Moving story of Deborah, the WW1 tank
EVERYBODY in Cambrai seems to know Deborah. ‘You’ve come to see Deborah, the Flesquieres tank?’ guessed the excited young woman at the check-in of the town’s Ibis hotel. ‘Formidable!’
Like a combatant of Arthurian myth, it feels as if First World War Mark IV tank Deborah (the tanks were ‘male’ and ‘female’ and named accordingly) has woken ready to tackle a modern challenge to Britain.
Stopped in her tracks by a shell during the battle of Cambrai 100 years ago, for unknown reasons Deborah was buried rather than being cut up for scrap.
After painstaking research, war enthusiast and local hotelier Philippe Gorczynski located Deborah 19 years ago. She was carefully excavated and found to be in surprisingly good condition. For much of the past two decades, Philippe has been busy raising funds to create Deborah’s very own museum in Flesquieres, the village a few miles from Cambrai where she was shelled and subsequently buried.
Last week the tank attracted a large crowd as she began her final journey from her temporary refuge in an old barn to the site of the £1million new museum that will take shape around her over the next four months before it opens in November.
As a key location in German defences, the Cambrai area has a wealth of First World War attractions and memorials. The new museum is adjacent to the British War Cemetery where four of Deborah’s crew who died in the battle are buried. Frank Gustav Heap, the tank’s commander, managed to escape. Frank’s grandson Tim – and Tim’s son and grandson – were present at last week’s event. On the first day of the Battle of Cambrai the tanks pushed through German lines – and delighted top brass ordered the ringing of church bells in England.
They rang too soon: the enemy recovered and regained most of the lost territory.
I look forward to returning to Flesquieres in November to renew my acquaintance with Deborah in her new museum.
Frank Barrett travelled to Cambrai on Eurotunnel’s Le Shuttle (eurotunnel.com) from Folkestone to Calais. Return journeys with a car and two passengers cost from £114. Rooms at the Cambrai Ibis (accorhotels. com) cost from £82 per night. More details about Deborah and the museum at tank-cambrai.com and amazing-cambrai.com.