A Company of Tanks

4th to 2

moved south to our old training-ground at Wailly. The apathy and bitter disappointment, caused by our misfortunes on the Poelcapelle Road, had

ng. It was not until I saw the Colonel that I learnt of the proposed raid on Cambrai, and

'16 it had been known as "Harper's Duds." Since that action it had carried out attack after attack with miraculous success, until at this time it wa

s No Man's Land. Tank officers and infantry officers attended each other's lectures and dined with each other. Our camp rang at night with strange Highland cries. As far as was humanly possible w

of romance to our strenuous preparations, we were met by a curious difficulty?-?we did not dare to describe too vividly the

and came to the pleasant village of Metz-en-Couture on the edge of the great Havrincourt Wood. Leaving our car

oads, plentiful villages, surprising chalk ravines, and od

finished Canal du Nord. By Havrincourt village, which was set conspicuously on the side of a hill, the Canal met Havrincourt Wood, and the enemy line turned again to the east, skirting the fringes

of the German trenches the trees had been cut down, so that the approach was difficult and open. East of Havrincourt the German trenches were completely hidden from view by the lie of the ground. This method of siting trenches w

view, and the roads, buildings, patches of chalk, distinctively-shaped copses,

wire. The trenches were wide enough to be serious obstacles to tanks. Machine-gun posts, huge dug-outs, long galleri

tanks and the advantage of surprise, there was no earthly reason why we should not go straight through to Cambrai. What could stop us? The wire? It did not affect us in the slightest. The trenches? They were a little wide, but we knew how to cross them. Guns? There were not many, and few would survive the duel with

yside between Havrincourt and Cambrai. But Bourlon Wood was only a matter of 7000 yards behind the Ger

ed our feelin

atches on before th

d our future comrades, the 6th Black Watch and the 8th Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, a

ch was reached, the driver pulled a rope, the fascine gently rolled off the tank into the trench, and the tank crossed at its ease. It was a simple device that produced an astonishing amount of bad language. Entraining wa

nt and hilarious lunch at the local estaminet, we entrained successfully for an unknown destination, althoug

clear of Wailly. I motored down to the neighbourhood of Albert, and at dusk my car was feeling its way through a b

e slow dark trains, the sudden lights. Tanks, which had just detrained, came rumbling round the corners of odd huts. L

ust after midnight, word came that our train was expected. We walked to the ramp, and at last after an interminable wait our train glided in out of the darkn

flaged; the cooks set to work and produced steaming tea; officers and men made themselves comfortable. Then we set off in our car again. The mist still hung heavily over

eful survey of our trenches and, through our glasses, of the country behind the German line. On the night of the 15th I walked along the tank route from our next detraini

ed it a few hundred yards, when the last truck had been derailed and the tank on it had crushed the lorry against the slight embankment. Under the tank were two men. I was convinced that I had lost two of my men, until I discovered that the ta

r way along a track past gun-pits and lorries and waggons until we came to the outskirts of the great wood. There we fell in with Marris's tanks, which had come by another route. At last we arrived at our allotted quarter of the wood, three thousand yards from the nearest German. The tanks pushed boldly among the trees, and for the next two hours there was an ordered pandemonium. Each tank had to move an inch at a time for fear it should bring down a v

rmen knew almost nothing. By day the occasional German aeroplane could see little, for there was little to see. Tanks, infantry, and guns were hidden in the woods. New gun-pits we

had rumbled down all the way from the Salient. Streams of lorries were bringing up ammunition, petrol, rations; and whole br

short and simple. And to see the country behind the enemy trenches it was necessary only to walk a mile to the

f breaking through the Hindenburg System into the open country. It was essential to seize on the first day the bridges over the Canal de l'Escaut and Bou

d to assist the infantry in capturing the first system of trenches. Ward's company was reserved for the second system and for Flesquieres its

ective, and on our right was "E" Battalion, beyond which were the 2nd and 3rd

aptured some prisoners, who fortunately knew little. He gathered from them that we were ourselves preparing a s

really a surprise. Perhaps the enemy, unknown to us, had concentrated sufficient guns to blow us to pieces. We looked up for the German aeroplanes, which surely would

P.M., with engines barely turning over, they glided imperceptibly and almost without noise towa

r an hour. The Colonel arrived, and took me with him to pay a final visit to the headquarters of the battalions with which

he support trenches, for they were early, and the men were given hot bre

ed positions, clearly marked out by tapes w

Not a gun was firing, but there was a curious murmur in the air. To right of me and to left of me in the dim light were tanks

and I was with him in his dug-out at 6.20 A.M. when

Each tank was followed by a bunch of Highlanders, some running forward from cover to cover, but most of them tramping steadily behind their tanks. They disappeared into

ed in thick white smoke. The smoke-shells burst with a sheet of vivid red flame, pouring out blinding, suffocating clouds. It was

few minutes on the same bay of the same trench. There were no other enemy shells that we could see. A machine-gun or two were sti

were coming back. Germans in twos and threes, elderly men for the most part, were wandering confusedly towar

had been justified. Everywhere we had ove

apparatus, passed across our front to cle

quieres. It was Ward's company, but Ward was not with them. A chance bullet had killed him insta

or two, they had known nothing of the tanks. We jumped down into the famous Hindenburg Line. At first we were unhappy: a machine-gun from the right was enfilading the trench

offee and soup were still on the fire. This regimental headquarters the enemy had defended desperately. The trench-boards were

icult that morning to find a Highlander without a cigar. He invited us into a large chamber cut out of the rock, from which a wide staircase descended into an enormous dug-out. The c

rried breakfast. The sergeant-major was trying earnestly to make himself understood. He seemed to have something important to say. H

y registered upon it. He realised that as a prisoner he must do as he was bid, but he besought me to instruct his escort to b

for shelter, and we, who had already dallied longer than we had

n-commander, Wyatt, with Morris, who had been hit in the shoulder. They told me that we were held up outside Flesquieres, which was being cleverly defended by

to enter Flesquieres from the east along the crest of the ridge. The trench was being shelled. From the sound of the guns it appeared that they were only a few hundred yards away. We walked steadily up the tre

st be well beyond Flesquieres. So I sent a couple of messages to my own Colonel, whose headquarters were at those of the infantry brigade with which we were operating. I pointed out to the infantry Colonel that, if we had taken Flesquieres, it was difficult to a

a little copse which lies on the hillside a

and the Scout Officer was crawling on his hands and knees towards a convenient trench. At that moment I knew no one wiser than the Scout Officer, and I followed his example. For the next five minutes the man in the window of the large white house must have enjoyed himself thoroughly. The air sang with bullets. With tremendous care we continued to crawl, until after a lifetime of suspense we came to within fifty yards of the trench. I jumped u

e battalion rallying-place under shelter of the railway embankment, a mile or so to the west of the section

rly sited in ruins and behind hedges, had knocked out at least a dozen tanks. The infantr

een hit fair and square by the surviving gunners, and it was thought that he and his crew were either casualties or prisoners. The majority of the remaining t

m the east, had met a similar fate. The village was surrounded with derelict tanks, like a boar at bay with dead

ch. The remainder had rallied, and were ready, if necessary, to go forward again, but they were alarmingly short of petrol, and the tank with the supply-sledge had

the front system of the German trenches. I had already sent some of my men to the regimental headquarters in the Sunken Road for food and

were inexpressibly tired, and of course it began to rain steadily. We plodded along, passing guns, limbers, infantry coming up to make g

pile of messages were waiting for him, including, to my chagrin, those which I had sent him in such haste when I had discovered that the Highlanders we

the situation. In the afternoon they had collected a few tanks and sent them into Flesquieres. The tanks had paraded through the outskirts of the village, and not a shot was

l told us that we should not be required on the next day