Cambrai (Graincourt)

Although the 62nd Division met with strong Resistance at Havrincourt, Brigadier-General ‘Boy’ Bradford VC, promoted at 25 years of age, did not wait to see the fall of Havrinourt. He advanced with the 186th Brigade and a company of tanks, …

1917-11-20

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Although the 62nd Division met with strong Resistance at Havrincourt, Brigadier-General ‘Boy’ Bradford VC, promoted at 25 years of age, did not wait to see the fall of Havrinourt. He advanced with the 186th Brigade and a company of tanks, with orders to take Graincourt and the high ground west of Bourlon Wood. German gun batteries firing from behind Flesquieres ridge into his exposed right flank slowed the advance and when the British finally reached the outskirts of Graincourt, two German guns on the edge of the village opened fire.

Graincourt-lès-Havrincourt, France

The Battle of Cambrai was a British attack followed by the biggest German counter-attack against the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) since 1914, in the First World War. The town of Cambrai, in the département of Nord, was an important supply point for the German Siegfriedstellung 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 techniques 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 British Third Army, decided to combine both plans. The French and British armies had used tanks in mass earlier in 1917, although to considerably less effect.

Wikipedia: Battle of Cambrai (1917)

German

British