Battle of Cambrai (1917)

The Battle of Cambrai was a British attack in the First World War, fought southwest of Cambrai, France, from 20 November to 7 December 1917, followed by the biggest German counter-attack against the British Expeditionary Force since 1914. The British Third Army under General Julian Byng, with roughly 476 tanks alongside 15 infantry and 4 cavalry divisions, opened the assault with a surprise, unregistered artillery barrage and a massed tank advance rather than the usual days-long preparatory bombardment, overrunning the German Hindenburg Line defenses in the sector held by General Georg von der Marwitz's Second Army on the first day. Numerous developments matured together at Cambrai: predicted artillery fire, sound ranging, infantry infiltration tactics, infantry-tank co-ordination and close air support, and the battle is remembered as an early large-scale demonstration of combined arms warfare, integrating tanks, artillery, infantry and aircraft in one coordinated attack. A German counter-attack ten days later recovered much of the southern ground. British casualties totaled 44,207, including about 6,000 taken prisoner, and 179 of the attacking tanks were lost on the first day alone; German casualties totaled 54,720, including 8,817 killed or died of wounds and 11,105 taken prisoner. By the end of the battle the British retained some of the ground captured in the north and the Germans a smaller amount taken in the south.