Life in a Tank

COND B

survived. We had enjoyed every minute of our rest and once more were feeling fit. The remainder of the

been an even greater success than the first. The Old Bird and Borwick had excelled themselves. We were convinced that something was wrong

d, therefore, that this sector of the line, and the village behind it, must be captured. Our share in the business consisted of a few tanks to work with the infantry. Two of us went up three days before to arrange the plans with the Divisional Commander. We wandered up into the Hindenburg Line as clo

as about six feet wide and about five feet high. It had been roughly balked in with timber, and at every twenty yards, a shaft led out of the tunnel up into the trench. Borwick found a large mirror which he felt could not be wasted und

a little place about three thousand yards away from the Hindenburg Line. Here we staged them behind a railway embankment, underneath a bridge that had been partially blo

t beside us. This was fascinating. If you stand by the gun when it is fired, you can see the shell leave the muzzle, and watch the b

e people, make very nice rose-bowls when they are polished, with wire arranged inside to hold the blossoms. Weird music could be heard issuing from our dugout

earnest and the day went with a rush. At this part of the Hindenburg Line, it was very easy to lose one's way, especially at night. The tanks were sched

munition dump and exploded. In an instant the whole dump was alight. It was like some terrible and giant display of pyrotechnics. Gas shells, Verey lights, and stink bombs filled the air with their nauseous odors. Shells of all sizes blew up and fell in

d time?" he a

, and looking back we saw the tank standing still, with fireworks going off under one of her tracks. Presently the noise ceased, and after waiting a moment we strolled back. As we reached the tank, Borwick and the crew came tumbling out, making the air blue with their language. The

me?" he asked ple

. He moved on with his men, while Borw

he men dropped to the ground, flattening themselves into the earth. But Talbot stood still. Now, if ever, was the time when an example would count. If they all dropped to the ground every time a machine gun rattled, the job would never be done. So, hands in his pockets, but with awful "wind up," he waited while the soft patter of the bullets came near and the patter quickened into rain. As it reached him, the rain became a fierce torrent, stinging the top of the parapet behind them as the bullets tore by vicio

e it was still as black as pitch, the tanks moved again for th

we said as he clamb

rs and portholes were closed, and in a moment the exhaust began to puff m

cross before coming up with the enemy. We had planned that the tanks would take about three quarters o

to turn their headlights on, and with this help, they crawled along a little more securely. A signal from the driver, and they got into top gear. She bumped along, over shell-holes

uts on his brake hard. McKnutt yells out, "Hold tight!" and the tank slides gently down with her nose in the bottom of the trench. The driver lets in his clutch again, the tank digs her nose into the ot

e, and McKnutt jumped out, walking ahead with the tank lumbering along behind. Twice he lost his way and they were obliged to wait until he found it again. Then, to hi

have already passed the end of the quarry. That would mean that they were not far from the spot where they were to wait for the signal to go into actio

eyes through the portholes, he saw that they were on the edge of the old quarry, with a forty-foot drop down its steep sides before

he could hardly speak. But the

nd or two, she swayed there. She seemed to be unable to decide whether to kill them or not. The slightest crumbling of the earth or the faintest outside movement against the tank would precipitate them over the edge. The brakes would not hold them for long. Then the driver acted.

the danger was passed, he felt an unreasonable annoyance that none of them would ever know what he and the driver had gone through in those few moments

r two hundred yards away. Running at full speed, the engine would have been heard by them. In a few moments, they arrived at thei

king forces feel this. Even the desultory firing seems to have faded away. All the little ordinary noises have ceased. It is a sickening quiet, so loud in itself that it makes one's heart beat quicker. It is because one is listening so intensely for the guns to break out that all other sounds have lost

oles shut, save for the tiny slits in front of officer and driver, through which they peered. The engine was ready to start. The

up the opposite trenches. For a fraction of a second the thought came to McKnutt how wonderful it was that man could produc

up!" yelled

gine would

l's the matter

ts noise was drowned in the pandemonium raging around them. James let i

Hindenburg Line that lay on the other side of the barrier. One hundred and fifty yards, and the tank was almost on top of the barricade. Bom

little pin-points directly above the slits in the shutters. In order to see through these, it is necessary to place one's eye direc

osion was heard on t

alled to him, and he opened fire from his sponson. They plunged a

, and they saw four or five gray-clad figures, about ten yards away, standing on the parapet hysterically hurling bombs at the machine. They might as well have been throwing pebbles. Scornfully the tank slid over into the wide trench and landed with a cr

ot take the final pull. James took out his clutch, put his brake on hard, and raced the engine. Then letting the clutch in with a je

the lay of the line. A moment's pause, and she moved forward relentlessly, crushing everything in her path, and sending

d men which barred their way. The moral effect of the tank's success, and the terror which she inspired, cheered our infantry on to greater efforts. The tank crew were, at the time,

touched McKnu

p with us, sir," he said. "They seem to h

nutt answered. "

ck on our part, and this obstacle, together with a fusillade of bombs which met them, prevented our troops from pushing on. McKnutt seized his gun and pushed it through the mounting, but found that he could not swing round far en

The Corporal who stood next to him pointed to the sights in the turret and then to his forehead, and McKnutt realized that a bullet must have slipped in through the small space, entering the man's head as he looked al

n and half the body lay hanging out, with its legs still caught on the floor. With feverish haste they lifted the legs and threw them out, but the weight of the body balanced them back again through the still open door. The men were desperate. With a tremendous heave they turned the d

as only six feet wide. Daylight had come by now and the enemy was beginning to

is happening outside his little steel prison. One often cannot see where the machine is going. The noise inside is deafening; the heat terrific. Bombs shatter on the roof and on all sides. Bullets spatter savagely against the walls. There is an awful lack of knowledge; a feeling of blind helplessness at being

them which was their objective. Five-nines were dropping around them no

shall make it?" M

shall we get back? Th

e accuracy of the German artillery. And they did not believe in miracles.

heir objective and remain there until the bombers arrived. McKnutt peered out. No Bri

be any sense in just sitting there until a German shell annihilated them if the infantry never arrived? Had

happier sight. A great wave of relief swept over him. Three or four more appeared. Realizing that they, too, had reached their objective, they stopp

d chance it," he said aloud. The next moment a tremendous crash seemed to lift the tank off the ground. Black smoke and flying particles filled the tank. McKnutt and James looked around expecting to s

Underwood & U

URED GERMAN GUN UNDER PRO

expectancy. Messages were pouring in over the wires. The m

he Buzzers shook their heads wearily. He rushed up to a c

ow how the tanks m

n line, he said. In answer to the questions which were fired at him he

e sky-line, they saw a little group of

sir," he said. "What's happened to their tank, I

smiled

said in his

ur 'bus?" "What did yo

urse, and the Boches finally ran away. We knocked out about ten of them, and just as we were going on and were already moving, we suddenly started twisting around in

with the infantr

replied, "so we saved the tank guns, and I pinched the cl

the group as

e rest of your

poral Fiske got knocked out coming bac

silence fo

Bad luck; have you

t them," Bor

y, with the officer's signature. They had been used as pocket-books, and held a few odd letters which the men had received a few days before. Talbot had often been given the pay-books of men in his company who were k

k and sat down, waiting for news. Scraps o

ive in X Wood. Have not

ng to heavy machine

rench running north from Derelict

s the messages came in twos and threes. Sometimes there were minutes when only a wild buz

entire line to the right. On the left the next Brigade had been hung up by devastating machine-gun fire.

ed along his line. The walls are of ferro concrete, two to three feet thick. As the tank reached the pill-box, two Germans slipped out of the rear door. Three of the tank crew clambered down and got inside the pill-box. In a moment the firing from inside ceased, and presently the door flew open. Two British tank men, dirty and grimy, e

sent word to him to start the tanks back to the embankment, there to be kept for the next occasion. Better still, the men were to be taken back to B--

package of cigarettes, and a razor. Then he smiled. They were the final preparations he had made that morning before he went into action. After all he had not needed th

would some time or other reach his English bank and his people would know that he was, at least, a

r? Most impo

nd untarnished, the traditions