Battlefield Tours of Cambrai
The Cambrai battlefields are, in my experience, the least of all visited and yet are located in wonderful open French countryside allowing stunning views and cover periods towards the end of 1917 and 1918.

Probably most famous for the first massed used of tanks in November 1917, the initial advances were stunning in comparison to the majority of what had occurred before.

The same ground was fought over towards the end of the war, with some historians suggesting that the Canadian breaching of the Canal du Nord, part of the German Hindenburg Line was one of the finest actions of the whole war

Excavated WW1 Tank at Cambrai

As with the other tour suggestions, you can see the highlights around Cambrai in a day, but two or even three days allows for a far greater time to understand and assimilate.

These battlefields benefit from being observed by walking, which is across easy, open farmland paths and lanes.

Day One:
Havrincourt to Flesquieres via Ribecourt
Tank Memorial at Flesquières
Visit to Deborah, excavated WW1 tank*
Flesquières Hill Cemetery
Orival Wood Cemetery and Alan Mackintosh,
the war poet
Graincourt to Anneux
Bourlon Wood
Cambrai Memorial to the Missing, Louverval

* Privately owned – with owners permission if acceptable

Further Locations:
Gouzeaucourt
Gonnelieu
La Vacquerie and the Farms
Masnières and Marcoing

 

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