Cambrai: The Right Hook

By Nigel Cave

This fully illustrated WWI battlefield guide provides essential historical context and visitor information for exploring this site on the Western Front.

Located near the Belgian border, the French town of Cambrai was a vital supply point for the German forces along the Hindenburg Line. It is best known for the First Battle of Cambria, an epic tank battle which took place there in 1917. Although the British Expeditionary Force were successful in the first day of combat, the tables soon turned. As on other occasions throughout the War, the area changed hands many times.

Illustrated with then and now pictures, this book presents a detailed overview of the battle from multiple perspectives. It then provides five walking tour itineraries taking readers through the La Vacquerie Battlefield, Bonavis Farm, Les Rues Vertes, Bapaume, and more.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Oct 22, 2012
• ISBN: 9781783461431

Nigel Cave

Nigel Cave is the founder editor of the Battleground Europe series; his association with the Company goes back some thirty years.

Book preview

Chapter One

SETTING THE SCENE: THE STORY OF THE

BATTLE

The ancient town of Bapaume, practically destroyed in the First World War and badly battered in the Second, sits on an historical crossroads. It is approximately halfway between Arras and Peronne on the north to south road; and halfway between Cambrai and Amiens on the east to west Roman road and is fifteen to twenty miles from each of them.

To the east of Bapaume the land is flat and dotted with numerous small villages, many still based on the agriculture that was their purpose before the war. Each usually has a disproportionately large church, orchards and a wood, and they lie a mile or so from their neighbour.

About ten miles from Bapaume is the settlement of Metz en Couture, and from here the landscape changes quite dramatically. Several hundred yards to its north is the southern edge of Havrincourt Wood. The great forest dominates as the road rises up a ridge to the village of Trescault. This is a suitable point from which to view the battlefield.

From here the land rolls in a series of valleys. To the north are the villages of Havrincourt and Flesquieres, with the spires of Cambrai in the far distance, some six miles to the north east of them. To the east is a long valley, at the base of which is a shallow drainage ditch, which gives the valley its name of Grand Ravin. The valley runs through Ribecourt, some two miles away, and on to Marcoing. To the south the valley gradually rises towards the village of Beaucamp, about a mile and a half away. Another notable feature of the area is two artificial waterways. The Canal du Nord enters a long tunnel at Ytres, three miles west of Metz; it emerges at Ruyaulcourt. Thence it goes round the western edge of Havrincourt Wood and proceeds through a ninety foot cutting to the west of Havrincourt itself, finally connecting to the Sensee River some miles to the north. The Canal was under construction in 1914, and was therefore dry, although still a most formidable obstacle. Five miles to the east, over the Couillet and Bonavis ridges, there is a deep valley through which winds the St Quentin Canal. This canal begins far to the south, beyond Compiegne and comes north up to and through the western edge of Cambrai, almost parallel to the Canal du Nord, before itself joining with the Sensee. In the area of interest in this book, the small River Escaut flows, rising at Gouy, some twenty miles south of Cambrai.

In the later months of 1916 and early in 1917 the Germans built a formidable defensive line stretching from the Arras area in a south easterly direction, incorporating Havrincourt and the ready-made obstacle of the Canal du Nord and proceeding before Trescault, on the eastern side. It then climbed the Couillet and Bonavis ridges and then followed the St Quentin Canal, going south for many miles. The strongest section of the system lay before you, crossing the valleys and ridges only a few hundred yards from Trescault. At this point it was five miles deep, with row upon row of heavy gauge barbed wire barricades and deep trenches, purposely dug very wide to inhibit the passage of tanks. The Germans called the system the Siegfried Stellung; the British named it the Hindenburg Line.

The construction and development of the Hindenburg Line, as well as a detailed examination of the remnants visible today, is covered by Peter Oldham’s Hindenburg Line in this series; further details may be found in Bill Mitchinson’s set of books, also in the series, on Riqueval, Epehy and Villers Plouich.

In brief, the Germans determined that holding the salient created by the ferocious battles of the Somme throughout the summer and autumn of 1916 required an inefficient and unsustainable use of manpower, and determined to withdraw to prepared positions to the east – positions which would be impregnable, at least to the attack methods used to date. They began a withdrawal from the old Somme positions in late February 1917, and in a most skilful withdrawal moved eastwards, inflicting numerous casualties on the pursuing armies. In addition they set about a destruction of villages, farmhouses, road crossings, wells, orchards – of anything that could be of any value – that was the most ruthless example of a scorched earth policy that had been seen. So severe was this that it almost led to the resignation of Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria, one of the most successful of Germany’s Army Commanders. By May the German troops were safely ensconced behind their vast defensive system.

The five mile, north south, stretch ahead of you has changed little since the Great War. The villages did not suffer the fate of total obliteration as did those between Bapaume and Metz, and they have all been restored from the significant damage that they did endure. Almost all traces of the Hindenburg Line have been erased, although enough remains to give some impression of the extent of this defensive system. Farms have been restored on their old foundations; many of them were converted into strongpoints, their cellars reinforced with metal and concrete. Most of the tracks and roads remain, most (but by no means all!) are passable in a car – indeed some of these by ways formed part of the line. It is important to remember that nearly all of the roads would have been significantly narrower than today (this applies especially to the main roads), and many would have been deeper, shielded by steep embankments on either side. They would either have been chalk and clay tracks or, at best, have a centre part made of pavé, laid in a most awkward concave fashion, making it both difficult and uncomfortable for marching bodies of troops. All over the area there is the hallmark of this part of the old Western Front; the numerous cemeteries, many small and isolated, of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

The formidable German command team of Ludendorff (left) and von Hindenburg.

Cambrai is now a large industrial town of some forty thousand souls – about twice the number that lived there in 1914. It has a historic connection well before the Great War with the British, for it was here that the series of treaties known as the Treaty of Cateau Cambresis were signed in 1559 that ended a long war that had involved France, the Empire, Spain and England. It still has the air of an ancient town, despite the heavy damage it suffered in 1917 and 1918, particularly from the retreating Germans in 1918. Once encircled by walls, these have now generally gone, to make way for roads and railway, though a number of its splendid towers and gates survive. It is still an important rail centre, with good road connections and conveniently connected to the autoroute system, making it an ideal and interesting town from which to explore this part of north eastern