had a head on their shoulders and the army very quickly took control of them
09:04After conversations with many people concerned to break the trench deadlock the much improved
09:10Prototype became the model for the first production batch of tanks the mark one
09:16The actual configuration of the tank is designed to get the maximum possible cross-country performance irrespective of absolutely anything else
09:24So the tracks pass clear around the body
09:27In fact the body sandwiched between them rather than resting on top as it would be on a modern tank
09:32All of this for a top speed of about three miles an hour on a good day. So it's already crude
09:38But very very rugged
09:41Small
09:44Numbers of tanks entered the Battle of the Somme in September 1916 and
09:49More tried to surmount the mud of Passchendaele a year later in neither battle did they have much success?
09:59But by autumn 1917
10:02Enthusiasts in the tank corps were certain they knew why
10:05Tanks had to be used in large numbers on firm hard ground and if possible by surprise
10:15By late 1917 the tank enthusiasts were becoming more vocal
10:20Tanks had been around in numbers for over a year, but they had made no name for themselves
10:27In the tank corps plans for an attack therefore proliferated
10:32And when the Battle of Passchendaele was finally ended
10:35It was one of these for a large-scale tank raid near Cambrai that caught Haig's attention
10:44The tank corps had been given the opportunity to pick their ground
10:48The original plan had called for them to attack at Saint-Quentin on a minimal
10:54Operation get in cause damage get out
10:59The plan was modified then later on and in October of 1917 a
11:04plan that called for a
11:07Breakthrough this mythical breakthrough that we've been looking for since 1914 was going to be tried here again
11:14It was beefed up to become a major offensive
11:17It would rip open the German line allow the cavalry through to exploit the situation and force a big German retreat
11:26The Battle of Cambrai was really conceived out of Haig's desire to appease the brain politicians
11:33Who after the Somme battles in 1916, after Arras, after Passchendaele in 1917
11:41Really wanted a success that Haig it seemed couldn't actually deliver
11:46And so Haig devised the plan at Cambrai in order to try and get the Western Front moving again
11:56The area chosen for the attack was a five-mile stretch of rolling grass
12:01Downland to the south of the old Somme battlefield in front of German-occupied Cambrai
12:07The ground here was hard and there was no clutter from previous battles
12:12It was bordered on each side by two large canals running parallel to one another five to six miles apart
12:21Though the left-hand canal was dry they were both considerable obstacles and would secure the flanks of the operation
12:29German fixed defenses here were very strong being part of the newly completed Hindenburg system
12:36Three separate lines of trenches two to three miles apart were backed by a fourth in front of Cambrai
12:44The trenches were widened to 14 feet across at the top to make it impossible for tanks to cross them
12:53The German widening of trenches at Cambrai as part of the Hindenburg line
12:57The new anti-tank projectiles that the Germans had developed in the preceding year
13:03All actually revealed that the Germans thought that the tanks could have a massive impact on the battlefield
13:08Underneath us running here is the Canal du Nord at the time in 1917
13:18It's dry it's still under construction and we can see evidence behind of a spoil heap
13:27A spoil heap that the German engineers took great advantage of by turning it effectively into a large land-bound battleship if you will
13:36Having burrowed into it and tunneled within it they then peppered the front of it with concrete bunker systems
13:43With observation areas with trench lines that overlooked the main defensive line itself
13:50Looking out towards the area where the British army were going to attack from
13:55However the strength of these fixed defenses meant that the position was not strongly manned
14:03There were just three weak divisions resting in what the German army called the Flanders Sanatorium
14:09Supported by a mere 34 guns
14:15The British planned an attack with 474 tanks, 1003 guns and 7 infantry divisions
14:23With 5 more divisions of cavalry ready to exploit the breakthrough
14:29Having got the tanks and the infantry through into the German positions
14:33We would send the cavalry through like the hunt chasing off into the far distance
14:38And of course they couldn't bear the slightest bit of barbed wire
14:42So a number of tanks and these were specially trained units were equipped with these grapnel hooks
14:47Which they dragged around behind them and went through the wire and cut it
14:52And it is actually quite incredible
14:55The tanks would approach the wire in pairs
14:58They would drop the anchor as they went through it
15:01And it would pick up the strands of wire and drag them all together
15:06And it twisted the wire into a kind of immense and powerful cord
15:11It would snap and then as soon as they were through the two tanks would part company
15:16And still trailing the wire would set off in both directions
15:20Until they had cleared a patch of ground wide enough for a regiment of cavalry to ride through
15:28Because of the losses at Passchendaele the British had very few reserves at Cambrai
15:34Just three divisions and experience showed that fresh troops were constantly needed
15:39To maintain the momentum of an attack
15:43For the tanks there were no reserves available
15:47Everyone had to go in on the first day
15:55Shortage of troops also dictated an attack on a narrow frontage
16:00Just half that of the Somme
16:02And attacks on narrow frontages were easier to seal off
16:07And though the two canals would to some extent protect the flanks of the attack
16:12One or both would eventually have to be crossed to achieve a breakthrough
16:17And that meant capturing the bridges intact
16:29The choice of the battlefield of Cambrai was excellent
16:34The battlefield of Cambrai was excellent for different reasons
16:38One was the topography, very flat
16:41And also because the ground of Cambrai had not been disturbed by the artillery fire
16:45And another thing which was good
16:48It was in fact that the choice was well done
16:52Because there were two canals on both sides to cover the British advance
16:57One was the canal of the north
16:59The second one which was on the east is the canal of Saint-Quentin
17:04The canals did actually lend themselves to natural boundaries
17:08On the edges of the attacking front
17:11And what the generals tried to do therefore
17:13Because these are major obstacles in themselves
17:16Is put special divisions, first-rate attacking divisions
17:20In those areas to try and take them and mop them up
17:29Preparations for the attack were meticulous
17:32Planning officers in the area wore goggles and long coats to conceal their identity
17:38False rumours were spread
17:40And the tanks and guns were brought up by night
17:45In the days preceding the battle, great preparations were going on
17:50Thousands of rounds of artillery ammunition, soldiers
17:54All of the infrastructure needed to get these tanks forward
17:58At the very last minute, the tanks themselves were going to come into the battlefield
18:02They were going to come in at night
18:05Their engines on minimum revs
18:08And they were just allowed to cover 800 metres per hour
18:12Once in position, they were covered with canvas
18:15Which had been painted to look like brick and stonework
18:19And hidden away
18:22For the tanks alone, five million bullets
18:25Half a million rounds of six-pounder ammunition
18:28And over 200,000 gallons of petrol, oil and grease
18:32Was brought up and hidden
18:36Obsolete tanks, towing sledges
18:39Would resupply the attacking tanks on the battlefield itself
18:45To cross the trenches, each tank carried a six-foot thick
18:49Fascine, or bundle of brushwood
18:52Tightly bound with chains and weighing one-and-a-half tons
18:56The tanks were to advance in arrowhead groups of three
19:00And at each trench, the first would drop its bundle
19:03Providing a step across for all three
19:08For mutual protection, the attacking infantry
19:11Were strictly ordered to keep up with the tanks
19:15The tanks are there in case the infantry experience
19:18Heavy machine gun fire or riflemen in front of them
19:21And the infantry are there to protect the tanks
19:24When they come up against what we were going to find here
19:27On Fleckiers Ridge, some very determined German artillery units
19:36At twenty past six, on the morning of the 20th of November
19:40A thousand British guns suddenly opened fire
19:44It was completely unexpected, and the Germans were stupefied
19:48By the sudden avalanche of high explosive, gas and smoke
19:55And then, as they peered into the mist and dim pre-dawn light
19:59They saw hundreds of huge shapes lumbering slowly towards them
20:04Churning through the wire, machine guns flickering at their sides
20:14It was too much
20:17In their hundreds, the Germans surrendered
20:20The few who fought were killed as the tanks crossed
20:24And the British infantry swept out of the flattened wire
20:28To occupy the trenches
20:37By eight o'clock, as the sun was rising
20:40Tanks and troops paused to contemplate their amazing success
20:47For very few casualties, and with little trouble
20:50They now occupied the Hindenburg main line and its forward trenches
20:55They were now ready to go on to the third, or support line
20:59Which had to be broken to achieve the day's two key objectives
21:04On the left was Bourlon Wood and Ridge
21:07Which blocked the cavalry's exploitation of the breakthrough northwards
21:12On the right were the villages of Markoing and Masnier
21:16With two key bridges across the St. Quentin canal
21:20The capture of these bridges was vital to get the cavalry across the canal
21:25And into the enemy's rear areas on the other side of Cambrai
21:33By midday, they were almost there
21:36Through the third line at several points, and within three or four miles of Cambrai
21:41Where the French population rushed into the streets, expecting liberation
21:49The mere fact that the seemingly impregnable Hindenburg line
21:54Had actually been penetrated was almost a victory in itself
22:01The British tanks and infantry were working together
22:04The Germans were retreating, their high command still trying to work out what was happening
22:09But then, there came two disastrous command errors
22:16Here on Fleckiers Ridge, we're going to see
22:19Whilst the wider battle is advancing very successfully on either side of us
22:23A hold-up, and the only major hold-up, on the battle of Cambrai on the first day
22:30One of the British divisions on the centre-left of the advance
22:34Was the 51st Highland, commanded by General George Harper
22:39Harper had no time for tanks
22:42Consequently, he ordered his allocation of 70 tanks
22:46To attack in straight-forward line abreast
22:49With what he called his little fellas over 200 yards behind them
22:54General Harper's attitudes towards tank-infantry cooperation
22:58Wasn't really up-to-date, if you like, for the 1917 battlefield
23:03He was rather sceptical about what tanks could in fact achieve
23:07And he was fearful of actually placing his infantry in too close a support of the tanks
23:13Because the tanks drew fire
23:15He also allowed his troops to waste an hour when they took the Hindenburg line
23:20Instead of setting off again immediately
23:23The result was that when his force moved off to its next objective
23:27The village and low ridge of Fleckier
23:30The Germans had had time to put troops into the village and bring up artillery
23:37The story is that the tanks get through the wire OK
23:41The infantry are so far behind they can't find the gaps in the wire
23:44I wonder about that
23:45I mean, you can see where the tank has been, it leaves its mark
23:48So I can't believe they couldn't have followed the tracks
23:50The tanks then come over a ridge
23:52And one after the other they are shot to pieces by a German battery
23:58What is important to add is that during the 19th
24:03Because some British prisoners had been taken close from the wood of Avincourt
24:07Some of them mentioned about a tank attack in the area of Fleckier
24:11And this is where the Germans had their concentration of artillery
24:15And it was commanded by Lieutenant General Freiherr von Wattach
24:20And von Wattach had actually trained his gunners to deal with armour
24:27The British tanks, well in front of their supporting infantry
24:30Were then shot to pieces by these guns
24:34Repeated hits wrecked 16 tanks in 20 minutes
24:41After the tanks had been driven back
24:43The Highlanders tried to advance on the village
24:46But could make no progress
24:50And with the village still in German hands
24:53British troops to the left of the Highlanders
24:56Had to halt their advance on the critical feature of Bourlon Wood
25:00The gateway to Cambrai and the countryside beyond
25:04On the first day of the attack there were no Germans in the wood
25:08It was there for the taking
25:10But that night the Germans moved in
25:13And during five more days of bitter fighting
25:16The British would never completely capture it
25:28To an extent I think Harper has probably been used as something
25:32Of a scapegoat with regard to the Battle of Cambrai
25:36This was new technology after all
25:39And he was conscious of the very high casualties
25:42That could result of men in the open
25:45Exposed to high explosive shell fire
25:48So you certainly didn't want to have your men grouped too closely
25:51Around the tanks and of course history loves
25:54An easy to characterise villain of the peace
25:57And I'm afraid that in many respects Harper has probably become that
26:03Meanwhile a mistake of a different kind was occurring
26:06On the right of the battlefield
26:09By early afternoon British tanks had reached Markoing
26:13And its vital bridge across the canal
26:16And had occupied Masnières although the bridge here was blown
26:20The British however held several smaller footbridges over the locks
26:25As well as the large bridge at Markoing
26:28All that was needed was cavalry to get across
26:31And drive into the German rear lines
26:34But this did not happen
26:39General Cavanagh, the cavalry commander
26:41Had placed himself and his forces well behind the lines at Farn
26:46Here he had good communications back to his superior
26:50The 3rd Army commander General Bing
26:53But scant communications forward to the front
26:57As a consequence it was hours before he received news of the breakthrough
27:02By the time the cavalry got moving and approached the canal
27:05It was after 3 o'clock in the afternoon
27:08One squadron of Canadian horse, a mere 120 strong
27:13Did get across and rode off into the dusk
27:16The survivors got back to friendly lines the following day
27:20Having lost all their horses and two thirds of their men
27:24The remainder of the cavalry, 5 divisions of them
27:28Rode right back to their camp to water and feed the horses
27:33They had contributed nothing to the day's efforts
27:41If anyone had had the slightest inkling of what could have been achieved
27:46We would have had a completely different structure to the attack
27:50There would have been reserves moved up much more closely
27:54It came as a complete surprise that the German line was actually broken
28:01No one expected this to happen
28:03And it was at one level a squandered opportunity
28:09Meanwhile the troops and the generals digested their success
28:13They were able to contemplate a 5 mile advance on a front of 6 miles
28:18The Hindenburg line swept aside
28:21More than 6,000 prisoners taken, more killed and wounded
28:25And 3 German divisions mauled nearly to destruction
28:30The cost of 4,000 British casualties made this a triumph
28:34Even by great war standards
28:38The Germans didn't really have much opportunity initially
28:42To stop the British advance
28:44They relied very heavily on the Hindenburg line
28:47And indeed so strong was the Hindenburg line in that area
28:50That the Germans had relatively few troops deployed there
28:53To stop any potential British advance
28:56Another reason for the Germans not perhaps counterattacking
28:59Sooner in the Cambrai area
29:01Is that they relied very much on a system of defence in depth
29:04Allowing the Allies if you like
29:06To exhaust themselves against the Hindenburg line
29:09Giving the German time to if you like
29:12Deploy new reserves from other areas
29:20The night of the 20th of November
29:22Saw furious activity on both sides
29:25The Germans were combing Cambrai for any soldiers at all
29:29And hurrying them forward to improvised defences
29:33On the British side, troops were briefed for the next day
29:37While the tanks refuelled, rearmed and regrouped
29:41Of the 374 which had actually attacked
29:45Less than half were available for the following day
29:50The Germans were probably better prepared
29:53For the days after the 20th of November than the British
29:57Because the British had really put a great deal of emphasis
30:00Upon getting a result in the first 24 hours of the battle
30:04And of course although the tanks did make a breach
30:07They didn't break the German lines
30:09They didn't break the German army in the region of Cambrai
30:12As the British advanced they lost their element of surprise
30:16The lines of communication get longer
30:18And of course their troops become increasingly exhausted
30:24After the success of the first day
30:27The second was a disappointment
30:30British attacks went in at the two points
30:33Where they'd been previously checked
30:35On the left, the Highland Division found Fleckje
30:39Abandoned by the Germans
30:41But a line from Canting to Fontaine to Bourlon Wood and Village
30:46Was strongly held
30:48True to form, General Harper did not wait
30:51For the dozen tanks allocated to him
30:54But marched his troops out into the open
30:57Bagpipes playing at the front
30:59Where the tanks should have been
31:01Shellfire immediately drove the Highlanders to ground
31:05Where they remained until the tanks arrived
31:11In an hour, the Germans were pushed out of Canting
31:14And 400 prisoners were taken
31:17But that was the extent of the good news
31:19Tanks helped push the Germans back in Bourlon Wood
31:22But they could not penetrate into it
31:25And without their help, the infantry could make little progress
31:32The second British attack, on the right, around Masnières
31:36Also gained little ground
31:38The score of tanks allocated here arrived late
31:42And the German defences had been strengthened
31:45Their machine guns now had armour-piercing ammunition
31:49And though tanks could take a surprising number of bullet hits
31:52They could not survive indefinitely
31:57This armour will keep out small arms fire on a good day
32:02But as you can see by the damage here
32:05Anything larger, from a small calibre anti-tank type gun
32:10Up to a field gun, will simply smash its way through
32:14There is example, or spots here
32:16Showing where machine gun fire has spattered
32:18And certainly dented the plate but not gone through
32:21Here it is smashed through
32:22And some of these in fact can be followed through to the other side
32:25So you can actually look in one side of the tank and out the other
32:29The Germans had got over the shock of the previous day
32:32And had evolved methods of dealing with tank attacks
32:37When the second day of the Battle of Cambrai
32:40The 21st of November 1917
32:42Then the Germans, because they have heard about the massive tank attack
32:47They start to bring some piercing ammunition
32:50And some of these bullets is able to go through the armour plate of the tank
32:54But the best weapon they have used against the tanks
32:58Was what they call the Lasch-Kraftwagen Flak
33:02Which was in fact a field gun, 77mm field gun
33:07Which was mounted on lorries
33:09Or sometimes just on trailers pulled by horses
33:13The German theory was that you just fired at the damn things
33:16You fired everything you got at them
33:18You throw bricks at them if you like
33:20Because something might stop them
33:22And so you just loaded whatever was available into the gun and fired it
33:27Taking advantage of the poor visibility from within the tank
33:31Boulder troops also stalked them
33:34Throwing a sack of half a dozen grenades at a track to blow it off
33:39In addition, the tanks return fire was only accurate if it came to a complete stop
33:47When the tank is moving
33:49The amount of vibration coming up from the track
33:52Is such that you can't actually see anything at all through the sighting telescope
33:56And there's a slot here for the sighting telescope
33:58It would be an absolute waste of time
34:00You'd fire to make a noise and frighten people
34:03At Cambrai, more tanks broke down than were knocked out
34:08This was not surprising
34:09At 28 tons, the tank was really too heavy for its engine, transmission and suspension
34:17Unlike any modern vehicle where the engine has been completely separated from the crew
34:22Here, the eight men in the tank are working around the engine
34:26They're working in conditions that are almost primeval
34:30Terrifically high temperatures given off by the engine
34:33Because the exhaust pipes run straight up from the top of the engine out through the roof
34:38The noise levels are staggering
34:40So loud, in fact, that you can't hear someone shouting in your ear
34:44And the gaps between the metal plates are so badly put together
34:49That concentrated machine gun fire would literally splatter
34:53In tiny droplets of white hot lead through any gap that you could find
34:57The effect inside is suddenly in the darkness of the interior
35:00To see what appear to be hundreds of little sparklers flying about all over the place
35:04Very pretty, until of course they start stinging your face
35:07And then finally, there's the carbon monoxide
35:09The engine manifold will leak carbon monoxide as soon as it heats up
35:13And very soon, exhaust fumes are literally rolling through the tank
35:18After as little as four to five hours combat
35:21The crew of eight could be totally exhausted and violently sick
35:28A rule of thumb was that a day's combat would reduce available tanks by at least a half each day
35:34Quite apart from enemy action
35:36So after three days, virtually no tanks or crews would be combat worthy
35:42Though in a few days, the number would rise again
35:48On the evening of the second day, the 21st of November
35:52Field Marshal Haig therefore had a difficult decision to make
35:56His tank card had been played out
35:59And so had the element of surprise
36:02Was it worth going on?
36:05During the planning, he'd stipulated that he would review the battle after 48 hours
36:10And close it down if no progress was being made
36:14This sensible proviso was directed at the politicians in London
36:18There would be no repetition of the constant, futile attacks of the Somme and Passchendaele
36:27But how could he close the battle down after the triumphant bell ringing of the first day?
36:32Where was the long-anticipated breakthrough?
36:35Surely the German army had been weakened
36:38It had to be worth one more try
36:43To improve his chances, he would use fresh troops from the Third Army's slender reserves
36:49And he would attack in the only place that mattered, at Bourlon Wood
36:55The unprofitable attack on the right flank would be ended
37:00With the decision made, the next day, the 22nd, was taken up with preparations
37:06An artillery barrage was planned
37:09Fresh troops were marched up
37:11The tank park combed for runners and crews
37:15But there was an indication of German preparations too
37:18A hundred men of the C4th Highlanders had been left to hold Fontaine in a very exposed position
37:25They were cut off by a sudden German attack
37:28And their commander, George Harper once again, refused to send any help
37:33The position could easily be retaken tomorrow, he said
37:38The C4ths were wiped out
37:48The battle for Bourlon Wood and village raged for five days
37:52From the 23rd to the 27th of November
37:57On the first two days, the 40th Division
38:00Attacking in the centre and cooperating well with 20 to 30 tanks
38:05Managed to take the greater part of the wood
38:08It cost them dearly, however
38:10With 4,000 men lost in two days
38:16Aided by a few tanks, some of the division also worked around the wood
38:20To gain a foothold on the edge of the village
38:23But the tanks were too few
38:25And German fire too intense for them to hold on
38:29They were also compromised by the failure of the 36th Division on their left
38:33To make any progress along the Canal du Nord
38:36Which exposed them to fire on their flank and rear
38:41On the right, things went poorly too
38:44Harper's 51st Division failed to take Fontaine
38:48Once again staying so far behind their tanks
38:51That the latter, which actually entered the village
38:55Were driven out again for lack of infantry support
38:58Harper also unaccountably attacked with only two battalions
39:03Though he had four more available
39:06There's a great deal of historical debate
39:08As to whether Harper actually made the correct decision during this period
39:13But on the face of it, it's perhaps lucky that he did withhold some of his battalions
39:17Because at the end of the day, literally on the 27th in the evening
39:22They were going to be absolutely crucial in stopping the Germans
39:25As they pushed back towards Havrincourt Wood
39:29The elite Guards Division replaced the battle-weary Scots
39:33And on the 27th, probably the most desperate fighting
39:37Of the whole Cambrai battle took place in Fontaine
39:40As the Guards tried to eject nine German battalions holding the village
39:46By the 27th of November, it was evident that the British could not win the battle
39:52The Germans now had seven divisions along an eight-mile front
39:56In the Fontaine-Boulogne-Wood-Canal-du-Nord area
40:00With more coming
40:02Their artillery had reduced Boulogne-Wood to splinters of timber
40:06In the air too, the British were losing
40:09The Royal Flying Corps had performed a decisive battle
40:13The Royal Flying Corps had performed a valuable service
40:16Strafing German positions at the beginning of the attack
40:19But on the 23rd of November
40:21Baron von Richthofen's formidable circus arrived from Flanders
40:25And the RFC lost its control of the air
40:28Despite doubling the strength of its patrols
40:35But if the British, having failed to breach the Fontaine-Boulogne line
40:39Were willing to let the first snows mark the end of the battle
40:43The Germans had no such intention
40:47At a conference held on the 27th of November
40:50The local German commanders outlined their counter-attack plan
40:54To a very angry Ludendorff
41:00It began the next day
41:02With three divisions applying pressure
41:04On the northern Fontaine-Boulogne section of the British line
41:08The British held on
41:10But what came as a complete surprise
41:12At least to Bing at 3rd Army and Haig at GHQ
41:16Was the German blow at 6am on the 30th of November
41:20Seven divisions struck at the base of the British salient in the south-east
41:25Their intention was to slice north-westwards
41:29To link up with the northern attack forces
41:31Cutting off and destroying all British forces in the salient
41:36And recapturing most of the lost Hindenburg line
41:41They very nearly succeeded in their objective
41:47After their advance on the 20th
41:49The British had done little to fortify their new positions
41:53British divisional commanders along the St. Quentin Canal line
41:57Had observed unusual enemy activity and reported it
42:01But High Command believed the Germans to be exhausted
42:05And quite lacking in fresh troops for an attack
42:09After any successful action
42:11The first thing that troops should do
42:13Is get their spades out and consolidate their positions and dig in
42:16It's the hardest thing in the world to make victorious troops do this
42:21And there are a number of very good reasons for this
42:23They're tired
42:25The adrenaline has been pumping through them
42:27And they're utterly exhausted
42:29And this is why all armies have reserves
42:31The idea is that you move the reserves through as quickly as you possibly can
42:34And you relieve the assorting troops
42:36And it's the reserves who then consolidate the position
42:39Now at Cambrai, it was very difficult getting the reserves through
42:49The German attacks stunned the British
42:51Much as the British had stunned them on the first day
42:56Preceded by gas, high explosives and strafing aircraft
43:00Fast-moving groups of stormtroopers
43:02With grenades, submachine guns and flamethrowers
43:05Swept through the British lines
43:07And were nearly halfway to their objective
43:10By 9am of the first day
43:19The tank is not the ideal weapon for the defence
43:22So this whole battle had really been structured
43:25As an offensive attack
43:27The British forces were simply not geared to fight a defensive battle
43:32So when the German counter-attack finally does fall
43:36And it's a very well-constructed counter-attack
43:39They're not really in a position to be able to resist as effectively as they might have been
43:45Despite the confusion, the British command structure
43:48Responded with commendable speed and efficiency
43:51By early afternoon, two reserve divisions
43:54And the dismounted cavalry
43:56Were fighting to retake the key village of Guzokor
44:00The tank corps, on its own initiative
44:03Had scraped together 63 machines
44:06And in the best military tradition
44:08Sent them off towards the sound of guns
44:15Having gained 3 to 4 miles
44:17And taken more than 4,000 prisoners
44:20The Germans planned to renew their attack next day
44:23The 1st of December
44:25Six divisions were to strike again in the east
44:28And on the British right
44:30The blow was planned for 9.30am
44:33But the British seized the initiative
44:36Attacking two hours earlier
44:38Led by 16 tanks
44:40The Guards division stifled the principal German attack
44:44And though the British lost Mazniere
44:47And could not hold on to Villers-Guylaine
44:49After the tanks had taken it
44:51By the end of the day
44:53The Germans, like the British
44:55Had failed to build on their brilliant first day's success
44:59Fighting continued for several more days
45:02Particularly in the Boulogne area
45:05But by the 7th of December
45:07Heavy snow persuaded both sides
45:09To abandon the battle
45:12The Battle of Cambrai
45:20Cambrai is remembered today
45:22As the first tank battle in history
45:25It was not the first tank versus tank battle
45:28Because in 1917
45:30The German army had no tanks
45:32Believing them to be a waste of time
45:35Cambrai proved them wrong
45:38One of the other final results of the Battle of Cambrai
45:43That the Germans have in their hands
45:46A great number of the British abandoned tanks
45:51And for the first time
45:53They are able to start to collect them
45:5550 of the 100 tanks in German hands
46:00Will be put on train and then drove to Charleroi
46:03And with the 50 tanks
46:05They are going to make a small 30 in running condition
46:11Cambrai showed that properly used
46:13Tanks could crush barbed wire
46:15Cross trenches
46:17Destroy machine gun nests
46:19And knock out pillboxes
46:21Tanks could dramatically reduce infantry casualties
46:24And give assault troops greater confidence
46:31The Battle of Cambrai, however
46:33Also demonstrated the tank's limitations and weaknesses
46:37They could not operate in woods, for instance
46:40And in the close environment of a town
46:42They required infantry support
46:45They needed protection from artillery
46:48And from stalking parties of infantry
46:51They were too slow
46:52Too unreliable mechanically
46:54And too exhausting for their crews
46:58Two-thirds of the 474 tanks used in the Battle of Cambrai
47:03Became total losses
47:05And the Corps lost 1,153 men
47:09From a total of 4,000
47:14The tank, by that stage in the war
47:17Really wasn't a breakthrough and pursuit weapon
47:20It was only with faster, lighter tanks
47:24Such as the tanks that the French were developing
47:26That would allow breakthrough and pursuit
47:29And really bring a war to an end by mobile means
47:34In retrospect, I think the generals were quite clear
47:37That this was a transitional battle
47:39They were, if you like, training for the great battles
47:42That were going to take place, undoubtedly, in the next year
47:46They hoped to refine their fighting techniques
47:48Find out a little bit more about all-arms cooperation
47:51Find out now what the tank could do
47:54Against the strong Hindenburg line
47:58Cambrai does change the face of war
48:01But it is at the level of mythology
48:04It is what people believed might have been possible
48:08Which actually gives them the political power
48:11To enable them to persuade their governments
48:14To experiment with new types of formations
48:17With armour divisions, tank armies, and so on
48:21Tanks played an intermittent, but at times vital part
48:25In the victorious Allied campaign of 1918
48:28Particularly at Amiens on the 8th of August
48:31The black day of the German army
48:34British tank units everywhere, however
48:37Still celebrate the 20th of November 1917
48:40The anniversary when the men who bravely volunteered
48:44To try a new and unproven weapon of war
48:47Are remembered
49:20The Black Day of the German Army