The Ironclads of Cambrai by Bryan Cooper

Author:Bryan Cooper
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781844685547
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2010-06-14T21:00:00+00:00

A captured 5.9 inch German gun, east of Ribecourt. The tank is preparing to tow it away.

The face of the wicked Hun—a prisoner captured near Havrincourt on November 20.

Men of the 11th Leicester Regiment of 6th Division take over a captured trench near Ribecourt, complete with machine-guns.

The cavalry wait to take advantage of the breakthrough at Cambrai.

“We passed several batteries of field-guns abandoned except for odd individuals, who ran away as they saw us coming,” reported Tilly. “There were a few shots fired at us from the outskirts of Marcoing, but these ceased on our taking cover and firing back. On reaching Marcoing, we found French people in the streets, all very excited and wanting to kiss us. We made for the bridge and there saw Captain W. Bayley, our battalion reconnaissance officer, who had run all the way from the Hindenburg Support Line and come up just in time to prevent a party of Germans blowing up the bridge. He had fired his revolver at them and they ran. He then cut the electric leads to the charge. When I saw him, he was crossing the bridge with a French woman hanging round his neck. He had one arm round her which held his revolver and in the other he was waving the leads. They were both laughing and shouting. My orderly and a tank crew from B Battalion on the left were ordered to guard the bridge.”

Shortly afterwards, Tilly’s eight tanks arrived. It was now 10.50 a.m. and there was no sign of resistance anywhere. So Tilly and Major M. L. Lakin, the 3rd Company Commander, went forward on mule and horse respectively to reconnoitre the area towards Cambrai.

“We kept in the low ground near the canal to start with,” said Tilly, “and then gradually climbed the slope to the east. We went very cautiously, stopping to have a good look round at frequent intervals. We were fired on once at longish range from the direction of Cantaing by machine-gun or light automatic, and crossed to the other side of the ridge, after which we were unmolested. We reached the outskirts of the southern suburb of Cambrai, where we saw some British wounded lying on stretchers outside a house and two or three German medical orderlies, who saluted. I have often wondered since where these wounded men came from. They could not have been taken that day. Lakin wanted to go into Cambrai, but I dissuaded him from this and we returned to Marcoing. On the way back we could hear fighting going on to the east, probably in Rumilly or Masnieres.”

By the time they arrived back in Marcoing, at about 2.30 p.m., the village had been cleared of snipers by a company of Suffolks from 29th Division, and 14 tanks of B Battalion, allocated to 6th Division, had also arrived. The 387th Landwehr Regiment had hurriedly departed, leaving behind important papers which were secured. Outside the village a cavalry brigade had also arrived and dismounted, but lacking specific orders, they had no inclination to push forward to Cambrai.

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