104 years ago today the Battle of Cambrai was fought on the western front in France during World War I, marking the first mass use of tanks in battle. Though the British offensive thrust failed to reach their main objective, the battle did see tanks successfully break the deadlock of trench warfare.
A few takeaways:
Crewing a British Mark IV tank was absolutly miserable, between lack of suspension, lack of exhaust (carbon monoxide poisoning was common), hot exposed engines that crewmen could be tossed into at any time, and mechanical noise so loud that commands had to be given via signal flags or hand signals. It was still far preferable to attempting to charge out of trenches against machine guns over hundreds of yards of no man’s land.
Lead tanks pulled the huge thickets of barbed-wires away from the enemy lines using anchors.
Norman Margrave Dillon was the reconnaissance officer who picked the path out for the tanks. He lived to 1997!
“Every tank that was available to the Tank Corps attacked at once. There were no tanks in reserve.”
The tanks achieved their initial objectives and had to wait 15 minutes for the artillary barrage to lift.
The commander stopped then for a smoke break, only to find that all his troops were looting!
Flesquires Ridge is when the tanks finally ran into heavy enemy resistance. Their own infantry had fallen back due to exhaustion, and the tanks had to fall back because they were running low on fuel.
Another set of tanks reached their canal bridge objective just as the Germans blew it up.
Despite the failure to reach the main objective, the five miles the tank corp advanced was one of the largest western front successes up to that time, and the first successful attempt to breach the Hindenburg Line.
There weren’t enough infantry to exploit the success, and the cavalry were never ordered to exploit the breakthrough.
Half the tanks were out of action by the end of the first day.
Though the British Army was unable to exploit the initial success, Cambrai secured the future of the Tank Corps and gave the world its first glimpse of the potential effectiveness of mechanized warfare.
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