WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.859 Welcome to the Deep Dive. Today, we are exploring 00:00:03.859 --> 00:00:07.059 a moment, well, really a specific battle that 00:00:07.059 --> 00:00:09.900 completely rewrote the rulebook of modern warfare. 00:00:10.080 --> 00:00:11.679 Yeah, we're heading back to the Western Front. 00:00:12.060 --> 00:00:13.519 Specifically, we're looking at the Battle of 00:00:13.519 --> 00:00:17.769 Cambrai in late 1917. Right. And, you know, when 00:00:17.769 --> 00:00:19.989 you think of World War I, the images that usually 00:00:19.989 --> 00:00:22.350 come to mind for most people are these static, 00:00:22.649 --> 00:00:25.050 muddy trenches. Terrible attrition. Exactly. 00:00:25.230 --> 00:00:27.469 Terrible attrition. Years of deadlock where the 00:00:27.469 --> 00:00:29.410 front lines just, they barely moved an inch. 00:00:29.469 --> 00:00:32.030 Right. But this operation we're diving into today, 00:00:32.229 --> 00:00:35.149 it shatters that entire perception. We are basically 00:00:35.149 --> 00:00:37.969 looking at a master class in rapid innovation, 00:00:38.630 --> 00:00:41.710 the birth of combined arms, and really how an 00:00:41.710 --> 00:00:44.390 influx of new technology forces militaries to 00:00:44.390 --> 00:00:47.679 adapt at just breakneck speed. or, frankly, face 00:00:47.679 --> 00:00:50.399 annihilation. It's a massive shift. And to set 00:00:50.399 --> 00:00:52.539 the scene for a minute, if you imagine the tactical 00:00:52.539 --> 00:00:54.880 map shifting to the area around Cambrai, France, 00:00:55.420 --> 00:00:57.500 the geography and the pre -existing defenses 00:00:57.500 --> 00:00:59.780 there are central to literally everything that 00:00:59.780 --> 00:01:01.600 happens next. Because Cambrai wasn't just a random 00:01:01.600 --> 00:01:05.260 town, right? No, not at all. In late 1917, it 00:01:05.260 --> 00:01:08.299 was a crucial railway and supply hub. It supported 00:01:08.299 --> 00:01:11.200 the Siegfried Stelling, which is what the British 00:01:11.200 --> 00:01:13.700 refer to as the Hindenburg Line. Right, the Hindenburg 00:01:13.700 --> 00:01:17.549 Line. which was famous for being virtually impenetrable. 00:01:18.090 --> 00:01:20.909 Exactly. Because this particular sector of the 00:01:20.909 --> 00:01:23.129 front had been relatively quiet for a long time, 00:01:23.790 --> 00:01:27.400 the German military had the luxury of time. resources. 00:01:27.480 --> 00:01:30.200 So they built an incredibly formidable defense 00:01:30.200 --> 00:01:32.319 in depth. We're talking multiple trench systems. 00:01:32.459 --> 00:01:34.420 Multiple systems. Concrete pillboxes and these 00:01:34.420 --> 00:01:36.920 massive belts of barbed wire that were get this 00:01:36.920 --> 00:01:39.879 up to 50 yards deep in places. 50 yards of just 00:01:39.879 --> 00:01:42.819 solid barbed wire. Yeah. Which really sets the 00:01:42.819 --> 00:01:45.280 stage for the massive contrast we are going to 00:01:45.280 --> 00:01:47.659 explore today because you have these supposedly 00:01:47.659 --> 00:01:50.560 impregnable static defenses suddenly facing down 00:01:50.560 --> 00:01:53.700 experimental mechanical beasts. Tanks. Right, 00:01:54.040 --> 00:01:56.439 tanks. And you have church bells ringing in premature 00:01:56.439 --> 00:01:58.939 celebration back in Linden, followed a few days 00:01:58.939 --> 00:02:01.459 later by the terrifying debut of an entirely 00:02:01.459 --> 00:02:04.060 new kind of infantry assault that just completely 00:02:04.060 --> 00:02:05.980 paralyzed the defenders. With a roller coaster 00:02:05.980 --> 00:02:08.620 of an operation. Okay let's unpack this. Because 00:02:08.620 --> 00:02:12.439 the battle plan didn't just come from some single 00:02:12.439 --> 00:02:15.180 top -down directive from a general in a chateau, 00:02:15.539 --> 00:02:18.900 it was a merging of two very radical, very different 00:02:18.900 --> 00:02:22.060 ideas. From officers who were just desperately 00:02:22.060 --> 00:02:24.520 trying to break the trench warfare stalemate, 00:02:24.699 --> 00:02:27.439 you had tacticians looking at the catastrophic 00:02:27.439 --> 00:02:30.479 losses of previous offenses and realizing, you 00:02:30.479 --> 00:02:32.699 know, the old methods simply didn't work anymore. 00:02:33.060 --> 00:02:36.159 So on one side, you have Major General Henry 00:02:36.159 --> 00:02:37.860 Tudor. Right. He was commanding the artillery 00:02:37.860 --> 00:02:40.280 of the 9th Division. And Tudor wanted to launch 00:02:40.280 --> 00:02:43.539 an attack relying heavily on surprise. He wanted 00:02:43.539 --> 00:02:45.819 to use a relatively new concept called silent 00:02:45.819 --> 00:02:48.300 registration alongside something called sound 00:02:48.300 --> 00:02:51.009 ranging. And the mechanics of silent registration 00:02:51.009 --> 00:02:53.750 are just brilliant, because prior to Cambrai, 00:02:54.250 --> 00:02:56.530 if an artillery battery wanted to hit a specific 00:02:56.530 --> 00:02:59.550 target, say a pillbox or a crossroads, they had 00:02:59.550 --> 00:03:01.770 to fire practice rounds. They called it registering 00:03:01.770 --> 00:03:04.289 the gun. Right. Spotters would watch where those 00:03:04.289 --> 00:03:06.210 shells landed, and the gunners would manually 00:03:06.210 --> 00:03:08.590 adjust their aim until they hit the target. But 00:03:08.590 --> 00:03:11.310 doing that for days across an entire front line 00:03:11.310 --> 00:03:14.150 completely broadcasts your intentions. It essentially 00:03:14.150 --> 00:03:16.409 tells the enemy exactly where you're going to 00:03:16.409 --> 00:03:19.340 attack. It guarantees they will bring up reserves 00:03:19.340 --> 00:03:23.400 and man their machine guns long before your infantry 00:03:23.400 --> 00:03:25.939 even goes over the top. So Tudor's proposition 00:03:25.939 --> 00:03:28.919 was to use mathematics and meteorology to bypass 00:03:28.919 --> 00:03:31.460 that entirely. Which was incredibly ambitious 00:03:31.460 --> 00:03:34.939 for 1917. Insanely ambitious. They were calculating 00:03:34.939 --> 00:03:37.800 the exact muzzle velocity of the guns, the weight 00:03:37.800 --> 00:03:41.439 of the shells, wind speed, air temperature, even 00:03:41.439 --> 00:03:43.560 barometric pressure. All done on paper. Right. 00:03:43.870 --> 00:03:46.189 to theoretically predict where a shell would 00:03:46.189 --> 00:03:48.530 land without ever firing a single test shot. 00:03:48.710 --> 00:03:50.650 And you combine that with sound ranging. Which 00:03:50.650 --> 00:03:53.389 is what, exactly? It's using an array of microphones 00:03:53.389 --> 00:03:55.949 to capture the sound waves of enemy artillery 00:03:55.949 --> 00:03:58.770 and then triangulating their position using the 00:03:58.770 --> 00:04:02.009 speed of sound. Tudor believed if he used both 00:04:02.009 --> 00:04:04.449 of these, he could instantly paralyze the German 00:04:04.449 --> 00:04:07.409 batteries at the exact moment the infantry advanced. 00:04:07.629 --> 00:04:10.169 No warning whatsoever. So that's the artillery 00:04:10.169 --> 00:04:13.229 side. But simultaneously, you have officers in 00:04:13.229 --> 00:04:15.629 the Tank Corps, particularly JFC Fuller, who 00:04:15.629 --> 00:04:17.769 were desperate to prove what massed armor could 00:04:17.769 --> 00:04:20.269 do. Because prior to this, tanks had only been 00:04:20.269 --> 00:04:23.170 used in small numbers. They often just got bogged 00:04:23.170 --> 00:04:24.990 down in the mud of places like Passchendaele. 00:04:25.149 --> 00:04:28.250 So Fuller is looking for firm, chalky ground. 00:04:28.490 --> 00:04:31.509 He wants to unleash a concentrated fleet of tanks 00:04:31.509 --> 00:04:34.610 to basically raid the enemy lines, crush the 00:04:34.610 --> 00:04:37.310 wire, and cause absolute panic. And this is where 00:04:37.310 --> 00:04:39.829 General Julian Bing comes in. He's commanding 00:04:39.829 --> 00:04:42.329 the British Third Army, and he sees the potential 00:04:42.329 --> 00:04:45.350 in both Tudor's artillery plan and Fuller's tank 00:04:45.350 --> 00:04:48.310 raid. So he decides to combine them into one 00:04:48.310 --> 00:04:52.180 massive, full -scale offensive. But the logistics 00:04:52.180 --> 00:04:54.899 of combining these elements, I mean, they're 00:04:54.899 --> 00:04:57.740 orchestrating a symphony of new, highly temperamental 00:04:57.740 --> 00:05:00.180 technologies here. Oh, absolutely. For example, 00:05:00.180 --> 00:05:02.259 to help the tanks cross the battlefield, the 00:05:02.259 --> 00:05:05.100 artillery heavily utilized the Noble 106 fuse. 00:05:05.259 --> 00:05:07.779 The wire cutter fuse. Exactly. Because earlier 00:05:07.779 --> 00:05:10.680 in the war, high explosive shells often just 00:05:10.680 --> 00:05:12.680 buried themselves deep in the mud before detonating. 00:05:12.839 --> 00:05:15.480 Which creates massive craters. Right. And those 00:05:15.480 --> 00:05:18.540 craters essentially became impassable tank traps. 00:05:18.939 --> 00:05:21.209 The tanks would just fall in and get stuck. But 00:05:21.209 --> 00:05:23.709 the Nova 106 was a highly sensitive percussion 00:05:23.709 --> 00:05:26.350 fuse designed to detonate the instant it touched 00:05:26.350 --> 00:05:29.089 anything. Even a single strand of barbed wire. 00:05:29.389 --> 00:05:31.990 So it effectively acts as a giant wire cutter 00:05:31.990 --> 00:05:34.769 that sweeps the ground clear without destroying 00:05:34.769 --> 00:05:36.990 the actual terrain the tanks need to drive over. 00:05:37.129 --> 00:05:39.470 It was crucial. Yeah. But it wasn't just artillery 00:05:39.470 --> 00:05:42.089 and tanks. Bing also brought in the Royal Flying 00:05:42.089 --> 00:05:45.180 Corps. The RFC. Right. In the weeks leading up 00:05:45.180 --> 00:05:48.439 to the battle, RFC squadrons began training specifically 00:05:48.439 --> 00:05:50.959 for close air support and ground attack tactics. 00:05:51.139 --> 00:05:54.360 Which, again, is so modern. Very. They were given 00:05:54.360 --> 00:05:56.899 detailed assignments to fly at incredibly low 00:05:56.899 --> 00:05:59.439 altitudes. We're talking sometimes just 50 feet 00:05:59.439 --> 00:06:01.879 off the ground. Just flying right over the mud 00:06:01.879 --> 00:06:04.560 to attack trenches, shoot up supply convoys, 00:06:04.740 --> 00:06:06.959 and bomb enemy airfields as the infantry advanced. 00:06:07.139 --> 00:06:09.800 Which introduces an entirely new layer of complexity. 00:06:10.160 --> 00:06:12.519 What's fascinating here is that this is the birth 00:06:12.519 --> 00:06:16.100 of industrial modern... combined arms warfare. 00:06:16.699 --> 00:06:18.680 You are looking at predicted artillery fire, 00:06:18.899 --> 00:06:22.040 sound ranging, massed armor, infantry coordination, 00:06:22.560 --> 00:06:25.220 and close air support, all attempting to operate 00:06:25.220 --> 00:06:26.959 in unison. I mean, put yourself in the shoes 00:06:26.959 --> 00:06:30.439 of a British staff officer in November 1917 trying 00:06:30.439 --> 00:06:33.220 to coordinate this. You are dealing with primitive 00:06:33.220 --> 00:06:35.939 biplanes trying to fly through the trajectory 00:06:35.939 --> 00:06:39.279 of your own artillery shells. You have over 400 00:06:39.279 --> 00:06:42.540 mechanical tanks that are notoriously prone to 00:06:42.540 --> 00:06:46.060 engine failures, carbon monoxide leaks and slipping 00:06:46.060 --> 00:06:47.779 their tracks. All of them moving at the speed 00:06:47.779 --> 00:06:50.500 of a walking man. Right. You have over a thousand 00:06:50.500 --> 00:06:53.240 artillery pieces being aimed blindly using paper 00:06:53.240 --> 00:06:55.759 math, and you have to move all of this men and 00:06:55.759 --> 00:06:59.120 material into position at night, in total secrecy, 00:06:59.439 --> 00:07:01.680 right under the nose of the German sentries. 00:07:01.879 --> 00:07:04.259 The sheer friction of war suggests a dozen ways 00:07:04.259 --> 00:07:05.959 this could have failed before it even began. 00:07:06.120 --> 00:07:08.420 But the meticulous preparation largely helped. 00:07:08.579 --> 00:07:11.339 It did. The German command had some vague intelligence 00:07:11.339 --> 00:07:13.480 from prisoners that an attack was being prepared 00:07:13.480 --> 00:07:16.300 and they knew tanks were in the sector. But they 00:07:16.300 --> 00:07:18.879 completely misjudged the scale and the timing. 00:07:19.079 --> 00:07:21.879 Which brings us to dawn on November 20th. The 00:07:21.879 --> 00:07:25.579 first day. At exactly 6 20 a .m. one thousand 00:07:25.579 --> 00:07:28.899 and three British guns opened fire simultaneously. 00:07:29.379 --> 00:07:31.860 There is no preliminary bombardment lasting for 00:07:31.860 --> 00:07:35.279 days. It is just instant devastating shock action. 00:07:35.420 --> 00:07:37.680 And the predicted fire and sound ranging work 00:07:37.680 --> 00:07:40.459 beautifully. They immediately suppress the German 00:07:40.459 --> 00:07:43.379 artillery and blanket the observation posts in 00:07:43.379 --> 00:07:46.220 tear gas and smoke. And behind that smoke, a 00:07:46.220 --> 00:07:48.779 creeping barrage begins to advance. Which requires 00:07:48.779 --> 00:07:52.470 absolute... terrifying synchronization. For those 00:07:52.470 --> 00:07:54.610 who don't know, a creeping barrage is the literal 00:07:54.610 --> 00:07:57.550 wall of high -explosive shells advancing across 00:07:57.550 --> 00:07:59.670 the battlefield at a precise mathematical rate, 00:08:00.089 --> 00:08:01.990 usually about 50 yards per minute. So the infantry 00:08:01.990 --> 00:08:04.250 has to walk right behind it. Right. Six divisions 00:08:04.250 --> 00:08:06.350 of advancing British infantry had to walk directly 00:08:06.350 --> 00:08:08.490 behind this moving wall of fire. If they walked 00:08:08.490 --> 00:08:10.449 too fast, they were obliterated by their own 00:08:10.449 --> 00:08:12.399 artillery. And if they walked too slow... The 00:08:12.399 --> 00:08:14.959 barrage would move past the German dugouts, giving 00:08:14.959 --> 00:08:16.759 the defenders time to run up the stairs from 00:08:16.759 --> 00:08:19.019 their bunkers and man their machine guns before 00:08:19.019 --> 00:08:21.240 the British arrive. It's a razor thin margin 00:08:21.240 --> 00:08:23.740 for error, but pressing forward right alongside 00:08:23.740 --> 00:08:26.279 the infantry are four hundred and thirty seven 00:08:26.279 --> 00:08:30.779 mark four tanks. These are 30 ton rhomboid. Monsters 00:08:30.779 --> 00:08:33.240 crushing the belts of barbed wire that were supposed 00:08:33.240 --> 00:08:36.600 to be completely impassable. The psychological 00:08:36.600 --> 00:08:38.919 impact on the German defenders in those opening 00:08:38.919 --> 00:08:41.820 hours was staggering. Absolutely paralyzing. 00:08:42.059 --> 00:08:45.200 By midday, the British had ruptured the Hindenburg 00:08:45.200 --> 00:08:48.460 Line, penetrating up to five miles deep in certain 00:08:48.460 --> 00:08:50.820 sectors. And to understand the magnitude of a 00:08:50.820 --> 00:08:53.700 five mile advance in 1917, you just have to look 00:08:53.700 --> 00:08:56.480 at the previous offensive at Passchendaele. The 00:08:56.480 --> 00:08:58.299 British spent three months fighting through a 00:08:58.299 --> 00:09:00.519 nightmare of mud, suffering hundreds of thousands 00:09:00.519 --> 00:09:03.379 of casualties to advance roughly the same distance. 00:09:03.639 --> 00:09:06.940 Three months versus six hours. Exactly. At Cambrai, 00:09:06.960 --> 00:09:10.220 they did it in six hours, capturing over 4 ,000 00:09:10.220 --> 00:09:12.500 prisoners with a fraction of the casualty rate. 00:09:12.679 --> 00:09:15.320 It was a tactical triumph that sent shockwaves 00:09:15.320 --> 00:09:17.740 all the way back to London, where they literally 00:09:17.740 --> 00:09:20.840 rang the church bells in celebration. But a breakthrough 00:09:20.840 --> 00:09:23.139 on a map doesn't mean the reality on the ground 00:09:23.139 --> 00:09:26.860 is flawless. The friction of using all this untested, 00:09:27.080 --> 00:09:29.539 heavy technology immediately started to show. 00:09:29.740 --> 00:09:31.460 The machinery just wasn't reliable enough yet. 00:09:31.659 --> 00:09:34.279 No. One of the most vivid examples involves the 00:09:34.279 --> 00:09:36.620 20th Division's advance toward the Canal de Saint 00:09:36.620 --> 00:09:39.480 -Quentin at Mesnier. They actually managed to 00:09:39.480 --> 00:09:42.179 secure a crucial bridge spanning the canal. Which 00:09:42.179 --> 00:09:45.759 is a huge prize in an advance. Massive. But when 00:09:45.759 --> 00:09:48.740 a Mark IV tank, the specific one was named Flying 00:09:48.740 --> 00:09:52.120 Fox Stasic, when it attempted to cross, the masonry 00:09:52.120 --> 00:09:54.539 simply couldn't handle the 30 times tons of unsprung 00:09:54.539 --> 00:09:57.000 weight. It wasn't built for tanks. Right. The 00:09:57.000 --> 00:09:59.659 bridge spectacularly collapsed, taking the tank 00:09:59.659 --> 00:10:02.620 down with it into the canal and completely severing 00:10:02.620 --> 00:10:04.500 the route for the cavalry and remaining armor 00:10:04.500 --> 00:10:07.320 to exploit the gap. So infrastructure failure 00:10:07.320 --> 00:10:10.200 was one major vulnerability. The other was the 00:10:10.200 --> 00:10:12.899 assumption that the tanks were invulnerable to 00:10:12.899 --> 00:10:14.840 standard field artillery, which they learned 00:10:14.840 --> 00:10:17.200 the hard way at Fleskier. Yeah. At the village 00:10:17.200 --> 00:10:19.860 of Fleskier, the British armor ran into a wall 00:10:19.860 --> 00:10:22.360 of resistance that halted the entire center of 00:10:22.360 --> 00:10:25.759 the advance. And for decades, a myth circulated 00:10:25.759 --> 00:10:28.919 about a lone German gunner at Flesquière. Oh, 00:10:29.019 --> 00:10:31.019 right, the lone gunner. Yeah, the story was about 00:10:31.019 --> 00:10:34.100 a single heroic artillery officer who stood by 00:10:34.100 --> 00:10:36.679 his field gun after his crew was killed and just 00:10:36.679 --> 00:10:38.940 single -handedly knocked out a wave of British 00:10:38.940 --> 00:10:42.019 tanks. It's a very romantic, cinematic image, 00:10:42.539 --> 00:10:45.039 but the tactical reality is far more interesting 00:10:45.039 --> 00:10:47.580 than the myth. The tanks weren't stopped by a 00:10:47.580 --> 00:10:50.440 lucky lone wolf. They ran headlong into Field 00:10:50.440 --> 00:10:53.039 Artillery Regiment 108, commanded by Major Krebs. 00:10:53.200 --> 00:10:54.980 Right. And this wasn't just a standard artillery 00:10:54.980 --> 00:10:57.379 battery. This was a unit that had specifically 00:10:57.379 --> 00:11:00.019 trained in anti -tank tactics. Because they had 00:11:00.019 --> 00:11:01.940 faced French armor earlier in the year. Right. 00:11:02.179 --> 00:11:04.740 During the Nivelle Offensive. Exactly. They understood 00:11:04.740 --> 00:11:07.659 the vulnerabilities of the Mark 4 tank. So they 00:11:07.659 --> 00:11:10.519 pulled their field guns out of the standard indirect 00:11:10.519 --> 00:11:13.480 fire pits and positioned them for direct line 00:11:13.480 --> 00:11:15.179 of sight fire. They were basically using them 00:11:15.179 --> 00:11:17.960 as giant sniper rifles against the tanks. Pretty 00:11:17.960 --> 00:11:20.919 much. By holding their nerve and waiting until 00:11:20.919 --> 00:11:23.700 the tanks crested the ridge of Flesquier, they 00:11:23.700 --> 00:11:26.320 utilized their specialized training to devastating 00:11:26.320 --> 00:11:29.580 effect. They knocked out nearly 40 tanks in that 00:11:29.580 --> 00:11:33.000 sector alone. Wow. It just proves that even when 00:11:33.000 --> 00:11:35.139 confronted with a revolutionary new technology, 00:11:35.659 --> 00:11:39.460 a well -trained adaptive unit can develop countermeasures 00:11:39.460 --> 00:11:42.220 very quickly. And the broader statistics from 00:11:42.220 --> 00:11:44.620 the end of that first day really highlight the 00:11:44.620 --> 00:11:48.320 fragility of the 1917 tank fleet. Out of the 00:11:48.320 --> 00:11:53.379 437 tanks that rolled out at dawn, 179 were completely 00:11:53.379 --> 00:11:55.620 out of action by nightfall. That is a massive 00:11:55.620 --> 00:11:58.200 attrition rate. It is. But the breakdown of why 00:11:58.200 --> 00:11:59.960 they were out of action is the crucial part. 00:12:00.250 --> 00:12:03.029 Only 65 of those tanks were actually destroyed 00:12:03.029 --> 00:12:05.009 by German artillery fire. So what happened to 00:12:05.009 --> 00:12:08.710 the rest? 71 of them suffered catastrophic mechanical 00:12:08.710 --> 00:12:11.970 breakdowns, blown engines, snap drive chains, 00:12:12.570 --> 00:12:16.110 and 43 of them simply ditched. Ditching was a 00:12:16.110 --> 00:12:19.429 constant hazard with early tanks. If a tank slid 00:12:19.429 --> 00:12:22.690 sideways into a wide communication trench or 00:12:22.690 --> 00:12:24.690 high centered itself on a massive tree stump, 00:12:25.169 --> 00:12:27.230 the tracks would just spin in the mud. They had 00:12:27.230 --> 00:12:30.190 no traction. Right. And without dedicated recovery 00:12:30.190 --> 00:12:32.450 vehicles, a bitch tank was essentially just a 00:12:32.450 --> 00:12:35.830 concrete pillbox, completely useless for an advancing 00:12:35.830 --> 00:12:38.860 offensive. So while the initial shock broke the 00:12:38.860 --> 00:12:41.980 line, the mechanized spearhead had effectively 00:12:41.980 --> 00:12:44.759 blunted itself through sheer mechanical attrition 00:12:44.759 --> 00:12:47.620 within 24 hours. Which fundamentally changes 00:12:47.620 --> 00:12:49.580 the geometry of the battlefield over the next 00:12:49.580 --> 00:12:52.120 week. The element of surprise is gone, the tanks 00:12:52.120 --> 00:12:54.519 are mostly broken down or destroyed, and the 00:12:54.519 --> 00:12:56.779 battle degrades into the exact kind of horrific 00:12:56.779 --> 00:12:59.080 attrition it was designed to avoid. Yeah. From 00:12:59.080 --> 00:13:02.039 November 21st to November 28th, the focus of 00:13:02.039 --> 00:13:04.580 the fighting narrows onto Berlon Ridge and Borlon 00:13:04.580 --> 00:13:07.139 Wood. Which was this dense heavily contested 00:13:07.139 --> 00:13:09.620 high ground that dominated the battlefield. The 00:13:09.620 --> 00:13:12.059 fighting in Burland Wood was just a brutal close 00:13:12.059 --> 00:13:16.059 quarter slog. The infantry was exhausted, having 00:13:16.059 --> 00:13:18.820 far outrun their supply lines during that initial 00:13:18.820 --> 00:13:21.879 five mile sprint. Taking and holding that wood 00:13:21.879 --> 00:13:24.639 came at an appalling cost. Just to give a sense 00:13:24.639 --> 00:13:27.480 of scale, the 40th Division sustained over 4 00:13:27.480 --> 00:13:30.240 ,000 casualties in just three days of fighting 00:13:30.240 --> 00:13:33.600 among those trees. and the German command rapidly 00:13:33.600 --> 00:13:35.759 poured reinforcements into the sector. They didn't 00:13:35.759 --> 00:13:38.740 just plug the gap, they concentrated a terrifying 00:13:38.740 --> 00:13:40.820 amount of artillery on the new British positions. 00:13:41.039 --> 00:13:43.419 On November 28th alone, German batteries fired 00:13:43.419 --> 00:13:47.379 over 16 ,000 shells into Burlong Wood. 16 ,000 00:13:47.379 --> 00:13:50.019 in one day. The British troops were essentially 00:13:50.019 --> 00:13:53.299 sitting in a newly formed salient, a bulge protruding 00:13:53.299 --> 00:13:55.720 into enemy territory, which meant they were taking 00:13:55.720 --> 00:13:57.980 fire from three different directions. So by the 00:13:57.980 --> 00:14:00.220 28th, the British offensive is officially halted. 00:14:00.330 --> 00:14:02.490 The troops were ordered to string wire and dig 00:14:02.490 --> 00:14:04.610 defensive trenches. But the Germans were not 00:14:04.610 --> 00:14:07.490 content to simply stabilize the line. They assembled 00:14:07.490 --> 00:14:10.129 20 divisions in the area and prepared a massive 00:14:10.129 --> 00:14:12.909 counter -stroke. On November 30th, they launched 00:14:12.909 --> 00:14:15.190 the largest counter -attack against the British 00:14:15.190 --> 00:14:17.610 Expeditionary Force since the opening months 00:14:17.610 --> 00:14:20.549 of the war in 1914. Here's where it gets really 00:14:20.549 --> 00:14:23.090 interesting. Because the Germans didn't revert 00:14:23.090 --> 00:14:25.590 to the old methods of human wave attacks either. 00:14:25.850 --> 00:14:28.269 Just as the British had innovated with tanks 00:14:28.269 --> 00:14:31.309 and predicted fire, the Germans unveiled their 00:14:31.309 --> 00:14:34.210 own tactical revolution. Infiltration tactics. 00:14:34.429 --> 00:14:37.490 Right. Often referred to as Hutier tactics, heavily 00:14:37.490 --> 00:14:39.710 supported by an artillery doctrine orchestrated 00:14:39.710 --> 00:14:42.470 by Colonel Jarge Bruckmuller. Bruckmuller's approach 00:14:42.470 --> 00:14:44.690 to artillery was entirely different from the 00:14:44.690 --> 00:14:47.129 week -long bombardments of the past. He designed 00:14:47.129 --> 00:14:50.210 short, incredibly intense hurricane bombardments. 00:14:50.289 --> 00:14:52.570 No more pounding the dirt for a week. Exactly. 00:14:52.779 --> 00:14:55.059 But more importantly, he mixed high explosives 00:14:55.059 --> 00:14:58.240 with gas shells, specifically targeting the British 00:14:58.240 --> 00:15:00.500 artillery batteries and command posts in the 00:15:00.500 --> 00:15:03.360 rear to blind and silence the defensive guns. 00:15:03.679 --> 00:15:05.639 In the moment this brief bombardment lifted, 00:15:06.019 --> 00:15:08.799 the infantry attacked, but not in long, slow 00:15:08.799 --> 00:15:11.440 -moving lines. They used specialized stormtroops. 00:15:11.639 --> 00:15:14.720 These were heavily armed, fast moving squads 00:15:14.720 --> 00:15:17.820 leading the assault and their orders ran completely 00:15:17.820 --> 00:15:20.759 counter to traditional military thinking. If 00:15:20.759 --> 00:15:23.240 a stormtroop squad encountered a heavily defended 00:15:23.240 --> 00:15:26.720 British pillbox or a stubborn machine gun nest, 00:15:26.980 --> 00:15:29.360 they didn't stop to lay siege to it. They completely 00:15:29.360 --> 00:15:31.799 bypassed it. They float around the strong points 00:15:31.799 --> 00:15:34.559 like water around a rock, pushing as deep and 00:15:34.559 --> 00:15:37.240 as fast as they could into the British rear areas. 00:15:37.419 --> 00:15:40.440 Because the objective was to sever communication 00:15:40.440 --> 00:15:43.470 lines. overrun artillery batteries before they 00:15:43.470 --> 00:15:46.370 could deploy and just cause widespread panic. 00:15:46.590 --> 00:15:49.110 And it worked. The speed of this infiltration 00:15:49.110 --> 00:15:51.669 on the southern flank of the salient was unprecedented. 00:15:52.169 --> 00:15:54.429 They covered miles of ground in a matter of hours, 00:15:54.730 --> 00:15:56.750 collapsing the British defense from the inside 00:15:56.750 --> 00:15:59.879 out. The chaos in the rear was absolute. British 00:15:59.879 --> 00:16:02.399 supply clerks, cooks, and engineers suddenly 00:16:02.399 --> 00:16:04.460 found German stormtroopers appearing behind their 00:16:04.460 --> 00:16:07.019 lines. There's this crazy detail about Brigadier 00:16:07.019 --> 00:16:09.580 General Berkley Vincent. He literally had to 00:16:09.580 --> 00:16:11.799 fight his way out of his own headquarters. He 00:16:11.799 --> 00:16:14.000 was grabbing retreating stragglers on the road 00:16:14.000 --> 00:16:16.799 just to try and string together a makeshift defensive 00:16:16.799 --> 00:16:19.620 line to protect the vital supply routes. Up on 00:16:19.620 --> 00:16:22.240 the northern flank of Berlant Ridge, the British 00:16:22.240 --> 00:16:25.039 defense was slightly more structured but equally 00:16:25.039 --> 00:16:27.730 desperate. The units holding the high ground 00:16:27.730 --> 00:16:30.870 were subjected to relentless assaults. The volume 00:16:30.870 --> 00:16:33.970 of fire required to hold the line was staggering. 00:16:34.990 --> 00:16:37.789 Records detail one group of eight British Vickers 00:16:37.789 --> 00:16:41.090 machine guns that fired an astonishing 70 ,000 00:16:41.090 --> 00:16:44.230 rounds to repel the German infiltration units. 00:16:44.730 --> 00:16:48.350 70 ,000 rounds from eight guns. Imagine the physical 00:16:48.350 --> 00:16:50.649 toll of that. Those water -cooled machine guns 00:16:50.649 --> 00:16:52.509 would have been boiling off their water jackets 00:16:52.509 --> 00:16:55.700 constantly. Crews were desperately swapping barrels 00:16:55.700 --> 00:16:58.299 and feeding canvas belts of ammunition for hours 00:16:58.299 --> 00:17:01.240 on end. The sheer volume of lead in the air is 00:17:01.240 --> 00:17:03.740 difficult to even comprehend. But through a combination 00:17:03.740 --> 00:17:06.500 of this desperate defense, the arrival of a few 00:17:06.500 --> 00:17:08.619 reserve tanks and counterattacks by the Guards 00:17:08.619 --> 00:17:10.980 Division, the British managed to hold the northern 00:17:10.980 --> 00:17:13.220 ridge. But the southern flank had been completely 00:17:13.220 --> 00:17:16.000 caved in. Yeah, the ferocity of the German counterattack 00:17:16.000 --> 00:17:18.400 forced the British high command to recognize 00:17:18.400 --> 00:17:21.160 that holding the entire newly captured salient 00:17:21.160 --> 00:17:23.640 was tactically impossible. were too exposed. 00:17:23.960 --> 00:17:26.220 So in the first week of December, the order was 00:17:26.220 --> 00:17:29.119 given for a partial withdrawal, which brings 00:17:29.119 --> 00:17:31.559 us to the final map on December 7th, when the 00:17:31.559 --> 00:17:33.519 battle officially ends. And when you look at 00:17:33.519 --> 00:17:36.200 that map. If you overlay the front line of November 00:17:36.200 --> 00:17:39.079 19th with the front line of December 7th, it 00:17:39.079 --> 00:17:42.119 is essentially a draw. The British retained a 00:17:42.119 --> 00:17:44.660 strip of captured territory in the north, including 00:17:44.660 --> 00:17:48.079 the villages of Hefrenkor, Rebrokor, and Flisker. 00:17:48.329 --> 00:17:51.289 But to the south, the Germans had not only recaptured 00:17:51.289 --> 00:17:53.809 their lost ground, they had actually pushed past 00:17:53.809 --> 00:17:56.549 the original start line, taking territory around 00:17:56.549 --> 00:18:00.069 Gomelu. So the territorial exchange was negligible, 00:18:00.529 --> 00:18:04.630 but the human cost was immense. Calculating exact 00:18:04.630 --> 00:18:07.789 numbers for World War I battles is notoriously 00:18:07.789 --> 00:18:10.630 difficult, due to how different armies categorized 00:18:10.630 --> 00:18:13.700 the wounded. But the data is stark. Right. British 00:18:13.700 --> 00:18:16.180 casualties are estimated to be between 44 ,000 00:18:16.180 --> 00:18:18.819 and 75 ,000, depending on whether lightly wounded 00:18:18.819 --> 00:18:21.220 soldiers treated at local casualty clearing stations 00:18:21.220 --> 00:18:23.400 are included. And the official German medical 00:18:23.400 --> 00:18:26.900 reports compiled later listed over 54 ,000 casualties 00:18:26.900 --> 00:18:30.119 for the Cambria operations. Over 100 ,000 men 00:18:30.119 --> 00:18:33.019 killed, wounded, or captured for a map that barely 00:18:33.019 --> 00:18:36.519 changed. So what does this all mean? if the front 00:18:36.519 --> 00:18:38.980 line ended up right back where it started and 00:18:38.980 --> 00:18:41.319 the human toll was just as horrific as previous 00:18:41.319 --> 00:18:44.440 battles. Why is Cambrai considered a master class 00:18:44.440 --> 00:18:47.099 in the blueprint of modern warfare? If we connect 00:18:47.099 --> 00:18:49.779 this to the bigger picture, Cambrai completely 00:18:49.779 --> 00:18:51.759 shattered the strategic paradigms of the First 00:18:51.759 --> 00:18:55.259 World War. How so? Well, for three years, the 00:18:55.259 --> 00:18:57.420 assumption was that a heavily fortified trench 00:18:57.420 --> 00:19:00.119 system, defended by machine guns and deep wire, 00:19:00.480 --> 00:19:02.720 could only be breached through months of attritional 00:19:02.720 --> 00:19:06.119 bombardment and massive loss of life. Cambry 00:19:06.119 --> 00:19:08.640 proved definitively that surprise, combined with 00:19:08.640 --> 00:19:10.799 the synchronized application of armor, artillery, 00:19:11.119 --> 00:19:13.680 infantry, and air power, could crack the strongest 00:19:13.680 --> 00:19:15.799 fortress in the world in a matter of hours. It 00:19:15.799 --> 00:19:18.240 proved the concept was viable, even if the machinery 00:19:18.240 --> 00:19:20.900 of 1917 was still too fragile to sustain the 00:19:20.900 --> 00:19:23.500 momentum. And the psychological shock to the 00:19:23.500 --> 00:19:26.440 German high command was profound. Following the 00:19:26.440 --> 00:19:29.720 battle, Crown Prince Ruprecht observed the new 00:19:29.720 --> 00:19:33.000 reality of the battlefield. He stated, Wherever 00:19:33.000 --> 00:19:36.099 the ground offers suitable going for tanks, surprise 00:19:36.099 --> 00:19:39.099 attacks like this may be expected. That being 00:19:39.099 --> 00:19:41.640 the case, there can be no more mention therefore 00:19:41.640 --> 00:19:44.740 of quiet fronts. No more quiet fronts. Which 00:19:44.740 --> 00:19:47.740 completely changes the economic and logistical 00:19:47.740 --> 00:19:50.700 reality of the war. After Cambrai, the German 00:19:50.700 --> 00:19:52.859 military had to constantly look over its shoulder. 00:19:52.960 --> 00:19:55.789 They were forced to adapt. Yes. They were forced 00:19:55.789 --> 00:19:59.250 to divert immense amounts of scarce steel, manufacturing 00:19:59.250 --> 00:20:02.529 capacity, and manpower into producing anti -tank 00:20:02.529 --> 00:20:05.509 rifles, armor -piercing ammunition, and constructing 00:20:05.509 --> 00:20:07.769 wider trenches specifically designed to stop 00:20:07.769 --> 00:20:10.329 tanks. And every ounce of steel poured into an 00:20:10.329 --> 00:20:12.670 anti -tank obstacle was an ounce of steel that 00:20:12.670 --> 00:20:15.029 couldn't be used to build a U -boat or an artillery 00:20:15.029 --> 00:20:18.109 piece. Exactly. The mere existence of massed 00:20:18.109 --> 00:20:20.250 armor stretched the German war economy to the 00:20:20.250 --> 00:20:22.549 breaking point. And the legacy of that paradigm 00:20:22.549 --> 00:20:25.410 shift is still highly visible today. The Royal 00:20:25.410 --> 00:20:27.549 Tank Regiment of the British Army celebrates 00:20:27.549 --> 00:20:30.210 Cambry Day annually, marking the moment they 00:20:30.210 --> 00:20:32.630 proved massed armor could change the world. And 00:20:32.630 --> 00:20:34.910 the commemoration extends globally, too. Right. 00:20:35.009 --> 00:20:37.430 The Indian Army's 2nd Lancers celebrate Canberra 00:20:37.430 --> 00:20:40.269 Day every December 1st, specifically honoring 00:20:40.269 --> 00:20:43.049 Lance Daffodar Gobind Singh, who was awarded 00:20:43.049 --> 00:20:45.750 the Victoria Cross for extraordinary bravery 00:20:45.750 --> 00:20:48.730 during the battle. It's a powerful reminder of 00:20:48.730 --> 00:20:51.349 how vast and diverse the forces engaged in this 00:20:51.349 --> 00:20:53.990 conflict truly were. Canberra represents the 00:20:53.990 --> 00:20:57.230 painful, messy, but undeniable transition into 00:20:57.230 --> 00:20:59.470 modern warfare. The British demonstrated how 00:20:59.470 --> 00:21:01.849 to break a line using combined arms and technology. 00:21:02.079 --> 00:21:04.559 And the Germans demonstrated how to counterattack 00:21:04.559 --> 00:21:07.819 using speed, bypass tactics, and decentralized 00:21:07.819 --> 00:21:10.480 command. The lessons learned here directly laid 00:21:10.480 --> 00:21:12.579 the groundwork for the armored blitzkriegs and 00:21:12.579 --> 00:21:14.579 mobile warfare doctrines that would dominate 00:21:14.579 --> 00:21:16.799 the Second World War just two decades later. 00:21:17.220 --> 00:21:19.359 To wrap this up, the Battle of Cambrai started 00:21:19.359 --> 00:21:22.480 as an experiment. It was a theoretical test to 00:21:22.480 --> 00:21:25.180 see if mathematical artillery and a fleet of 00:21:25.180 --> 00:21:28.480 clumsy, temperamental metal boxes could do what 00:21:28.480 --> 00:21:30.900 millions of artillery shells and millions of 00:21:30.900 --> 00:21:33.880 men had failed to do for three years. And despite 00:21:33.880 --> 00:21:36.539 the mechanical failures, the tactical blunders, 00:21:36.779 --> 00:21:39.400 and the brutal counterattack, the experiment 00:21:39.400 --> 00:21:41.940 fundamentally worked. It changed everything. 00:21:42.319 --> 00:21:44.700 It did. When you look closely at Cambrai, you 00:21:44.700 --> 00:21:46.980 see millions of men being forced to completely 00:21:46.980 --> 00:21:48.880 unlearn everything they knew about fighting. 00:21:49.339 --> 00:21:51.859 They went from horses, sabers and static trenches 00:21:51.859 --> 00:21:54.740 to coordinating close air support, mechanized 00:21:54.740 --> 00:21:57.880 armor and highly fluid infiltration tactics in 00:21:57.880 --> 00:22:00.579 the span of 36 months. It's an incredible leap. 00:22:00.779 --> 00:22:02.869 It makes you wonder when you look at the incredibly 00:22:02.869 --> 00:22:05.170 rapid technological leaps happening in our own 00:22:05.170 --> 00:22:07.630 lives right now, how long does it take for our 00:22:07.630 --> 00:22:10.970 old strategies in business, in society, or in 00:22:10.970 --> 00:22:13.970 our personal lives to become totally obsolete? 00:22:14.730 --> 00:22:16.630 And more importantly, when the equivalent of 00:22:16.630 --> 00:22:19.029 a new tank rolls onto your battlefield, are you 00:22:19.029 --> 00:22:21.230 going to stubbornly dig a deeper trench, or are 00:22:21.230 --> 00:22:22.630 you going to fundamentally change the way you 00:22:22.630 --> 00:22:25.029 fight? That is exactly the kind of question we 00:22:25.029 --> 00:22:26.960 love to leave you with. Thank you for joining 00:22:26.960 --> 00:22:30.119 us on this deep dive into Cambrai. Keep learning, 00:22:30.420 --> 00:22:32.420 keep looking at the forces shaping the world, 00:22:32.640 --> 00:22:34.920 and above all, keep questioning the old ways 00:22:34.920 --> 00:22:36.960 of doing things. We will catch you next time.