German counter-attack at Cambrai

On 30 November 1917, ten days after the British breakthrough at Cambrai, the Germans went over to a counter-attack. It was the first great German offensive against the British on the Western Front since the Second Battle of Ypres in 1915. On the southern edge of the British salient the blow took the defenders by surprise and within a few hours cost them several villages, thousands of prisoners and over a hundred and fifty guns. In the north, at Bourlon Wood, the attack broke down under the fire of British machine guns and artillery.

Marwitz’s plan

As early as about 23 November the German command concluded that the British breakthrough had been contained, and began bringing divisions to Cambrai from other sectors of the front. The blow was prepared by General Georg von der Marwitz’s Second Army, part of the army group of Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria. About seven divisions of the Caudry and Busigny groups were to strike the southern arm of the salient from the east, across the Bonavis ridge and the area of Gonnelieu, and drive west towards Metz-en-Couture, into the rear of the British forces. Three divisions of Lieutenant-General Otto von Moser’s Arras group were to retake Bourlon Wood. The Germans intended to use the methods tested by General Oskar von Hutier at Riga: a short, violent bombardment instead of a preparation lasting many days, and an infantry attack in small groups that bypassed points of resistance and pushed on in depth.

The British expected an attack. VII Corps, standing south of the threatened sector, warned of German preparations, and the commanders on the spot increased their vigilance. Field Marshal Douglas Haig, however, believed that the main blow would fall on Bourlon, and sent his freshest divisions there. On the southern arm of the salient stood tired divisions that had been fighting since 20 November.

Breakthrough in the south

Shortly after six in the morning the German artillery opened fire, at first so gradually that British observers were not sure whether it was a preparation for an attack. High-explosive shells were mixed with gas and smoke, and heavy trench mortars destroyed machine-gun positions. At about 7 a.m., in the mist and before sunrise, the infantry went forward: small columns with light machine guns, in places with flamethrowers, which slipped between the British posts and surrounded them from behind. More German ground-attack aircraft appeared over the trenches than ever before. Flying low, they strafed and bombed the defenders.

At the junction of the 55th, 12th and 20th Divisions the front broke. The Germans crossed the northern end of the Bonavis ridge and the ravine between Villers-Guislain and Gonnelieu, took both villages and at about 9 a.m. entered Gouzeaucourt, a village several kilometres behind the old British front line. They captured batteries of heavy guns brought up to support the fighting at Marcoing and Masnières and a supply train that had arrived at the station a few hours earlier. According to some accounts the commanders of the 12th and 29th Divisions narrowly escaped capture, and Brigadier-General Berkeley Vincent had to fight his way out of his headquarters. Gunners, sappers, transport men and a detachment of American railway engineers of the 11th Engineer Regiment, who were building a line near Gouzeaucourt, put up resistance. They lost one officer and 27 men, some of them taken prisoner. Less than a month after the first American dead in Lorraine, it was one of the first actions fought by soldiers of the United States Army on the Western Front.

Many units held out to the end. At Little Priel Farm Sergeant Cyril Gourley of the 55th Division fired a howitzer over open sights at the attacking infantry. On the Bonavis ridge Lieutenant-Colonel Neville Elliott-Cooper led the remnants of the 8th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers, together with men of his headquarters in a counter-attack, and, badly wounded, was taken prisoner; he died in captivity in February 1918. At Les Rues Vertes near Masnières Captain Robert Gee, a staff officer of the 86th Brigade, gathered a handful of runners and orderlies, drove the Germans out of the village and barricaded it. The 29th Division held its positions at Masnières all day. All three were awarded the Victoria Cross.

Around noon help arrived. The 1st Guards Brigade, without artillery support, deployed to attack west of Gouzeaucourt and at about 1.30 p.m. retook the village, capturing about a hundred prisoners. The almost untouched batteries were recovered, as was the supply train, which fed the Guardsmen for two days. Behind them came several dozen tanks of the II Brigade of the Tank Corps, which had just been about to leave the battlefield for repair. British, Indian and Canadian cavalry tried to retake Gauche Wood and approach Villers-Guislain, but artillery and machine-gun fire stopped them. The ridge beyond Gouzeaucourt and Villers-Guislain remained in German hands.

Repulse at Bourlon

In the north, from Fontaine-Notre-Dame to Mœuvres, the Germans did not count on surprise. After a heavy bombardment by about 500 guns of the Arras group, the infantry went forward shortly after 9 a.m. in dense waves. By evening it had made five main attacks; in one place eleven waves came on one after another. The defenders were London Territorials of the 47th and 56th Divisions and the 2nd Division. According to Haig’s dispatch, a battery of eight machine guns fired 70,000 rounds into ten successive waves of attackers. A company of the 13th Battalion, Essex Regiment, cut off in a trench by the Canal du Nord, decided to fight to the end, and the sounds of its fight could still be heard in the night. Captain Walter Stone of the 17th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers, covered his company’s withdrawal with a single platoon until all of them were killed, for which he was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross. In several places the Germans broke into the front line, but counter-attacks by reserves closed the gaps. According to German figures the Arras group took only about 450 prisoners and did not capture the wood, which it drenched with gas shells during the night.

The day’s balance

According to the British official history (Wilfrid Miles), on 30 November the Third Army lost about 6,000 prisoners, 103 field guns and howitzers and 55 heavier guns. The Germans regained part of the ground taken on 20 November, and in a few places broke into the old British positions. The crisis, however, had been mastered: Gouzeaucourt was retaken, and Bourlon and Masnières held. Rupprecht was disappointed that the attack from the east had veered off its direction, but noted that even if the success was not as great as expected, the British had been dealt a blow. Ludendorff pointed out that the attack had been made with half-exhausted troops not specially trained for assault. On the British side Haig later admitted in his dispatch that the blow on the southern sector had been a local surprise. After the joy of the bells a week earlier, the government in London soon demanded an explanation of how this had happened.

In the following days the Germans renewed their attacks. On 1 December the Guards, dismounted Indian cavalry and tanks retook Gauche Wood and the ridge east of Gouzeaucourt, but during the night of 1–2 December Masnières had to be abandoned, and on 3 December the Germans took La Vacquerie. On the same day Haig ordered the forward salient with Bourlon Wood to be given up and a withdrawal to the Flesquières ridge.