| The
battle of Cambrai began at 0630 hours on 20 November
1917 when the British 3rd Army launched a surprise
attack on Gen Marwitz's German 2nd Army using a total
of almost 400 tanks.
It was the first mass use of tanks in history. On
the first day a six-mile-wide hole was punched in
the Hindenburg Line south-west of Cambrai. It was
not exploited. Two weeks later the British were back
almost where they had started. Casualties on each
side were about equal at 40,000.
Close to the British cemetery at Flesquieres 6 miles
south west of Cambrai one of the British tanks that
fought in the battle was uncovered in 1998 and is
now on display in the village in a private museum
and members of its crew are buried in the nearby British
cemetery.
The
book describes a battlefield tour of about 4 and a
half hours with precise directions, pictures and details
of memorials and cemeteries. |
