To the Last Man - Jeff Shaara [199]
The objective was the town of Cambrai, which lay behind the German lines that extended south of the churned-up battle zone of Ypres. Byng insisted that a massive force of armor on a narrow front could sweep away the usual obstacles of barbed wire, could be sent across the tops of trenches, and since armor was invulnerable to the machine gun, the tanks could target the machine-gun nests as they advanced and eliminate the German army’s most effective defensive weapon.
On November 20, they rolled out through a dense mist that masked the awesomeness of the attack. Three hundred twenty-four heavy tanks lumbered forward, crawling along in front of a quarter million British infantrymen. The attack was a complete surprise to the Germans, and though the tanks could only advance at a top speed of four miles per hour, the German defense crumbled before them; the shocked and often terrified infantrymen were helpless to stop the massive machines. But Byng’s optimism had led him to commit all his forces in the first wave without making allowances for reserves. The British pressed forward, a seemingly unstoppable force, and with Byng’s initial success, word had gone back to Haig, and then on to England, joyous reports of a stunning breakthrough. For a week, Byng’s attack seemed to rout every pocket of resistance, opening a wide hole in the German lines. But Byng’s lack of reserves meant that his grand assault began to exhaust itself. Though German infantry and machine guns alone could not stop the tanks, many of the huge machines began to stop themselves, many with mechanical problems, some failing to negotiate the wider trenches, tumbling into holes that left them completely useless. The lumbering slowness of the machines provided little protection for the British soldiers who followed them, and as the German resistance began to stiffen, the Tommies began to suffer the same horror that every infantry advance had experienced, the open ground swept by German machine guns, well hidden in long-established shelters. With the British infantry melting away into whatever shelter they could find, the tanks had to advance alone, relying only on the protection of their armor and their own guns. As they continued their push, the tanks began to roll into narrow streets of small villages, costing them their mobility, their gunners suddenly without a field of fire. The Germans began to take advantage, began to realize that this frightening new weapon could in fact be disabled. As the tanks rolled closer to the German artillery positions, they became perfect targets. The German foot soldiers had overcome their terror of the huge mechanical beasts, and men began to seek out the blind spots, began to learn that the tanks were vulnerable after all. As the tanks continued their advance, German troops scrambled out of hidden bunkers, tossing bundles of hand grenades into the tracks, or detonating explosives beneath the tanks themselves. With no reserves to assist the helpless tank crews, Byng’s assault was stopped before it could even reach the town of Cambrai. As had happened so many times before, the glorious attack was ordered to halt. While Byng continued to insist that the tank would yet be the dominant weapon on the battlefield, even Haig could not ignore the numbers. The British had lost just under fifty thousand men, nearly equal to the losses they had inflicted on the Germans. But the battle had not yet ended. The Germans were not content to simply allow the British to hold tight to the ground they had gained, nor were the tanks allowed to simply limp away. On November 30, ten days after the attack had begun, the Germans counterattacked and drove most of Byng’s forces back to their original lines. The stalemate would go on.
NOVEMBER 30, 1917
Pershing had endured