Bourlon Wood: Hindenburg Line

By Nigel Cave and Jack Horsfall

In 1917 Bourlon Wood on the Western Front was the scene of fierce back-and-forth fighting between the British and the Germans, with British gains on at least one occasion thrown away by lack of proper follow-up. The Wood formed the left flank of the massive British tank attack at Cambrai, the first of its kind, on November 20, 1917. Bourlon Wood once again came into prominence in September 1918 with the attack of the Canadian Corps against the German defenders, an action that rivaled the Canadian assault on Vimy Ridge.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Mar 5, 2008
• ISBN: 9781783379958

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

Other guides in the Battleground Europe Series:

Walking the Salient by Paul Reed

Ypres - Sanctuary Wood and Hooge by Nigel Cave

Ypres - Hill 60 by Nigel Cave

Ypres - Messines Ridge by Peter Oldham

Ypres - Polygon Wood by Nigel Cave

Ypres - Passchendaele by Nigel Cave

Ypres - Airfields and Airmen by Michael O’Connor

Ypres - St Julien by Graham Keech

Walking the Somme by Paul Reed

Somme - Gommecourt by Nigel Cave

Somme - Serre by Jack Horsfall & Nigel Cave

Somme - Beaumont Hamel by Nigel Cave

Somme - Thiepval by Michael Stedman

Somme - La Boisselle by Michael Stedman

Somme - Fricourt by Michael Stedman

Somme - Carnoy-Montauban by Graham Maddocks

Somme - Pozieres by Graham Keech

Somme - Courcelette by Paul Reed

Somme - Boom Ravine by Trevor Pidgeon

Somme - Mametz Wood by Michael Renshaw

Somme - Delville Wood by Nigel Cave

Somme - Advance to Victory (North) 1918 by Michael Stedman

Somme - Flers by Trevor Pidgeon

Somme - Bazentin Ridge by Edward Hancock

Somme - Combles by Paul Reed

Arras - Vimy Ridge by Nigel Cave

Arras - Gavrelle by Trevor Tasker and Kyle Tallett

Arras - Bullecourt by Graham Keech

Arras - Monchy le Preux by Colin Fox

Hindenburg Line by Peter Oldham

Hindenburg Line Epehy by Bill Mitchinson

Hindenburg Line Riqueval by Bill Mitchinson

Hindenburg Line Villers-Plouich by Bill Mitchinson

Hindenburg Line - Cambrai by Jack Horsfall & Nigel Cave

Hindenburg Line - Saint Quentin by Helen McPhail and Philip Guest

La Bassée - Neuve Chapelle by Geoffrey Bridger

Mons by Jack Horsfall and Nigel Cave

Accrington Pals Trail by William Turner

Poets at War: Wilfred Owen by Helen McPhail and Philip Guest

Poets at War: Edmund Blunden by Helen McPhail and Philip Guest

Poets at War: Graves & Sassoon by Helen McPhail and Philip Guest

Gallipoli by Nigel Steel

Italy - Asiago by Francis Mackay

Boer War - The Relief of Ladysmith by Lewis Childs

Boer War - The Siege of Ladysmith by Lewis Childs

Boer War - Kimberley by Lewis Childs

Isandlwana by Ian Knight and Ian Castle

Rorkes Drift by Ian Knight and Ian Castle

Wars of the Roses - Wakefield/Towton by Philip A. Haigh

English Civil War - Naseby by Martin Marix Evans, Peter Burton and Michael Westaway

Napoleonic - Hougoumont by Julian Paget and Derek Saunders

WW2 Pegasus Bridge/Merville Battery by Carl Shilleto

WW2 Utah Beach by Carl Shilleto

WW2 Gold Beach by Christopher Dunphie & Garry Johnson

WW2 Normandy - Jig Beach by Tim Saunders

WW2 Omaha Beach by Tim Kilvert-Jones

WW2 Sword Beach by Tim Kilvert-Jones

WW2 Battle of the Bulge - St Vith by Michael Tolhurst

WW2 Battle of the Bulge - Bastogne by Michael Tolhurst

WW2 Dunkirk by Patrick Wilson

WW2 Calais by Jon Cooksey

WW2 Das Reich – Drive to Normandy by Philip Vickers

WW2 Hill 112 by Tim Saunders

WW2 Market Garden - Nijmegen by Tim Saunders

WW2 Market Garden - Hell’s Highway by Tim Saunders

WW2 Market Garden - The Island by Tim Saunders

WW2 Market Garden - Arnhem by Frank Steer

WW2 Channel Islands by George Forty

WW2 Boulogne by Jon Cooksey

Battleground Europe Series guides under contract for future release:

Somme - High Wood by Terry Carter

Somme - German Advance 1918 by Michael Stedman

Somme - Beaucourt by Michael Renshaw

Walking Arras by Paul Reed

With the continued expansion of the Battleground series a Battleground Series Club has been formed to benefit the reader. The purpose of the Club is to keep members informed of new titles and to offer many other reader-benefits. Membership is free and by registering an interest you can help us predict print runs and thus assist us in maintaining the quality and prices at their present levels.

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First published in 2002 by

LEO COOPER

an imprint of

Pen Sword Books Limited

47 Church Street, Barnsley, South Yorkshire S70 2AS

Copyright © Jack Horsfall & Nigel Cave

ISBN 0 85052 632 9

PRINT ISBN: 9780850528183

PDF ISBN: 9781783377695

EPUB ISBN: 9781783379958

PRC ISBN: 9781783379897

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CONTENTS

Introduction by Series Editor

In 1970, when still at school, I visited Bourlon Wood for the first time. What makes the wood stick out in my memory is that it was there that I found more relics of the war than anywhere else before or since on the Western Front. The reason for this was quite simple - tree felling operations were in full swing, and where trees had come up, roots and all, was to be found a wealth of items such as German leather equipment.

Now I have a rather clearer idea of what makes Bourlon Wood so important. This should be quite obvious to any driver approaching from the western side of it. From some seven miles away, for example (and the weather allowing), on the Bapaume road the dark mass of Bourlon Wood becomes visible, dominating the ground on all sides. It is defended on the western side by the Canal du Nord, then a huge dry ditch, as construction was not completed before the outbreak of war. The wood acted as a last safeguard to the approaches to Cambrai. It is easy to see why both sides considered it such an important objective.

The result of the Battle of Cambrai can best be described as a rather expensive draw. However, it reinforced the lesson that the Germans had taken from the ferocious fighting during Third Ypres: that fixed lines of defence, no matter how complex and how magnificent, were no longer proof against a determined enemy equipped with a sufficient weight of artillery. The tank was a useful addition to the battlefield, but it was severely hampered by mechanical limitations as well as the problem of working over difficult ground.

The town of Cambrai in 1918. The Germans left mines and started fires as they retreated. The photograph shows the town still being shelled as the Canadians enter the main square.

The Cambrai battlefield (like its near neighbour, the Le Cateau battlefield) is a much less visited battlefield than the Somme; and yet it offers the same good walking, the same excellent views, and memorials and cemeteries of similar beauty and poignancy.

This is the second in the trilogy in this series which concentrates on the Battle of Cambrai. Like many of the Battleground Europe series, it does not aspire to bring any new research to the fore or present further arguments in the controversy about the conduct of the battle. Jack Horsfall has taken some of the printed sources and combined the information from them into a battle narrative and accompanied this with an excellent and comprehensive tour of the area - the primary aim of all of these books.

In preparing the tours and material for Bourlon Wood both of us have been assisted tremendously by people in the local community, notably the Mayor of Bourlon and his wife. Members of the Flesquières Tank Association have been particularly free with their time and information. Above all we both owe a great debt of gratitude to Philippe Gorczynski, co-author of Following the Tanks, who hosted both of us at various times at his hotel, the Beatus, in Cambrai, and gave freely of his time and his knowledge. Indeed, so great was his assistance that both of us had no hesitation in adding his name to the title page of this book.

Nigel Cave

Porta Latina, Rome

Introduction

In August 1914 elements of the German First Army, commanded by Generaloberst Alexander von Kluck, stormed through Belgium. Amongst other obstacles he faced a heroic defence of Mons and the mining district of the Borinage by Field Marshal Sir John French’s British Expeditionary Force. Von Kluck advanced at speed westwards, capturing the town of Cambrai until, in early September, his Army had arrived west of Bapaume to form the huge salient in the region of the Somme. Its furthest point was across the River Ancre and 2,000 yards west of Serre onto the Hébuterne-Colincamps Plain.i Elsewhere, battle raged on the Marne, the Aisne and in Flanders. The German, French and British front lines for 1914, 1915 and 1916 had been established in those early days of September.

Generaloberst Alexander von Kluck.

Cambrai was a city with a population of about 28,000, connected by good roads and a railway network to all parts of the German line on the Western Front; and back into the German heartland, the Ruhr and major cities. With its plentiful accommodation, warehouses and large buildings - not to mention the available French workforce - the town became the Germans’ most important base in the north. Situated in open rolling farming land at least forty miles from the battle front, it was a peaceful place, disturbed only slightly by reconnaissance aircraft. The area around the city was where battered divisions were brought to rest, recover and re-equip. It became known as the ‘Flanders Sanatorium’.

Ruins of Cambrai Church.

General Sir Douglas Haig took over command of the BEF in December 1915; he was aware of Cambrai’s significance. However he was occupied enough with places much closer to the line than Cambrai, so that an attack on it was something for the future, a hoped for possibility. After the summer and autumn months of 1916 and the terrible Battle of the Somme, Erich Ludendorff, effectively in command of the German army, decided to extricate his badly damaged army from the Somme and to build a new line to the rear, thereby reducing the frontage and improving the lines of communication. Therefore he ordered the Siegfried Stellung to be constructed, the strongest defensive line the modern world had ever seen.

The new forty-five mile line stretched south easterly from Arras and in front of Cambrai. The British called it the Hindenburg Line.ii In late February 1917 the Germans, under the command of Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria, began their withdrawal. This was carefully planned, fighting for almost every mile, and exacting heavy casualties on General Sir Henry Rawlinson’s Fourth Army as it followed them towards Cambrai. Instructions had ordered the devastation of every village, wood, road, culvert and well – anything that might be of value to the Allies – in a most savage ‘scorched earth’ policy. So extreme was this policy that Prince Rupprecht almost resigned when the extent of what was proposed was revealed to him, but he was persuaded of its necessity.

A medical detachment retreats back towards the Hindenburg Line.

A road near Havrincourt Wood blocked by the Germans.

Ludendorff ’s Siegfried Stellung obviously had to be completed in order to receive the withdrawing troops behind it. The great defence lines consisted of many rows of deep trenches – each protected by rows (some were twenty or more yards wide) of heavy gauge barbed wire – dug purposely very deep and wide to prevent tanks crossing and all with strong dugouts and positions for machine guns. Every isolated farmhouse was turned into a fortress.

The strongest part of the whole system, five miles deep with six major lines, was in front of Cambrai. The system here used part of the Canal du Nord, under construction before the war commenced, but not completed: it was dug but dry. It lay six miles west of the town, running round the eastern edge of the 2,000 acre Havrincourt Wood and then headed north to connect with the River Sensée. Six miles south west of Cambrai is the village of Ribécourt, which sits in the middle of a twenty square mile shallow ‘bowl’. Two miles north of that village is the upper edge of the area, Flesquières Ridge. The village of Havrincourt is two miles west of Flesquières, at the end of the ridge and a few hundred yards from the (then) dry canal. From there the line followed the western edge of the Trescault Ridge, heading south to the southern rim of the ‘bowl’. This was formed by the Bonavis Ridge, from Gonnelieu to Banteux. Banteux lies alongside the fully functioning St Quentin Canal, which is situated in a valley five miles from Trescault. The canal is sixty feet wide and ten feet deep and formed the eastern edge of the ‘bowl’ and the Siegfried Stellung.

A segment of the Hindenburg Line, illustrating the massive barbed wire defences.

The canal passes through six villages in its route towards Cambrai, each with a steel road or railway bridge. At Crèvecoeur it turns sharply to the west; after a mile or so it flows through Masnières and after another mile the canal turns sharply to the north at Marcoing to continue on, running through the western suburb of Cambrai until it reaches the River Sensée, five miles north of the city. The area described is the ‘bowl’; the heart of the ‘Flanders Sanatorium’, and the defences for Cambrai. Dominating the whole, three miles west of the town, on the north side of the ancient Roman road connecting Cambrai to Bapaume and half a mile beyond the village of Fontaine Notre Dame, is the wooded, 640 acre, 150 feet high Bourlon Hill. Just behind it, on the north side, is the village of Bourlon.

Now that the Germans had withdrawn so close to Cambrai, Haig could see that there were strategic possibilities here. But he had already determined his priority for 1917 – and that action would take place in Flanders, before Ypres. In May 1917 the Field Marshal discussed with Byng (Third Army) and Rawlinson (Fourth Army) the possibilities of offensive action at Cambrai; but no plans were made. In June Sir Henry Rawlinson’s Fourth Army went up to the Belgian coast and was relieved by Third Army. Sir Julian Byng was then invited (in the utmost secrecy) to produce a plan for an attack on this part of the Hindenburg Line - but at this stage it was to be no more than a plan, only known of by his immediate staff.

Sir Julian Byng.

Sir Henry Rawlinson.

Haig had, amongst others, two brilliant, innovative and enthusiastic specialists in his command. The first was Brigadier General H.H. Tudor (a gunner), the artillery commander of the 9th (Scottish) Division. He appreciated what the German artillery expert, Lieutenant Colonel Bruchmüller, had accomplished at Riga (on the Eastern Front) by the use of unregistered shooting. This meant the elimination of the usual method of registering targets by preliminary shooting that preceded the customary long bombardment. This was achieved by the use of the technology that the war had spawned – aerial reconnaissance and photography, sound ranging and flash spotting. The traditional method doubtless caused some casualties, but was a clear indication to the enemy that an offensive was planned and allowed them time to take counter measures. The traditional method was what had happened on 1 July on the Somme; at a time when the Royal Artillery was too inexperienced to use anything else; and before some of these technical innovations had been developed. In addition, it was intended to do away with any form of preliminary bombardment to soften up the enemy defences or to destroy their heavier artillery. Tudor prepared an artillery plan accordingly.