Cambrai - Bourlon Wood, The 40th (Welch) Bantam Div and the Canadian Corps memorial

To conclude my posts on Cambrai I will talk a little about Bourlon Wood. The two pictures show the Canadian Corps memorial at the top of the hill, looking into the wood towards Cambrai and the other shows the view down to the village of Bourlon.

Off into the woods you can still see the tangled mess of trenches and shell holes that were fought over twice here. In the Cambrai offensive of Nov 1917 the 40th Welch Bantam Division was given the task of taking the hill and the village to clear the way into Cambrai. The name 'Bantam' division is odd - originally there were two of these divisions recruited solely from men who were between 5ft and 5ft three with a minimum chest measurement of 34in. By 1917 there were not enough natural replacements to keep to this strict standard so some of the battalions in the Div were 'normal' size whatever that means!

For three days the Welch fought hand to hand with the Prussian Guard from the 51st Division. They took the wood. They could not take the village. The division ceased to exist - there were over 4000 casualties.

The hill was lost when the British forces pulled back after Cambrai. It was finally retaken by the Canadian Corps during the September 1918 offensive. The memorial commemorates this, the crossing of the St Quentin Canal and the advance onto Mons and Germany that signalled the great breakthrough on the Hindenburg line.