Battle of Cambrai 1917: The Dawn of Tank Warfare (WW1 Documentary)

So they used tanks and combined warfare and the battle resulted in..... the same lines and ~100,000 killed. While I understand the hindsight (or is it futuresight), I can understand the German perspective at the time as the tank made no difference or changed any outcome.
And to be fair, I don't see how, even today, the use of tanks (especially without air support) would fair that much better against an near peer with no way to flank, bypass or skip defensive works armed with anti-tank weapons and tactics in the the open.

One of the key problems with tanks was not the concept, but the engines of the day. This was early in the days of the automobile. Standardized production was not yet a big thing and the engine technology was vastly under-powered. I mean, the average passenger car today produces significantly more horse power than one of those early tanks and consumes far less fuel to do so. The big issue with tanks strategy was their lack of speed. Infantry, at a normal walking pace could keep up with them and a runner could quite easily pass them. That meant that for all their armor and guns, they were extremely vulnerable. However, it was a signal of things to come. Later designs would remedy these problems and, by the end of the war, light and medium tanks could easily outpace an infantry column and get into places larger tanks could not, making them of limited fire power but greater offensive utility.

Excellent!!!

“The Germans are fixing to retake Cambrai!”

Strange to mention german use of gas but not british

Interesting tidbit: Patton was the only officer, as near as I have been able to find out, that commanded tanks in both wars.

male tank?

i like to have the german subtitles because i learn new words...Sackgasse, for instance.

So sad all these wars were fought and now in 2025 our politicians allow us to be invaded by immigration 😢

Even after the centenary series has ended, you guys keep up the quality, even add to it, with these specific case studies, with the Tank Museum at Bovington, with quotes, photographs, reconstructed maps.
Tactical breakdowns, strategic objectives, operational parameters.
To all the team at the Great War, thank you.

After the Germans lost the Battle of the Marne in 1914 and their plan to take Paris had failed (as it did not in 1870) one wonders why they kept at it for 3 1/2 more years.

Thanks for the episode

Tank you for this episode

I wish there was an option to turn off the background "music" and other sound effects.

Fantastic explanation for why morale tanked

None of my great-grandfathers participated in this war. I can only imagine the distress of losing a loved one to this while some bearded old man dreams of expanding the map of control in Syria.

Blablabla blablabla blablabla

Did the British use the 18-Pounder Field Gun at this time?

Great info on generally unknown battle, Thanks !

My great great uncle fought and died in 1917 during the battle of Passchendaele. His body was never recovered as it sank into the muddy field. His name is one of many thousands engraved on the walls of the Flanders war memorial. Lest we forget

Nos én mint magyar emberként mit is mondhatnék? Csak megjegyezném☝️ az elsö viláháborút tankokal fejeztékbe, a második világháborút tankokkal kezdték, és atommal fejeztékbe☝️a harmadikat atommal fogják kezdeni, és egy mégszörnyübb mégpusztitób fegyver fog véget vetni☝️és annyi ember marad hogy egy nagy diófa árnyéka alatt elfér☝️minden elpusztúl hosszú idöre☝️nos kell ez a emberiségnek? Hát tegyen ellene minden ember tehetségéhez mérten☝️🤝🇭🇺🍷

I think, the point of Cambrai is not "the tank", but combined warfare and cameraderie between the branches.
The Brits were successful while all their units worked in unison, but started to falter and ultimately fail when the bonds between the units broke.
Another lesson is one of logistics. Had there been more fuel for the tanks, plus additional tanks in reserve, they may have gotten further... far enough for the cavalry to ultimately punch through.

Home by Christmas

Did he say there was a guy called Henry Tudor?😂

My grandfather was wounded at Belleau Wood at the same time my other grandfather was building De Havilland day bombers and trainers at the Dayton Wright airplane factory in Dayton Ohio.

Indy was a better presenter, original thought, original concept.

The Germans used gas on the eastern front first not the other way around

Dont understand tanks of ww1 , why was the armor so thin?

I love your videos thank you

So the tank commander wants to have his tanks at the rear and be a sideshow, while the infantry commander wants the tanks to be the mainshow and the infantry to be the sideshow? Ironic.

Bro what is this thumbnail is he from arrakis ??

A 'fun fact': when these historical accounts refer to the German trenches as 'deep' they dont just mean deep for trench standards. These things were multi layered and meters deep. There are museums in Germany with funny functional and historically accurate ww1 trenches and it's no wonder these positions were impossible to take... Even with heavy artillery

this episode is going in S tier

Tanks were first used on the Somme.

just dont look up fuller after the war

Could definitely tell this inspired the german army to invent Blitzkrieg

I live in cambrai ❤

It is kind of funny that the battle of Cambrai is taken as an example for Combined Arm Warfare since it was not. Combined Arm induce communications and constant adaptation to the situation by calling the right Arm at the right time. At Cambrai, the fire of the Artillery was pre planned to allow for the tank use but very drastically reduced its effectiveness when the gap opened and the tank and infantry overshoot gunrange. The UK had past the opportunity to work on a massive motorisation of its army to focus on breakthrough tanks. A real Combined Arm operation was led and won (though at a much smaller scale than the Cambrais battle) by the French one month before at the battle of the Malmaison (in a terrible defeat, the Nivelle Offensive). And the keys were, with the tank use, a very thorough and broad communication network, and a motorized artillery.
And in 1918, only two armies had mastered the Combined Arm Warfare : the French, and the US

How did they lever a tone of facine off a reverse sloping tank roof?

Y’all do amazing work, please keep doing what you do.

Most tanks failed ore hit by german guns - not more

History should never be censored

trench warfare still happens today in Ukraine 🇺🇦 thanks to putin n tanks are still being produced today….
GET YA FACTS RIGHT

Generals still thinking of Napoleonic tactics

Can Ukraine come up with a way to break the Surovikin Line as the allies broke the stalemate in ww1? (Not that there is a stalemate, but still) Perhaps Ukraine can come up with some kind of land boat to cut through the lines?