Current Information:

Age-19

18, Bosworth Road, Westbourne Park

Ribécourt British Cemetery, France

The Battle of Cambrai

This was a major British offensive on the Western Front that was launched on 20th November, 1917 and lasted through to the beginning of December. As the name suggests it was an attack towards the city of Cambrai and the important German railhead there, which it was hoped would be captured. The battle was notable for two things: the massed use of tanks for the first time and the success of the first day’s fighting when the formidable Hindenburg Line was breached and gains of five miles were made in places. In celebration the church bells throughout Britain were rung. However this success was short lived. The tanks were not reliable and the German defence stiffened as the fighting progressed and when they counter attacked in force on 30th November, the British came under so much pressure that they were forced to withdraw from many of the positions they had captured earlier on. Both sides suffered around 45,000 casualties during the course of the fighting.

On 20th November, the opening day of the battle, 16 and 71 Brigades of 6th Division attacked towards Ribécourt and Marcoing. With the 1st Leicestershire and 9th Suffolk battalions leading, and tanks in attendance, 71 Brigade met little resistance and were soon in possession of the Hindenburg front system. The second wave consisting of two companies each from the 2nd Sherwood Foresters and 9th Norfolk battalions passed through to attack the first objective which included Ribécourt. 2nd Sherwood Foresters had to deal with two troublesome machine-guns but by 9am arrived at their objective and took two hundred Germans prisoner. 9th Norfolk overran their accompanying tanks in crossing Grand Ravin and so led the way into Ribécourt. They met stubborn resistance there but this ended when the tanks arrived. The attack was then taken up by the rest of 2nd Sherwood Foresters and the 11th Essex battalion attached from 18 Brigade. They had some delay in getting through Ribécourt and lost the barrage but with the enemy surrendering freely they reached the second objective by 11am. It had been a very successful operation but there had been casualties, one of whom was Henry Porter of 2nd Sherwood Foresters.