The Ironclads of Cambrai: The First Great Tank Battle

by Cooper, Bryan

• ISBN13: 9780304363636
• ISBN10: 0304363634
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-10-01
• Publisher: Cassell

Summary

The British Army was the first to use tanks, employing a handful of early models during the closing stages of the Battle of the Somme, September 1916. But it was over a year later that the first mass tank attack demonstrated just what a revolutionary weapon this was. On 20 November 1917, just as the bloody slaughter at Passchendaele reached stalemate, the British flung 378 tanks at the German trenches at Cambrai. They overran the whole position in a morning. The victory was so incredible that church bells were sounded throughout the British Isles. However, the subsequent German counter-attack was successful. The British ran out of reserves and the frontline was retaken. Yet Cambrai anticipated the events of 1918: the Germans had no answer to the British Army's new weapon and new artillery tactics. No subsequent British offensive failed to take its objectives.

Table of Contents

The First Victory	p. 9
Birth of the Tank	p. 17
Baptism of Fire	p. 35
The Beginnings of the Tank Corps	p. 47
Plan of Battle	p. 63
Dawn Attack	p. 87
The Big Breakthrough	p. 98
Legend of Flesquieres Ridge	p. 113
The Advance Continues	p. 124
The Second Day	p. 139
Fight for Bourlon Ridge	p. 156
End of the Attack	p. 176
Counter-Stroke	p. 188
Return of the Tanks	p. 204
Aftermath	p. 217
Epilogue	p. 227
Index	p. 235
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