LAND & WATER 
4 )ereml5i; 
It)l7 
The Battle of Cambrai 
By Hilaire Belloc 
THE Battle of Cambrai. up to the monunt of writing', 
l!us passed through three ohases : 
(i) On liusday, Novenilxr joth, the Briti.-h Tliird 
Army uniler Ct neral H\ ng broke the ficrman front 
bv an actidn «f siir))rise, iiichidiuj; a new tactical use of the 
tanks, and formed a fjreat salient in , front of Cambrai, about 
four miles deej) and some six or seven miles Ion;;. ImuIIut 
lighting gave the offensi\i- possession of Honrloii Hill, the con- 
tinued holding of wliich would destroy the value of Cambrai 
as the meeting point of the (ierman eonunutiications upon 
this front. A continued i-limination of the nodal ])oint of 
Cambrai in the enemy's communications would haVt; involved 
a shifting of his whole line. 
{2) After the salient had been more or less stabilised and 
at points sliglith- reduced by local enemy action, but with 
Bourlon Hill still secure in British hands, tlu; enemy, upon 
l-'riday, Xovember .;oth. attacked with the greatest violence 
the northern and the .southern limbs of the salient with 
a special effort at their extremities in order to cut off the 
neck of the salient Aud encircle and destroy all the forces 
within it. This ])lan bid fair to succeed from the fact tliat 
the encmv undoubtedly effected a surprise against the southern 
arm of the salient, at the extremity of wliich he broke 
through into the neck of the .salient for some thousand yards. 
But his pressure against the northern arm was met with a 
determined n'sistance ; his eruption upon the stiuth was 
partly beaten back ; tlu^ encircling movement failed. Its 
result, however, when the \ery hea\-y lighting »f this main 
counter-offensivi' died down, was to leave the salient with a 
boundary no longer tenable. The enemy had come down 
between Mmivres and Bourlon Hill to the neiglibourhood 
of the main roa<l, thus leaving Bourlon Hill itself in a verv 
pronounced', awkward and untenable angle. Masnieres, with 
its crossing of the Scheldt, had been evacuated. The encnnx' 
from the top of Bonax^is Height at the branch roads, which he 
securely held, and from I,a Vacquerie. had observation over 
all the lower groimd to the north. \\'hence, after a second 
enemy effort on December jrd, followed the third phase. 
(3) On Tuesday night, the 4tli-5th of December, the British 
line was withdrawii, Bourlon Hill evacuated, and a retirement 
begun upon new positions. It appears to ha\e taken up two 
(lays, to have been most successfully accomplished, and to 
have ended on December hth or jth upon a much Hatter out- 
line, which ran from the main Bajraunie Road over the height 
of l-"le,sc|uieres, and thence apparently straight to Welsh Kiclge, 
then south to points w<st of ViHers-(inislan, and (iauche 
Wood. The line caniiot be accurately described because we 
lia\-e not received anything but a vague account of it. But 
it seems to be roughlv of this nature. 
La ^■ac(]uene is still claimed by the (iermans, but the last 
(Icsixitrjies to hand indicate some improvement of our line 
in this neighbourhood. We are not given sufficient detail 
upon tliis to be able to describe it. 
It will be seen that the new lino has a solid hold upon the 
heights overlooking the Cambrai hollow. It is obviouslv 
strong in ]iosition, and its artificial strength must have beeii 
greatly consolidated in the last few days, W'hile its trace is 
too Hat to allow of any part of it being taken in reverse. 
Meanwhile the \-alue of Cambrai as a centre of communica- 
tions for the enem\- has been restored, and the .main end of 
the original advance is nnattained. 
The story, a? a whole, is quite clearly one of a superior con" 
centration. It uK-nns that against the forces originally cm- 
l)loyed in the ad\ance of Xovember the 2oth and 2ist, against 
the further forces and giuis that were thrust into .the salient 
afterwards, and against the successive reinforcements that may 
have come up to holcj the salient against the great counter- 
attack, the enemy total concentration was superiof. -He 
brought in a grChter weight of men, and_ probably • a vcrv 
much greater one. What the jiroportion xvas we do not 
know, because w^ cannot be told what the totalwas upon the 
British side. But we have it estimated that the erieihy's 
attack upon Xovember 30th alone, quite apart froih His 
original divisions which had been standing the first strain 
'before, was made in a- force of not less than ten and possiblv 
twelve di\isions ; Vhile it is probable or certain (for we have 
as yet no official information upon the matter) that he put in a 
number more during his second great effort on December 3rd. 
I 
HetgkHs aSove /OOme&rs 
