Cambrai 1917
Author: Bryn Hammond
Publisher: Phoenix
Published: 2009
Total Pages: 0
ISBN-13: 9780753826058
DOWNLOAD EBOOKCambrai was the last - and most influential - battle fought by the British on the Western Front in 1917.
Posts
A Wood Called Bourlon
Author: William Moore
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 1989-01-01
Total Pages: 403
ISBN-13: 1473820898
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAfter the great victory in the famous tank battle at Cambrai in 1917 the church bells, having been silent for three years, rang out joyously all over Britain But within ten days triumph turned to disaster. How did this hapPen & why?William Moore, a distinguished First World War historian, attempts to explain what went wrong. All the advantages gained were thrown away; thousands of British troops were captured and hundreds of guns were lost. Seventy years after these events Mr Moore has studied the evidence (much of it previously unpublished) contained in the inevitable enquiry that followed the disaster and he seeks to answer a number of questions. Was Field-Marshal Haig really as dour as he has been portrayed or was he a reckless gambler and was General Byng, whose troops and guns were captured, really a brilliant planner or a haughty aristocrat dedicated to proving that cavalry still had a place on the battlefield? And why were they both obsessed with capturing Bourlon Ridge on which stood the sinister Bourlon Wood? A Highland Division, a Welsh Brigade, a Yorkshire Division (twice), the Guards, Ulstermen, Lancashire-men, Londoners and Midlanders- all were drawn into the maelstrom in an attempt to consolidate the Cambrai victory They failed. It was left to the Canadians to carry the Bourlon position in one of the finest feats of arms of the Great War. The British are always reputed to take a perverce interest in their own military blunders. This strange episode is one that most people have been happy to forget. All those involved in hight places sought to make excuses; some indulged in a profound exercise of duplicity implying that the soldiers themselves were to blame. Mr Moor's book throws new light on a dark episode in British Military History.
The Ironclads of Cambrai
Author: Bryan Cooper
Publisher: Pen & Sword Military
Published: 2023-04-30
Total Pages: 0
ISBN-13: 9781399019880
DOWNLOAD EBOOKWhen tanks, the newly invented British weapon, were used for the first time in a mass attack on November 20 1917, they not only achieved one of the most remarkable successes of the First World War but set the pattern for the future of mechanized warfare. For the first time in three years of bloody trench warfare, epitomized by the slaughter at Passchendaele which was then reaching its climax, tanks brought about a breakthrough of the massive German defense system of the Hindenburg Line, followed up by British infantry and cavalry divisions. They were supported for the first time by low flying fighter aircraft of the Royal Flying Corps. The initial victory at Cambrai brought cheering crowds into the streets of London and the ringing of church bells in celebration. It seemed possible that the success might bring about the final defeat of Germany. But the British High Command failed to exploit the success. Generals who still dreamt of massive cavalry charges had not had much faith in this strange new weapon that had been brought to them funded initially by the Royal Navy at the behest of Winston Churchill who was then First Lord of the Admiralty and did see its value. The High Command did not really believe the breakthrough was possible and tragically miscalculated the necessary steps to follow it up. Within days the Germans counter-attacked and regained much of the ground that the British had won. What could have been the final victory was delayed for another year.
Cambrai 1917
Author: Chris McNab
Publisher: Battle Story
Published: 2012
Total Pages: 0
ISBN-13: 9780752479774
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe author explores how new techniques of sound-ranging and artillery strategy played a greater part during the Battle of Cambrai than the tanks which have dominated previous histories of the battle.
Toward Combined Arms Warfare
Author: Jonathan Mallory House
Publisher: DIANE Publishing
Published: 1985
Total Pages: 235
ISBN-13: 1428915834
DOWNLOAD EBOOKMilitary Innovation in the Interwar Period
Author: Williamson R. Murray
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 1998-08-13
Total Pages: 452
ISBN-13: 9780521637602
DOWNLOAD EBOOKA study of major military innovations in the 1920s and 1930s.
A Moonlight Massacre
Author: Michael Locicero
Publisher: Helion
Published: 2021-04-30
Total Pages: 520
ISBN-13: 9781911628729
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe Third Battle of Ypres was officially terminated by Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig with the opening of the Battle of Cambrai on 20 November 1917. Nevertheless, a comparatively unknown set-piece attack - the only large-scale night operation carried out on the Flanders front during the campaign - was launched twelve days later on 2 December. This volume is a necessary corrective to previously published campaign narratives of what has become popularly known as 'Passchendaele'. It examines the course of events from the mid-November decision to sanction further offensive activity in the vicinity of Passchendaele village to the barren operational outcome that forced British GHQ to halt the attack within ten hours of Zero. A litany of unfortunate decisions and circumstances contributed to the profitless result. At the tactical level, a novel hybrid set-piece attack scheme was undermined by a fatal combination of snow-covered terrain and bright moonlight. At the operational level, the highly unsatisfactory local situation in the immediate aftermath of Third Ypres' post-strategic phase (26 October-10 November) appeared to offer no other alternative to attacking from the confines of an extremely vulnerable salient. Perhaps the most tragic aspect of the affair occurred at the political and strategic level, where Haig's earnest advocacy for resumption of the Flanders offensive in spring 1918 was maintained despite obvious signs that the initiative had now passed to the enemy and the crisis of the war was fast approaching. A Moonlight Massacre provides an important contribution and re-interpretation of the discussion surrounding Passchendaele, based firmly on an extensive array of sources, many unpublished, and supported by illustrations and maps.
The First World War
Author: Michael Howard
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 2007-01-25
Total Pages: 161
ISBN-13: 0199205590
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis Very Short Introduction provides a concise and insightful history of the Great War--from the state of Europe in 1914, to the role of the US, the collapse of Russia, and the eventual surrender of the Central Powers. Examining how and why the war was fought, as well as the historical controversies that still surround the war, Michael Howard also looks at how peace was ultimately made, and describes the potent legacy of resentment left to Germany.
The Marne 15 July - 6 August 1918
Author: Stephen C. McGeorge and Mason W. Watson
Publisher:
Published:
Total Pages: 80
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKMessines 1917
Author: Alexander Turner
Publisher: Osprey Publishing
Published: 2010-08-24
Total Pages: 0
ISBN-13: 9781846038457
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAt 0310 hours on 7 June 1917, the pre-dawn gloom on the Western Front was shattered by the 'pillars of fire' - the rapid detonation of 19 huge mines, secreted in tunnels under the German lines and containing 450 tonnes of explosives. Admitted by the Germans to be a 'masterstroke', the devastating blasts caused 10,000 soldiers to later be posted simply as 'missing'. Launching a pre-planned attack into the carnage, supported by tanks and a devastating artillery barrage, the British took the strategic objective of Messines Ridge within hours. A rare example of innovation and success in the First World War (1914-1918), this book is a fresh and timely examination of a fascinating campaign.
