V

The next day (November 21) saw composite companies of Tanks fighting in co-operation with new infantry.

But though the infantry was new, it was unfortunately not fresh. Sir Julian Byng had no rested troops at all at his disposal. It may be said that the whole of the subsequent history of the battle and its sequel hinges upon these two points. All our infantry was weary in the extreme, and most of it had never co-operated with Tanks before.

Consequently many strong points, though they were finally captured, gave us more trouble than they should.

On the 21st, Tanks attacked several villages and strong points with success.

Thirteen Tanks of “B” (2nd) Battalion surrounded the village of Cantaing. They met with a stubborn resistance as they closed in upon it. To this they replied vigorously with machine-gun and 6-pounder fire, and by noon the enemy had been driven out.

Two Tanks also, of “B” Battalion, were sent for by the infantry, who were held up by heavy machine-gun fire outside Noyelles. In half an hour they succeeded in crushing all resistance, setting fire to an ammunition dump and patrolling the village till the infantry took over.

Neither Tank was in the least hurt, and there were no casualties among the crews.

Twelve Tanks of “H” (8th) Battalion received orders soon after 8 a.m. to attack Fontaine-Notre-Dame.

The village was six miles distant, and the Tanks came in for severe fighting on the way there.

They reached their objective at about 4.30. By 5.30 they had captured it and were withdrawn after handing it over to the infantry.

But next day a furious German counter-attack dislodged our garrison.

We were determined to possess it, and on the 23rd attacked again in force.

The enemy was prepared, and a desperate battle ensued among the houses. Twenty-four Tanks from “B” and “H” Battalions had entered the village first, whereupon the enemy retired to the tops of the houses and rained down bombs and bullets upon the roofs of the machines.

The Germans were in force, and in the narrow streets it was difficult for the Tanks to bring an effective fire to bear upon them.

The infantry was too weary to clear the place, and after patrolling the streets the Tanks withdrew, as soon as darkness covered their retreat.

On the same day thirty-four Tanks of the 1st Brigade supported a brilliant attack made by the 40th Division upon Bourlon Wood. The wood was captured after a sharp struggle. The Tanks then pressed on towards the village, but as at Fontaine, the infantry, who had suffered severe casualties in the taking of the wood, was too exhausted to follow up.

On November 25 and 26 we renewed our attack upon Fontaine-Notre-Dame and again tried to capture Bourlon Village.

In the end, however, both these important points remained in enemy hands.

A week had now elapsed since the launching of the battle.

According to the original scheme, the action should not have been continued for more than three days, but in spite of our original “Self-Denying Ordinance” as to ground, when desirable posts of vantage were actually in our hands, we had fallen a prey to “land hunger,” and had still fought on and continued to advance in order to consolidate these new and delightful possessions.

But now we held the extremely important tactical point formed by the heights of Bourlon Wood, and it was plain that to take Fontaine and Bourlon Village would cost us more than they were worth to us.

We had done all and more than all we set out to do. The troops urgently needed resting. They had had no proper rest before the battle, and now despite their sense of victory they were extraordinarily spent.

The Tanks’ crews, too, were almost fought to a standstill, and owing to the constant daily necessity there had been for hurrying composite companies into action, their units had become inconveniently disorganised.

So on November 27 we rested from our labours and counted the spoil.

[46]“Whatever may be the future historian’s dictum as to its value, the First Battle of Cambrai must always rank as one of the most remarkable battles ever fought. On November 20, from a base of some 13,000 yards in width, a penetration of no less than 10,000 yards was effected in twelve hours (at the Third Battle of Ypres a similar penetration took three months), 8000 prisoners and 100 guns were captured, and these prisoners alone were nearly double the casualties suffered by the 3rd and 4th Armies during the first day of the battle. It is an interesting point to remember that in this battle the attacking infantry were assisted by 690 officers and 3500 other ranks of the Tank Corps, a little over 4000 men, or the strength of a strong brigade, and that these men replaced artillery for wire-cutting, and rendered unnecessary the old preliminary bombardment. More than this, by keeping close to the infantry, they effected a much higher co-operation than had ever before been attainable with artillery. When on November 21 the bells of London pealed forth in celebration of the victory of Cambrai, consciously or unconsciously to their listeners they tolled out an old tactics and rang in a new—Cambrai had become the Valmy of a new epoch in war, the epoch of the mechanical engineer.”

It was a weary but satisfied body of men that General Elles inspected at Havrincourt on November 29 when the party broke up.

The 1st and 3rd Brigades were entraining immediately for Mult and Bray respectively, and the 2nd was to follow them in a few days’ time.

Good-byes were exchanged, and, as every one thought, the curtain rung down upon the First Battle of Cambrai.

Part II
(November 30)

In order to understand the events that followed, we have to imagine a victorious but very weary British Army holding a newly consolidated salient against an enemy whom they have just roused to a revengeful fury by a sudden stinging slap in the face.

The enemy had been horribly frightened, and now that he had recovered he realised how urgently his prestige demanded signal vindication. We were, it would seem, half expecting in a tired unimaginative sort of way that he might hit at us on the new Bourlon Wood flank of our salient. On the Gouzeaucourt side were old-established defences. These we held thinly—it never entering our heads apparently that he would attack an old piece of the line.

But the German Army Commander, General von der Marwitz, had an ambitious scheme in his mind. He meant to pinch off our salient and, if possible, to capture the entire third and fourth Corps, who held it. His right wing was to operate from Bourlon southward, and his left from Masnières westwards, the two attacks converging on Havrincourt and Metz.

The attack was launched shortly after daylight on November 30, and failed completely on the right against Bourlon Wood; here the enemy was caught by our artillery and machine-guns and mown down by hundreds. On the left, however, the attack succeeded; first, it came as a surprise; secondly, the Germans heralded their assault by lines of low-flying aeroplanes, which made our men keep down and so lose observation. Under the protection of this aeroplane barrage and a very heavy trench mortar bombardment the German infantry advanced and speedily captured Villers Guislain and Gouzeaucourt.

It was not till nearly ten o’clock on November 30 that Brigadier-General Courage of the 2nd Tank Brigade received a telephone message warning him of the attack.

The Tanks had been definitely “dismissed,” and were busy refitting, and at that moment every machine was in complete déshabillé. Many of the engines were in process of being tinkered with, and not a single Tank was filled up or contained its battle equipment. Those whom some emergency has obliged to get out an ordinary car on a cold winter’s morning when it has neither petrol, oil, nor water in it, and has half its engine strewn about the garage, will understand the difficulties that faced the Tank Corps. They will realise that when no less than twenty-two Tanks of “B” (2nd) Battalion had started for the battle by 12.40, a very smart piece of work had been done. Very soon fourteen Tanks of “A” (1st) Battalion followed them, and by two o’clock twenty Tanks of “H” (8th) Battalion were able to move up in support.

In the words of Sir Douglas Haig’s Despatch, “Great credit is due to the officers and men of the (2nd) Tank Brigade for the speed with which they brought their Tanks into action.”

By the time the first twenty Tanks reached Gouzeaucourt, however, the Guards, who had been hurried up with all speed, had managed to retake it, and the Tanks were therefore pushed out as a screen to cover their consolidation.

Here they remained all day, beating off enemy counter-attacks.

All day along both sides of the salient the enemy hammered fiercely at our lines. Here and there he penetrated them. Cooks, servants, and signallers, every available man, was given a rifle and put into the line, and the Despatch tells of wonderful individual deeds that were done as the battle surged and eddied confusedly. We did not propose to allow the Germans to hold their new possessions, the points of vantage out of which they had hustled us.

On December 1, Tanks, Guards, and dismounted Indian cavalry hit back against Villers Guislain and Gauche Wood.

“Tanks were,” the Despatch notes, “in great measure responsible for the capture of the wood. Heavy fighting took place for this position, which it is clear that the enemy had decided to hold at all costs. When the infantry and cavalry finally took possession of the wood, great numbers of German dead and smashed machine-guns were found. In one spot four German machine-guns, with dead crews lying round, were discovered within a radius of twenty yards. Three German field guns, complete with teams, were also captured in this wood.

“Other Tanks proceeded to Villers Guislain, and in spite of heavy direct artillery fire three reached the outskirts of the village, but the fire of the enemy’s machine-guns prevented our troops advancing from the south from supporting them, and the Tanks ultimately withdrew.”

For two more days the enemy pressed on against us, and the battle raged round Bourlon, Fontaine, Marcoing, and La Vacquerie.

Everywhere he dented in our line, and by December 4 the outline of our front showed an impossible series of irregularities. We must either renew the attack on a big scale, or make up our minds

[47]“to withdraw to a more compact line on the Flesquières Ridge.

“Although this decision involved giving up important positions most gallantly won, I had no doubt as to the correct course under the conditions. Accordingly, on the night of December 4–5 the evacuation of the positions held by us north of the Flesquières Ridge was commenced. On the morning of December 7 this withdrawal was completed successfully without interference from the enemy.”

It is as well that the enemy did not “interfere,” for through some oversight the Tanks did not receive due notice of the intended withdrawal, and certain salvage parties, busily at work on disabled Tanks, in forward positions, knew nothing of the evacuation until, to their astonishment, they found our infantry streaming back past them in the darkness. There was then nothing for it but to abandon the wrecks and to get back themselves with such gear as they could carry.

So ended the second phase of the battle.

It had been an exceedingly vexatious business.

Putting the best construction we could upon it, we had to admit to having been caught napping. The German attack had thrown us into complete, if momentary, confusion. But afterwards, when the situation could be calmly reviewed, contemporary criticism was unanimously agreed that we had, after all, suffered little but moral damage. And from that sort of damage the British have the art of deriving wholesome instruction in a unique degree. We braced ourselves up, and determined that this sharp rap over the knuckles should do us good.

But to the Tank Corps the exploits of the 2nd Brigade were more directly advantageous.

Amid the hubbub and confusion the Tank crews, like the Guards and the 2nd Cavalry Division, had known but one impulse—they had gone straight east against the enemy. That was the pole to which their compass pointed.

While everything had been doubt and hesitation they had had but one thought, to fill and adjust their machines and hurry them forward. At 9 a.m. the Tank crews had been peacefully preparing to break camp and leave for their training area. By four in the afternoon seventy-three Tanks had been launched with decisive effect against the enemy.

To many High Commanders who had believed that Tanks could only be used in a “full-dress” attack after weeks of preparation, the events of November 30 came as a joyful revelation.

So for the Tanks ended the 1917 campaign.