#cambrai

"SCENES IN CAPTURED VILLAGES ON THE CAMBRAI FRONT"

[WWI FILM]

The villages of Marcoing, Flesquières and Havrincourt, Cambrai area, Western Front, 20-24 November 1917. Full description Ambulances in the main square at Marcoing shortly after its capture, 20 November. There is no great damage to the square apart from broken windows, a hall with the sign "Justice de Paix" over it and a badly damaged church. Unsaddled horses of CCXXXV Brigade RFA drinking from a pool in the centre of Flesquières. Soldiers of 51st (Highland) Division, probably Gordon Highlanders, with a captured German 210mm mortar. Royal Artillery draught horses, paddocked by a damaged building in Havrincourt, being fed. A possibly unrelated scene ends the film: a pioneer battalion gathers up picks, shovels and rifles before marching off in loose order, and a Royal Horse Artillery troop poses limbered up for the camera.

Source: Imperial War Museum

Ανδρείη τας άτας μικράς έρδει.*

- Democritus

Courage makes misfortunes seem small.*

After the German advance on 30 November 1917 during the Battle of Cambrai, the British counter-attacked on 1 December. 4th Battalion Grenadier Guards attempted to recapture Gonnelieu, just south of the Péronne-Cambrai road, south-west of Bonavis, which had fallen to the enemy the preceding day. During this action, Acting Captain G H T Paton commanded the support company. The attack failed but it prevented the Germans from advancing out of Gonnelieu. Meanwhile to the south, the British mounted several cavalry attacks south of Gauche Wood towards Villers-Guislain which had also been captured by the Germans the day before. One of these involved 2nd Lancers (Gardner’s Horse), 5th (Mhow) Cavalry Brigade.

They came under very heavy fire and were soon pinned down. Lance Dafadar Gobind Singh volunteered three times for carrying the messages over open ground under constant fire.First, he carried a report on the position to Brigade HQ and brought back the reply. He then carried another report back to the HQ but was refused permission to return to the front. His regiment eventually completed a successful withdrawal after nightfall.