A historical simulation of the 51st British Infantry Division

Por: André Geraque Kiffer

By 1917 Cambrai had become one of the most important nodes of the German railway and command and control system. It was protected behind the defenses of the Hindenburg Line. The German defensive position comprised three lines of double trenches (front and support). There is no doubt that the Flesquieres sector was the strongest of the German forces facing the IV British Corps. The defensive position on the back slope had the crest of the movement it supported by forming the "head" of a recess that descended toward the Grand Ravine valley, which in turn was flanked by the villages of Havrincourt and Ribecourt. Understand why General Harper, the division's commander, had from the beginning doubted the possibility of such a frontal attack, without or with the support of tanks. The integrated study of terrain, means and mission will be the basis of the most important variable that, scientifically, will be altered in the simulation. This variable is to compare various methods (Fuller and Harper) for a British victory in the Flesquieres sector, which proved to be critical to subsequent failure in the area of operations, that is, changing the historic composition of the 51st Infantry Division.