Battle of Cambrai (1917) 1917
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 20 November 1917 – 8 December 1917 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1917 | Wikidata P580 (start time) |
| Era | World War I era (1914–1918) | derived from year |
| Location | France | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Europe | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Western Front | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | German Empire, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United States | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 50.1250, 3.1250 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Battle of Cambrai (Battle of Cambrai, 1917, First Battle of Cambrai and Schlacht von Cambrai) was a British attack in the First World War, followed by the biggest German counter-attack against the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) since 1914. The town of Cambrai, in the département of Nord, in France, was an important supply centre for the German Siegfriedstellung (known to the British as the Hindenburg Line) and capture of the town and the nearby Bourlon Ridge would threaten the rear of the German line to the north. Major General Henry Tudor, Commander, Royal Artillery (CRA), of the 9th (Scottish) Division, advocated the use of new artillery-infantry tactics on his sector of the front. During preparations, J. F. C. Fuller, a staff officer with the Tank Corps, looked for places to use tanks for raids. General Julian Byng, commander of the Third Army, decided to combine both plans. The French and British armies had used tanks en masse earlier in 1917, although to considerably less effect.
After a big British success on the first day, mechanical unreliability, German artillery and infantry defences exposed the frailties of the Mark IV tank. On the second day, only about half of the tanks were operational and British progress was limited.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Cambrai (1917) (revision 1371945701), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
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Other battles of the Western Front
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- Battle of Thiepval Ridge 1916
- Battle of Verdun 1916
- Battle of the Somme 1916
- Hohenzollern Redoubt action, 2–18 March 1916 1916
- Battle of Arras (1917) 1917
- Battle of Messines (1917) 1917
- Battle of Passchendaele 1917
- Battle of the Hills 1917
- Second Battle of the Aisne 1917
All 48 battles of the Western Front →
Browse more: battles in France · Europe · World War I era battles