A Company of Tanks

and Apr

ons in the Ancre valley promised well for the future. The French, it was rumoured, were undertaking a grand attack in the early spring. We were first to support them by an offensive near Arras, and then we would attack ourselves on a large scale somewhere in the north. We hoped, too,

erence. He explained the situation to his company

ormed a pronounced salient. It was determined to attack simultaneously at Arras and from the Ancre va

of training real tanks had been too scarce. Improved tanks were expected from England, but none had arrived, and he decided to employ again

oops allotted to the second objective and take Mercatel and Neuville Vitasse. It should have been a simple enough op

rless lorries, convoys of huge guns and howitzers, smiling men in buses and tired men marching, staff-cars and motor ambulances, rarely, a waggon with slow horses, an old Frenchman in charge, quite bewildered by the traffic. When the battle had begun, whole Divisions, stretching for ten miles or more, came marching along it, and the ambulances streamed back to the big hospital at St Pol. I saw it for the

was not being shelled, and, hungry after a free

el had still carried on ever since the British had been in Arras and before. The proprietress, a little pinched and drawn, with the inevitable scrap of fur flung over her shoulders, presided at the desk. Women dressed in the usual black waited on us. The lunch was cheap, excellently cooked, and well served?-?within easy range of the enemy field-guns. After the battle the hotel was put out of bounds, fo

dilapidated village, introduced ourselves to the Divisional staff. We discussed operations, and

he neighbourhood of the disreputable village of Agny. We peeped at the very little there was to be seen of the enemy front line through observation posts in cottages

the beginning of March he commenced his withdrawal from the unpleasant heights to the north of the Ancre valley, and, once the movement was under way, it was predicted that the whole of the Arras salient would be evacuated. This actually occurred i

y company was placed in reserve. I was instructed to make arra

Hindenburg Line was to turn it?-?to fight down it, and not against it. Our preparations for an attack in the Arras sector and on the Vimy Ridge to the north of it were far advanced. It was decided in consequence to carry out with modifications the

company would be attached to the Vth Corps for any operations that might occur. Jumbo was recalled from Arras, fumin

worse and worse. Spencer was just able to cling on, groaning at every bump. Soon we arrived at our old rear defences, from which we had gone forward only ten days before. It was joyous to read the notices, so newly obsolete?-?"This road is subject to shell-fire"?-?and when we passed over our old support and front trenches, and drove across No Man's Land, and saw the green crosses of

s, but some had been blown in. It was so pitiful that I wanted to stop and comfort them. The trees along the roads had been cut down. The little fruit-trees had been felled, or lay half-

n blown at each cross-road, and, running through Logeast Wood, which ha

devilish purpose. Haigh and Grant of my advance party were established in a dug-out. So little was it possible in those

stable. Then Haigh and I motored past the derelict factory of Bihucourt and through the outskirts of Bapaume to the ruins of Behagnies, on the Bapaume-Arras road. After choosing sites for an advanced camp and tankodrome, we walked back to Achiet-le-Grand across country, in order to reconnoitre the route for tanks from the station to Behagnies. After lunch, Haigh,

ain beam was cracked, and we feared rain, but a huge blazing fire comforted us?-?until one or two slates fell off with a clatter. We rushed out, fearing the w

remembered that the attack at Arras was designed to roll up the Hindenburg Line, starting from the point at which the Hindenburg Line joined the old German trench system. General Gough's Fifth Army, consisting of General Fansh

ed by the fact that a successful penetration would bring the Fifth Army on the left rear of that

rg Line which lay opposite the Fifth A

ge in their main line of defence, and were still holding

he slope towards Ecoust. There was a quaint feeling of insecurity, quite unjustified, in strolling about "on top." We had an excellent view of our shells bursting on the wire in front of Ec

of 1917 it was bare. There was dark-brown mud for mile after mile as far as the eye could see?-?mud churned and tortured until the whole surface of the earth was pitted with craters. Mud overwhelmed the landscape. Trees showed only

ted. The Vth Corps had already used tanks and knew their little ways. After tea I consulted with the lesser lights of the staff. Satisfactory arrangements were made for supplies, ratio

become uncomfortably crowded. I wanted to reconnoitre the only alternative route, and at the same

ull of unfilled shell-holes. Crazy bridges had been thrown across the trenches. The sun was setting in a fiery sky, and a reddish light tinged the pitiful tumbled earth, and glittered for a moment on the desolate water of the shell-holes. The crumbling trenches we

ur progress was slow. Soon we lit the lamps. The track was full of horrible shadows, and big dark things seemed to come down the road to meet us?-?shattered transport or old heaps of shells. On either side of the car was the desert of mud an

. If they make the Somme battlefield a forest, no

a village, and I stopped for a p

ast variety of equipment. The tanks had been driven on to the train by an Engineer officer. The railway journey had been delayed as usual, and the u

heir use will be explained later?-?but we thought it

t this performance requires care, skill, and experience. A Mk. I. or a Mk. IV. tank is not too easy to steer, while the space be

on two occasions. Very slowly and with infinite care the tanks were persuaded to leave the train and move down the road to the tanko

atter. The tank was driven into two shallow trenches. A stout four-wheeled trolley was run alongside, and a sort of crane was fitted, to which slings were secured. T

ue with cold that they could scarcely handle their tools. The climax was reached when we discovered that we should be compelled to drill

he tanks fitted their sponsons and reached Behagnies by dawn. The remainder, less one

f our efforts they appeared terribly obvious as we surveyed them anxiously from one point after another. Our subtle devices were soon tested. An enterprising German airman flew down out of the clouds and darted upon two luckless observation balloons to right and left of us. He set them both on fire with tracer bullets, came low over our camp, fired down the streets of Bapaume, and disap

ward dumps. The Corps had provided us with a convoy of limbered waggons drawn by mules?-?the forward roads were not passable for lorries?-?and the wretched animals had little rest. We were ordered to be ready by the 6th, and the order meant a fight against time. Tanks consume an incredible quantity of petrol, oil, grease, and water, and it was necessary to form dumps of these supplies and of ammunition at Mory Copse, our half-way house,

urg Line. He started in the afternoon, joining an ammunition column on the way. They approached the village at dusk. The enemy was shelling the road and suspected

ling continued, but the smithy was not hit. They passed a wretched night, and at dawn discovered

ervation posts were selected?-?"lying-up" places for the tanks were chosen. Everything wa

with the General, and drove with him in the afternoon to an army conference at Fifth Army Headquarters in Albert. The block of traffic on the road ma

expected, and the Fifth Army would join in the fray immediately the attack of the Third Army was well launched. As far as I was concerned, my tanks were to be distributed along the fronts of the Australian and Vth Corps. The conference broke up, and the colonel and I were asked to tea at the chateau. It was a most nervous proceeding, to drink tea in t

h an electric lamp. The stench of petrol in the air, a gentle crackling as they found their way through the wire, the sweet purr of the engine changing to a roar when they climbed easily on to the road?

he tracks grows louder, and, if you did not know, you would think an aeroplane was droning overhead. Then in the half-light comes a tired officer, reading a map, and behind him another, signalling at intervals to a grey mass gliding smoothly like a snake. And so they pass, one by one, with the rattle of tracks and the roar of

as not an ideal hiding-place, as it lay open to direct though distant observation from the German lines; but the tanks were skilfully concealed by the adroit use of trees, undergrowth, and nets, the hill surmounted by the copse provided an e

oplane came over, but a few shells, dropping just beyond the copse on a suspected battery position, disturbed our sleep. The ta

and we were growing a little impatient, when

able. The artillery of the Fifth Army was to the best of my knowledge far from overwhelming, and gunners had told me that good forward positions for the guns were difficult to find. I realised, of course, that an officer in my subordinate position knew little, but I was convinced that a surprise concentration might prove a success where a formal attack, lightly supported by a few tanks scattered over a wide front, might reasonably fail. I planned for my o

Behagnies and gave it to the colonel for what it was worth. He approved of it tho

riumph the reports of our successes o

with tanks, General," said the colonel

o be made; but I replied my tanks should move at once, and I suggested air protection. General Gough immediately rang up the R.F.C., but their General was out, and, after some discussion, it was decided that my tanks would have sufficient time to rea

ted; but the concentration of men and guns that I had imagined in my dreams was ma

e officers who were attached to us for instruction, rapidly marked and coloured maps for the tank commanders. My or

e headquarters of the Australian Division, with which my tanks were

d I woke with a start?-?dreaming that my tanks had fallen over a cliff into the sea. At midnight I went to the door of the hut and looked out. A gale was blowing, and sleet was mingled with snow. After midnight I waited anxiou

telephone to me immediately they came to Noreuil, and from No

had neither seen tanks nor heard them, but they sent out orderlies to look for them in

y would "jump off." In daylight they could neither remain at the embankment nor retire over exposed ground without heavy shelling. It was

The faintest glimmerings of dawn appeared when the telephone-bell

of your me

yatt's ti

owns in a heavy snowstorm. We never quite lost our way, but it was almost impossi

ke to get to the sta

alf at least," h

by for

e tanks had been running all night. But the Australians

eral, and explained t

f I put back zero another hour an

ill be hit before they reach the German trench

d glanced through the win

the show. I think there is just time

e to reconnoitre forward. I heard orders given for the Australians to come back from the railway embankment?-?late

d him

nowstorm and arrived late at Nor

r a moment, but co

e said cheerily. "You must be h

d had some b