Battle Of Cambrai

Great War generals are lampooned as donkeys. Dan Snow's great-grandfather's ...

Like many children of my generation, I learnt my history from the BBC's Blackadder; when it came to the First World War, I thought Stephen Fry's portrayal of blustering, incompetent General Melchett was entirely accurate. Generals were aristocratic, callous and quite possibly bloodthirsty.

Even now, it is widely thought senior officers were 'donkeys' who sent 'lions', the brave young troops, to their slaughter. A more maligned group of men in British history it would be hard to find.

There was a portrait of one of these absurd generals hanging in our family home. He has the trademark Snow features: Roman nose, squinty eyes and a box-like skull. He sits in military khaki, red tabs on his collar, a chest packed with medals, glaring out as if staring down the Mahdi of Sudan, King Cetshwayo's elite Zulu warriors or the Kaiser's troops, all of whom he faced in a long Army career. This was my great-grandfather, Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas D'Oyly Snow, one of the commanders on the Western Front. 

We knew he had been there on the first day of the Somme, the darkest day in British military history when 60,000 young men were killed or injured. But he was a distant figure to his own children and my father (the journalist Peter Snow) only met him as a baby. To me, he was just a face in a painting. We never really talked about 'the General'.

Then, at the age of 30, I took part in a BBC1 programme to mark the 90th anniversary of the Armistice and examine my great-grandfather's role in the First World War. It was time, I thought, to own up to my unfashionable relative.

Yet in the course of their work, the programme's researchers unearthed a wealth of material that has changed my view not just of General Snow, but of the war itself. In particular, they had uncovered a memoir and letters in which you can hear the old man's words and thoughts uninterrupted by time  -  a unique account from the top of the British Army stretching from the terrible retreat from Mons in the summer of 1914 to the mud-clogged horror of Ypres in 1915. It was not designed for publication and it contains no excuses or justifications for his actions. 

Instead, it comes with a simple instruction: 'If, when that time arrives, my son, or grandson, or whoever is in possession of this story, thinks that its publication would be of interest, let him publish it by all means.

Battle of Cambrai: British against German. : Battle of Cambrai ...

This campaign took place in 1917 near the French city Cambrai. Battle began on the November 20 at 8 p.m. forced by 6 infantry divisions! In spite of first coming success British forces didn’t fulfilled their aim to defeat German front. In many custom writing papers it is said that this battle is one of the first battles where tanks were used for the first time! The Cambrai campaign didn’t really influence the War. But instead it really influenced the art of doing war. First of all you can use this information in your writing thesis paper attracting people who are interested in this sphere. Cambrai battle put on the stage new forms and methods of war actions using tanks. Joint battle included foot troops, artilleries tanks and aviation.

The Battle of Cambrai

The Battle of Cambrai, November 20th to 30th, 1917

The Battle of Cambrai, The Battlefields Today

The Battle of Cambrai

The battle of Cambrai