The other advantage Cambrai had over the battlefield of Third Ypres, of course, was its relatively dryer and harder ground - a prerequisite for the effective deployment of tanks. Bounded by the St Quentin Canal, his proposed force of infantry, tanks, cavalry and aircraft could wreak havoc behind the German front line, whilst protected from counterattack by the canal obstacle." "(JFC Fuller) recommended a large-scale raid as the best showcase for (the new Tank Corps') tanks … (he) settled on Cambrai as … he saw its favourable setting - perfect for a raid. Instead, they were now to be pooled in larger groups so breakdowns mattered less, and to lead the attack, with infantry supporting them. No longer were they to be deployed in isolation to support infantry, where their commonplace breakdowns did more damage to the potential success of an attack. The Battle of Cambrai was fought, effectively, as a large-scale raid to consolidate and apply previous lessons learnt about tanks. His largely tank-focused doctrine became a template for, and fused with, a plan of attack near Cambrai - a vital supply point in the German Hindenburg Line.Īs Alexander Turner explains in 'Cambrai 1917: the birth of armoured warfare', the operation was significant, not only as the first major of tanks, but also because it enabled tank doctrine to be advanced.
Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig, commander of the BEF, British Expeditionary Force, on the Western Front (left) and Major General JFC Fuller (right), a Lieutenant Colonel in the Tank Corps at the time of the Battle of Cambraiīut, his politics aside, during the First World War, Lieutenant Colonel JFC Fuller was a brilliant and innovative military thinker in the newly-formed Tank Corps who was determined to better integrate man and machine to achieve success on the battlefield. He didn't seem to take the view that defeating Nazi Germany by becoming Nazi Britain was rather self-defeating. His frustrations with British under-preparedness for the Second World War led him to the conclusion that Britain too needed to become a far-right militarised state, and he became involved with the BUF – the British Union of Fascists One commander who was determined not to see the futility continue was JFC Fuller.Īs a political figure between the two wars, Fuller's image is left rather tarnished by his association with the far-right. Someone told him that 'actually sir', it was 'worse further up'. "Good God, did we really send men to fight in that?"
He visited the front and found a vast swamp in which men had literally drowned in the mud:
But tellingly, Haig's own chief of staff, Lieutenant General Kiggell, stood aghast towards the end of 'Passchendaele', as it came to be known.
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