A Company of Tanks

to Apri

d expected that the R.T.O. would call me into his office, and in hushed tones direct me to the secret lair of the tanks. Everything possible, it was rumoured, had been done to preserve the tanks from prying eyes. I was undeceived at once. An official strode up

luxurious Vauxhall. I was deposited at Wavrans with the Supply Officer, a melancholy and overworked young man, who advised me to use the telephone. Tank headquarters informed me that I was posted provisional

the Somme (September-October 1916). The authorities had been so much impressed that it was decided to expand each of these companies into a battalion, by the embodiment of certain Motor Machine-Gun Batteries and of volunteers expected from other corps in response to the appeal tha

se. I entered a cheerful, brightly-lit mess. Seeing a venerable and imposing officer standing by the fire, I saluted him. He assured me that he was only the Equipment Of

nel Elles.5 As the result of the interview I was posted to D Battalion, and on th

t. The billets were bad. Necessaries such as camp kettles could not be obtained. That was now old if recent history. The batt

from the A.S.C.: M.T. Some had been once or twice in action; some had not. They were excellent tank mechanists. Then came the motor machine-gunners?-?smart

pear, who has not seen a draft of men from various units marching from the boat to a rest camp. The men are individuals. They trail along like a football crowd. They have no pride in their appearance, because they cannot feel they are on parade. They are only a crow

rno's army, the

cannot fight, wha

o Berlin, the Kai

hoch, m

ruddy r

Ragtime

e original inhabitants consisted of nuns and thirty or forty aged and infi

ward claims for alleged damages and thefts the good nuns did not lag behind their less pious sisters in the village. We were grateful to them for their courtesy a

stank abominably. Where they slept at night was a my

ill. Colonel Elles, with Lieut.-Colonel Burnett, came to see me in my bed. I had not shaved, and my temperature made me slightly familiar. I could never keep the room warm of nights. On

mesh over a wooden frame; but the rooms were draughty. We made

French naturally complained, strict orders were issued, and our fires again were low. It was necessary to act, and to act with decision. I obtained a lorry from the battalion, handed it over to a promising subaltern, and gave him stern

ns of coal. The Tanks were carrying out important experiments: coal they must have or the experiments could not be continued. Permission was given at once?-?he would return

little heat. We placed a stove in the middle of the hall. The piping was led to the upper part of the fireplace,

s met all reasonable needs: the allotment system had not been devised; a worried mess-president, commissioned with threats to obtain whisky, was not offered fifty ba

its of the Tank Corps in process of formation. Several of these guests came from the central wor

ld us a remarkable story. We were talking of revolvers and quick shooti

wrist and threw him. My pal had a Winchester. He pushed it into the brute's face, smashed it all up, and was just going to pull the trigger when I knocked it away. But the sinews of my hand were cut and there was no doctor there.... I've been a

red-faced fellow with twinkling ey

of Bullecourt, to instruct the Americans. My officers were Swears, an "old Tanker," who was instructing at Bermicourt, Wyatt, and "Happy Fanny," Morris, Puttock, Davies, Clarkson, Macilwaine, Birkett, Grant, King, Richards, Telfer, Ski

shops had been erected, some trenches dug, and a few shell-craters blown. The Tankodrome was naturally a sea of mud. Perhaps the mud was of a curious kind?-?perhaps the mixture of petrol and oil with the mud was

ho laboured day after day in the mud, the rain, and the snow. Officers' courses were held at Be

and a shivering class. Davies, our enthusiastic Welsh footballer, supervised

about on horses. "Spit and polish" seemed to me as antiquated in a modern war as pipeclay and red coats. I was wrong. Let me give the old drill-sergeant his due. There is nothing in the worl

m always on quite the right note. We started with twenty odd calls a day. Everything the officers and the men did was done by bugle-call. It was very military and quite effective. All movements became bris

e men prouder of the company, and more deeply contemptuous of the other companies who produced such feeble and ineffective elevens. Even the money that flowed into the pockets of our more ardent supporters afte

r instruction, it was obviously impossible to use them for tactical schemes. Our friendly Allies would have inundated the Cla

and five feet wide. Little slits were made in the canvas to represent the loopholes of a tank. Six men carried and moved

a circus. It was led away from the road to avoid hurting the feelings of the crew and to safeguard the ears and morals of the young. After colliding with the corner of a house, it endeavoured to walk down the side of the rail

ummies became less and less mobile. The signallers practised from them, and they were used by the visual training experts. One company commander mounted them on waggons drawn by mules. The crews were tuc

tyard until one by one they disappeared, as the can

who were much edified by the sight of tanks moving. The total effect was marred by an enthusiastic tank commander, who, in endeavouri

e-producing missiles. These they hurled at the tanks, and, growing bolder, inserted them into every loophole and crevice of the tanks. At length the half-suffocated crews tumbled out, and maintained with considerable st

numerous attacks on the map. I remember that my company was detailed once to attack Serre. A few months later I passed through thi

roud of their company, and were convinced that no better company had ever existed. The mob of men had been welded into a fighting instrument

t march li