A Company of Tanks

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siege tactics?-?to blow a trench system to pieces and then to occupy it under cover of a thick barrage. The rain came down, and the whole battlefield, torn up already by our guns, became impassable. We advanced more slowly. The enemy brought up every spare gun, and the artilleries hammered away mechanically day and night, while the wretched infantry on either side lay crouched in flooded shell-holes. T

ed to the nature of the ground and the character of the enemy defences. Tanks were at last permitted to use the roads. The Australians were "put in" on the Passchendaele Ridge. Once again the vast creaking machine began to move

had left us to ourselves. November had come, and to distract the enemy's attention we made a strong little e

unted to a quarter of a million. The Salient had indeed preserved its reputation, and that grim spirit who broods over

. Time after time the men started out to fight in the full knowledge that unless some miracle intervened they must stick in the mud?-?and either spend hours under a deadly fire endeavouring to extricate their tanks or fight on, the target of every gun in the neighbourhood, until they were knocked to pieces. The

ered country, but they possessed at least some sort of foundation which prevented the tanks from sinking into the mud. Operating on the roads, we had one or two little successes?-?a mixed company of "G" Battalion surprised and captured a few pill-boxes at a ridiculously lo

need. And the divisions, which came up in the later stages of the battle, had only to use their eyes. It is not very encouraging to pass a succession of derelict tanks. Luckily for the future of the Corps, the infantryman was generous enough to attribute at least part of our failures to the appalling ground. The average infantry of

this tragic battle was a glorious victory. The details of operations he may find elsewhere: a proper history of the tank corps may soon be written:

, although on our Corps front we had successfully reached our first objectives, and the Pilkem Ridge, from which we had been driven by gas in April '15, was once more in our hands, the German defence remained intact. It was clear that the enemy, who, like us, had made every possible preparation, must once again be

d all preparations, postponed indefinitely the day on which my company, the reserve company of the reserve battalion, would come into action.

rner; in putting out our lights when the enemy 'planes came over; in reconnoitring once again our routes fo

de, just by the camp, it was impossible at first to prevent our men from giving them tea and cigarettes, though later this practice was sternly forbidden. In some ways we treated these prisoners well. When we drew biscuits instead of bread, we would always say that a fresh batch of prisoners must have arrived. But th

middle of September. We possessed, apparently, no means of defence against it. The "Archies" seemed useless. Machine-gun fire was effective onl

led. We hoped that it was a terrible mistake, but the hospitals were deliberately bombed a second time, and the ghastly scenes were repeated. I do not know whether in very shame we invented some shadow of excuse, but it was rumoured

y, oozy kind, but the damp spongy mud which sticks. In spite of the rain it was a month of close muggy days, and these tramps through the steaming odorous mud were a very sore infliction. But the rout

th meticulous care. In the back areas hops, corn, turnips, beans, market gardens, all in their enclosures, came right up to the roads and the woods, but forward all the country was returning to heath. Little cottages or farms lined the roads or stood at th

f railways that there is a level-crossing every three hundred yards along any road, and block all the roads with trans

all, the hedges so numerous, the roads so narrow.... It was

ome a brown shell-pocked desert and shapeless heaps of rubble. In the old trench battles we achieved victory only by destruction. The houses and fields stood terrified at our advance, praying that it would be stopped, so that they could be spare

Canal it was peaceful enough save for a deafening railway-gun, a super-heavy howitzer, or a chance shell from the enemy. On that side it seemed that all th

anks successfully to operate over the open country of the Sal

t Julien itself was ours, a little village along the main road to Poelcapelle at the crossing of the stream. Beyond, the ground was so ravaged with shell-fire that it had become a desert stretch of shell-holes, little stagnant pools, with here and

mixed company of "G" Battalion in a successful little action. The tanks, using the roads for the first time,

s, which were "lying up" on the western slope of the Pilkem Ridge, and had attempted to destroy them with a hurricane bombardment of 5.9's; but a

nking into the marsh. They were knocked out by direct hits as they nosed their way too slowly forward. One gallant tank drew up alongsi

tanks of another battalion, endeavouring by that road to

he order to get ready a section with a view to co-oper

ncident to the Canal, where they remaine

ught on the extreme right at the first battle of Bullecourt. His four tanks were at

outs on the banks of the canal. The infantry attack was planned in the usual way?-?t

ad so gallantly attempted to take. The direct road, perhaps luckily, wa

front and attack the strong points down the road from the north. Further, the tanks could not move out of St Julien before "zero" in case the noise of their engi

to the enemy the less likely we were to be shelled. And the idea of a move down the road into St Julien actually on

ning brightly after the rain, and the German gunners were economising their ammunition after an uproar on the night before, the results of which we saw too pl

ace on the western side of the crest. It was raining, and, as always, the tracks were blocked with transport. An eager gunner e

into St Julien with engines barely turning over for fear the enemy

tanks were still safe and whole on the night before the battle, when a storm of wind and rain flooded the roads

t shells, and our barrage fell on the shell-holes in which the enemy, crouched and sodden, lay waiting for our attack. The German gunners were alert, and in less than two minutes the counter-barrage fell beyond the village to prevent reinforcements from coming forward. Big

the tanks. After the heavy rain the tanks slipped about on the broken setts, and every sh

sidled gently off the road and stuck, a target for the machine-gunners. Two of the crew crept out, and the unditching beam was fixed on to the tracks. The

could not be more than local, since on either side of the road were banks about four to five feet in height. The enemy were soon compelled to run back from the shell-holes

halves. My tank remained there for an hour, shooting at every German who appeared. Then the tank commander tried to reverse in order to take anot

t to make a counter-attack, two bunches of Germans working their way forward from shell-hole to shell-h

econd tank was also ditched a few hundred yards away on another road. This tank, too, had cleared the shell-holes round it,

or later. The infantry were withdrawing. The two wretched subalterns in that ghastly waste of shell-holes determined to get their men away before their tanks were hit or com

f the strong points. Then a large shell burst just in front of the tank and temporarily blinded the driver. The tank slipped off

a miracle our tanks might succeed and return. The morning wore on, and there was little news. The Germans sh

taken shelter had been gassed where they sat. The shell-holes near by contained half-decomposed bodies that had slipped into the stagnant water. The air was full of putrescence and the strong odour of foul mud. There was no one in sight except the dead. A shell came screaming over and plumped dully into the mud without exploding. H