Life in a Tank

RST BA

ight. The men shivered in the biting air. One by one the crews entered the machines, and one by o

oments just before an attack are always the hardest. A few batteri

bet the show's put off or something.

ttingness of the sound, the bark of the eighteen-pounders could be faintly distinguished above the dull roar of the eight-inches. The sky-line was lit up with thousands of fla

the sky, although we could distinguish nothing. No sign of the infantry or of the tanks could be s

snow, taking the broad bands left by the tracks of the busses as our gu

eces of earth came showering down on our heads. Then another and another fell, each closer than the one

uce. We scrambled up the crumbling, slaggy sides, and found when we reached the top that the sound of the machine guns had died away, excepting on the extreme left in front of B--, where the

r," shouted one

he

about five hundr

uctions, so as to enfilade a communication trench which ran back to N--. The German observer had spotted her. Here and there, on each side of her, a column of dirt and snow rose into the ai

ttle black lumps. Some crawl, some move a leg or an arm, and some lie quite still. One who has never seen a modern battle doubtless forms a picture of masses of troops moving forward in splendid formation, with cheering voices and gleaming bayonet

k as I supposed," said Darwin. "Remar

albot assented

Old Bird's 'bus had failed to get over a large pit which lay in the middle of No Man's Land, and was stuck with her tail in the bottom of the ditch. Here occurred one of those extraordinary instances of luck which one notices everywhere in a modern battle. The tank had been t

Underwood & U

AWAITING THE ORDER TO ADVANCE

, Darwin

llows! What are th

ith their hands above their heads. At the same time something occurred which is always one of the saddest sights in war. One hears a great deal about the "horrors of war" and the "horrors" of seeing men killed on either side of one, but at the time there is very little "horror" to

is refuge. Evidently, they knew of the British passion for souvenirs, for when our men surrounded them, the Germans plucke

enough. German discipline obtains even after a man has been made a prisoner. He obeys his captors with the same docility with which he had previously obeyed his own officers. Left to themselves, and st

ird's tan

t," said Talbot. "Suppose we move on a

enirs," Darwin rep

ellows who were slightly wounded and asked them how the battle was going. Every story was different. The wounded are rarely

ers. We knew how hard it was for the officers behind the lines, who had planned the whole

bot cried. "Something's hap

bout a hundred yards thick. Smoke was belching from every porthole. A shell had registered

mped heavily and lay quite still. By inches we crawled forward, nearer and nearer to the blazing monster. Another machine gun snarled at us, and we

the news that the Hindenburg Line and N-- had been taken. An orderly was given a message. He crawled out of the shell-hole, ran a few

overhead. We turned and saw it land in the middle of the group we had just left. Another shell burst close to us and huge clods of earth struck us in the face and in the stomach, knocking us flat and blinding us for the moment. A splinter struck Talbot on his tin hat, grazing his skin. Behind us one of the orderlies screamed and we rushed back to him. He had be

e were feverishly anxious to know the fate of the crew of the burning tank. "Whose tank was it?" was on every tongue. We met other wounded men being helped back; those with leg wounds we

ded man proved to be the Sergeant of the tank we had seen on fire. We hurried up to him. He was hurt in the

and fired the petrol tank. That was the end. Two men, the Sergeant and another, escaped from the tank. The others perished with it. We tried to comfort each other by repeated assurances that

ng with every one, as they carried him along on a stretcher. His tank had been knocked out and they had saved their guns and gone on with the infantry. He ha

em, and that they had been captured. Two or three days afterwards an airman told us that he had seen, on the day of the battle, two tanks far ahead of the infantry and that they appeared to be stranded. Weeks later we attacked at the point where the tanks had been, and on some German prisoners whom we

albot glanced at his watch. It was still only eight o'clock in the morning. Again he experienced the feeling of incredulity that comes to one who has had much happe

ose who had no tanks, back to B--. The othe