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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Life in a Tank, by Richard Haigh
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Life in a Tank
+
+Author: Richard Haigh
+
+Release Date: March 13, 2009 [EBook #28319]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE IN A TANK ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jeannie Howse and Friend, and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+LIFE IN A TANK
+
+   [Illustration: A TANK ON ITS WAY INTO ACTION]
+
+
+
+
+LIFE IN A TANK
+
+_By_
+RICHARD HAIGH, M.C.
+CAPTAIN IN THE TANK CORPS
+
+_With Illustrations_
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+BOSTON AND NEW YORK
+HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
+The Riverside Press Cambridge
+
+
+
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY RICHARD HAIGH
+
+ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
+
+_Published June 1918_
+
+
+
+
+Contents
+
+
+I. The Meaning of the Tank Corps                                1
+
+II. First Days of Training                                     11
+
+III. Later Days of Training                                    37
+
+IV. Moving up the Line                                         49
+
+V. Preparations for the Show                                   61
+
+VI. The First Battle                                           76
+
+VII. The Second Battle                                         90
+
+VIII. Rest and Discipline                                     120
+
+IX. A Philosophy of War                                       128
+
+
+
+
+Illustrations
+
+
+A Tank on its Way into Action                      _Frontispiece_
+  British Official Photograph
+
+King George and Queen Mary inspecting a Tank on the British
+  Front in France                                               8
+  British Official Photograph
+
+A British Tank and its Crew in New York                        20
+  Photograph by Underwood & Underwood
+
+A Tank moving to the Attack down what was once a Main Street   56
+  British Official Photograph
+
+A Tank going over a Trench on its Way into Action              72
+  British Official Photograph
+
+A Tank halfway over the Top and awaiting the Order to
+  Advance in the Battle of Menin Road                          80
+  Photograph by Underwood & Underwood
+
+A Tank bringing in a Captured German Gun under Protection
+  of Camouflage                                               112
+  Photograph by Underwood & Underwood
+
+A British Tank in the Liberty Loan Parade in New York         124
+  Photograph by Underwood & Underwood
+
+
+
+
+LIFE IN A TANK
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+THE MEANING OF THE TANK CORPS
+
+
+TANKS!
+
+To the uninitiated--as were we in those days when we returned to the
+Somme, too late to see the tanks make their first dramatic
+entrance--the name conjures up a picture of an iron monster, breathing
+fire and exhaling bullets and shells, hurling itself against the
+enemy, unassailable by man and impervious to the most deadly engines
+of war; sublime, indeed, in its expression of indomitable power and
+resolution.
+
+This picture was one of the two factors which attracted us toward the
+Heavy Branch Machine-Gun Corps--as the Tank Corps was known in the
+first year of its being. On the Somme we had seen a derelict tank,
+wrecked, despoiled of her guns, and forsaken in No Man's Land. We had
+swarmed around and over her, wild with curiosity, much as the
+Lilliputians must have swarmed around the prostrate Gulliver. Our
+imagination was fired.
+
+The second factor was, frankly, that we were tired of going over the
+top as infantrymen. The first time that a man goes into an attack, he
+as a rule enjoys it. He has no conception of its horrors,--no, not
+horrors, for war possesses no horrors,--but, rather, he has no
+knowledge of the sudden realization of the sweetness of life that
+comes to a man when he is "up against it." The first time, it is a
+splendid, ennobling novelty. And as for the "show" itself, in actual
+practice it is more like a dream which only clarifies several days
+later, after it is all over. But to do the same thing a second and
+third and fourth time, is to bring a man face to face with Death in
+its fullest and most realistic uncertainty. In soldier jargon he "gets
+most awful wind up." It is five minutes before "Zero Hour." All
+preparations are complete. You are waiting for the signal to hop over
+the parapet. Very probably the Boche knows that you are coming, and
+is already skimming the sandbags with his machine guns and knocking
+little pieces of earth and stone into your face. Extraordinary, how
+maddening is the sting of these harmless little pebbles and bits of
+dirt! The bullets ricochet away with a peculiar singing hiss, or crack
+overhead when they go too high. The shells which burst on the other
+side of the parapet shake the ground with a dull thud and crash. There
+are two minutes to wait before going over. Then is the time when a man
+feels a sinking sensation in his stomach; when his hands tremble ever
+so slightly, and when he offers up a pathetic little prayer to God
+that if he's a bit of a sportsman he may be spared from death, should
+his getting through not violate the divine and fatalistic plans. He
+has that unpleasant lack of knowledge of what comes beyond. For after
+all, with the most intense belief in the world, it is hard to
+reconcile the comforting feeling of what one knows with that terrible
+dread of the unknown.
+
+A man has no great and glorious ideas that nothing matters because he
+is ready to die for his country. He is, of course, ready to die for
+her. But he does not think about it. He lights a cigarette and tries
+to be nonchalant, for he knows that his men are watching him, and it
+is his duty to keep up a front for their sake. Probably, at the same
+time, they are keeping up a front for him. Then the Sergeant Major
+comes along, cool and smiling, as if he were out for a stroll at home.
+Suddenly he is an immense comfort. One forgets that sinking feeling in
+the stomach and thinks, "How easy and jolly he is! What a splendid
+fellow!" Immediately, one begins unconsciously to imitate him. Then
+another thinks the same thing about one, and begins to imitate too. So
+it passes on, down the line. But there is nothing heroic or exalting
+in going over the top.
+
+This, then, was our possible second reason for preferring to attack
+inside bullet-proof steel; not that death is less likely in a tank,
+but there seems to be a more sporting chance with a shell than with a
+bullet. The enemy infantryman looks along his sight and he has you for
+a certainty, but the gunner cannot be so accurate and twenty yards
+may mean a world of difference. Above all, the new monster had our
+imaginations in thrall. Here were novelty and wonderful developments.
+
+In the end of 1916, therefore, a certain number of officers and men
+received their orders to join the H.B.M.G.C., and proceeded
+sorrowfully and joyfully away from the trenches. Sorrowfully, because
+it is a poor thing to leave your men and your friends in danger, and
+get out of it yourself into something new and fresh; joyfully, because
+one is, after all, but human.
+
+About thirty miles behind the line some villages were set aside for
+the housing and training of the new units. Each unit had a nucleus of
+men who had already served in tanks, with the new arrivals spread
+around to make up to strength.
+
+The new arrivals came from all branches of the Service; Infantry,
+Sappers, Gunners, Cavalry, and the Army Service Corps. Each man was
+very proud of his own Branch; and a wonderfully healthy rivalry and
+affection sprang up between them. The gunner twitted the sapper, the
+cavalryman made jokes at the A.S.C., and the infantryman groused at
+the whole lot. But all knew at the bottom of their hearts, how each is
+essential to the other.
+
+It was to be expected when all these varied men came together, that
+the inculcating of a proper _esprit de corps_--the training of each
+individual in an entirely new science for the benefit of the
+whole--would prove a very difficult and painstaking task. But the
+wonderful development, however, in a few months, of a large,
+heterogeneous collection of men into a solid, keen, self-sacrificing
+unit, was but another instance of the way in which war improves the
+character and temperament of man.
+
+It was entirely new for men who were formerly in a regiment, full of
+traditions, to find themselves in the Tank Corps. Here was a Corps,
+the functions of which resulted from an idea born of the exigencies of
+this science-demanding war. Unlike every other branch of the Service,
+it has no regimental history to direct it, no traditions upon which to
+build, and still more important from a practical point of view, no
+experience from which to draw for guidance, either in training or in
+action. In the Infantry, the attack has resulted from a steady
+development in ideas and tactics, with past wars to give a foundation
+and this present one to suggest changes and to bring about remedies
+for the defects which crop up daily. With this new weapon, which was
+launched on the Somme on September 15, 1916, the tactics had to be
+decided upon with no realistic experimentation as ground work; and,
+moreover, with the very difficult task of working in concert with
+other arms of the Service that had had two years of fighting, from
+which to learn wisdom.
+
+With regard to discipline, too,--of all things the most important, for
+the success of a battle has depended, does, and always will depend,
+upon the state of discipline of the troops engaged,--all old regiments
+have their staff of regular instructors to drill and teach recruits.
+In them has grown up that certain feeling and loyalty which time and
+past deeds have done so much to foster and cherish. Here were we,
+lacking traditions, history, and experience of any kind.
+
+It is easy to realize the responsibility that lay not only upon the
+Chief of this new Corps, but upon each individual and lowest member
+thereof. It was for us all to produce _esprit de corps_, and to
+produce it quickly. It was necessary for us to develop a love of the
+work, not because we felt it was worth while, but because we knew that
+success or failure depended on each man's individual efforts.
+
+But, naturally, the real impetus came from the top, and no admiration
+or praise can be worthy of that small number of men in whose hands the
+real destinies of this new formation lay; who were continually
+devising new schemes and ideas for binding the whole together, and for
+turning that whole into a highly efficient, up-to-date machine.
+
+    [Illustration: KING GEORGE AND QUEEN MARY INSPECTING A TANK ON
+    THE BRITISH FRONT IN FRANCE]
+
+"How did the tank happen to be invented?" is a common question. The
+answer is that in past wars experience has made it an axiom that the
+defenders suffer more casualties than the attacking forces. From the
+first days of 1914, however, this condition was reversed, and whole
+waves of attacking troops were mown down by two or three machine guns,
+each manned, possibly, by not more than three men. There may be in a
+certain sector, before an attack, an enormous preliminary bombardment
+which is destined to knock out guns, observation posts, dumps, men,
+and above all, machine-gun emplacements. Nevertheless, it has been
+found in actual practice that despite the most careful observation and
+equally careful study of aeroplane photographs, there are, as a rule,
+just one or two machine guns which, either through bad luck or through
+precautions on the part of the enemy, have escaped destruction. These
+are the guns which inflict the damage when the infantrymen go over and
+which may hold up a whole attack.
+
+It was thought, therefore, that a machine might be devised which would
+cross shell-craters, wire and trenches, and be at the same time
+impervious to bullets, and which would contain a certain number of
+guns to be used for knocking out such machine guns as were still in
+use, or to lay low the enemy infantry. With this idea, a group of men,
+in the end of 1915, devised the present type of heavy armoured car. In
+order to keep the whole plan as secret as possible, about twenty-five
+square miles of ground in Great Britain were set aside and surrounded
+with armed guards. There, through all the spring and early summer of
+1916, the work was carried on, without the slightest hint of its
+existence reaching the outside world. Then, one night, the tanks were
+loaded up and shipped over to France, to make that first sensational
+appearance on the Somme, with the success which warranted their
+further production on a larger and more ambitious scale.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+FIRST DAYS OF TRAINING
+
+
+We were at a rest camp on the Somme when the chit first came round
+regarding the joining of the H.B.M.G.C. The Colonel came up to us one
+day with some papers in his hand.
+
+"Does anybody want to join this?" he asked.
+
+We all crowded around to find out what "this" might be.
+
+"Tanks!" some one cried. Some were facetious; others indifferent; a
+few mildly interested. But no one seemed very keen about it,
+especially as the tanks in those days had a reputation for rather
+heavy casualties. Only Talbot, remembering the derelict and the
+interest she had inspired, said, with a laugh,--
+
+"I rather think I'll put my name down, sir. Nothing will come of it,
+but one might just as well try." And taking one of the papers he
+filled it in, while the others stood around making all the remarks
+appropriate to such an occasion.
+
+Two or three weeks went by and Talbot had forgotten all about it, in
+the more absorbing events which crowded months into days on the Somme.
+
+One day the Adjutant came up to him and, smiling, put out his hand.
+
+"Well, good-bye, Talbot. Good luck."
+
+When a man puts out his hand and says "Good-bye," you naturally take
+the proffered hand and say "Good-bye," too. Talbot found himself
+saying "Good-bye" before he realized what he was doing. Then he
+laughed.
+
+"Now that I've said 'Good-bye,' where am I going?" he asked.
+
+"To the Tanks," the Adjutant replied.
+
+So he was really to go; really to leave behind his battalion, his
+friends, his men, and his servant. For a moment the Somme and the camp
+seemed the most desirable places on earth. He thought he must have
+been a fool the day he signed that paper signifying his desire to join
+another Corps. But it was done now. There were his orders in the
+Colonel's hand.
+
+"When do I start, sir? And where do I go?" he asked.
+
+"You're to leave immediately for B----, wherever that is. Take your
+horse as far as the railhead and get a train for B----, where the Tank
+Headquarters are. Good-bye, Talbot; I'm sorry to lose you." A silent
+handshake, and they parted.
+
+Talbot's kit was packed and sent off on the transport. A few minutes
+later he was shaking hands all round. His spirits were rising at the
+thought of this new adventure, but it was a wrench, leaving his
+regiment. It was, in a way, he thought, as if he were turning his back
+on an old friend. The face of Dobbin, his groom, as he brought the
+horses round was not conducive to cheer. He must get the business over
+and be off. So he mounted and rode off through a gray, murky drizzle,
+to the railhead about eight miles away. There came the parting with
+Dobbin and with his pony. Horses mean as much as men sometimes, and
+his had worked so nobly with him through the mud on the Somme. He
+wondered if there would be any one in the new place who would be so
+faithful to him as Polly. Finally, there was Dobbin riding away, back
+to M----, with the horse, and its empty saddle, trotting along beside
+him. It was simply rotten leaving them all!
+
+One has, however, little time for introspection in the Army, and
+especially when one engages in a tilt with an R.T.O. The R.T.O. has
+been glorified by an imaginative soul with the title of "Royal
+Transportation Officer." As a matter of fact, the "R" does not stand
+for "royal," but for "railway," and the "T" is "transport," nothing so
+grandiose as "transportation." Now an R.T.O.'s job, though it may be a
+safe one, is not enviable. He is forced to combine the qualities of
+booking-clerk, station-master, goods-agent, information clerk, and day
+and night watchman all into one. In consequence of this it is
+necessary for the traveller's speech and attitude to be strictly
+soothing and complimentary. Talbot's obsession at this moment was as
+to whether B---- was near or far back from the line.
+
+If he supposed that B---- was "near" the line, the R.T.O. might tell
+him--just to prove how kind Fate is--that it was a good many miles in
+the rear. But no such luck. The R.T.O. coldly informed Talbot that he
+hadn't the slightest idea where B---- was. He only knew that trains
+went there. And, by the way, the trains didn't go there direct. It
+would be necessary for him to change at Boulogne. Talbot noticed these
+signs of thawing with delight. And to change at Boulogne! Life was
+brighter.
+
+Travelling in France in the northern area, at the present time, would
+seem to be a refutation of the truth that a straight line is the
+shortest distance between two points. For in order to arrive at one's
+destination, it is usually necessary to go about sixty miles out of
+one's way,--hence the necessity for Talbot's going to Boulogne in
+order to get a train running north.
+
+He arrived at Boulogne only to find that the train for B---- left in
+an hour.
+
+He strolled out into the streets. Boulogne had then become the Mecca
+for all those in search of gaiety. Here were civilized people once
+again. And a restaurant with linen and silver and shining glass, and
+the best dinner he had ever eaten.
+
+When he had paid his bill and gone out, he stopped at the corner of
+the street just to look at the people passing by. A large part of the
+monotony of this war is occasioned, of course, by the fact that the
+soldier sees nothing but the everlasting drab of uniforms. When a man
+is in the front line, or just behind, for weeks at a time he sees
+nothing but soldiers, soldiers, soldiers! Each man has the same
+coloured uniform; each has the same pattern tunic, the same puttees.
+Each is covered with the same mud for days at a time. It is the
+occasion for a thrill when a "Brass Hat" arrives, for he at least has
+the little brilliant red tabs on his tunic! A man sometimes finds
+himself envying the soldiers of the old days who could have occasional
+glimpses of the dashing uniforms of their officers, and although a red
+coat makes a target of a man, the colour is at least more cheerful
+than the eternal khaki. The old-time soldier had his red coat and his
+bands, blaring encouragingly. The soldier of to-day has his drab and
+no music at all, unless he sings. And every man in an army is not
+gifted with a voice.
+
+So Talbot looked with joy on the charming dresses and still more
+charming faces of the women and girls who passed him. Even the men in
+their civilian clothes were good to look upon.
+
+Riding on French trains is very soothing unless one is in a hurry. But
+unlike a man in civil life, the soldier has no interest in the speed
+of trains. The civilian takes it as a personal affront if his train is
+a few minutes late, or if it does not go as fast as he thinks it
+should. But the soldier can afford to let the Government look after
+such minor details. The train moved along at a leisurely pace through
+the lovely French countryside, making frequent friendly stops at
+wayside stations. On the platform at Étaples station was posted a
+rhyme which read:--
+
+    "A wise old owl lived in an oak,
+    The more he saw, the less he spoke;
+    The less he spoke, the more he heard;
+    Soldiers should imitate that old bird."
+
+It was the first time that Talbot had seen this warlike ditty. Its
+intention was to guard soldiers from saying too much in front of
+strangers. Talbot vowed, however, to apply its moral to himself at all
+times and under all conditions.
+
+From nine in the morning until half-past two in the afternoon they
+rolled along, and had covered by this time the extraordinary distance
+of about forty miles! Here at last was the station of Saint-P----.
+
+Talbot looked about him. Standing near was an officer with the
+Machine-Gun Corps Badge, whom he hailed, and questioned about the
+Headquarters of the Tank Corps.
+
+"About ten miles from here. Are you going there?" the fellow asked.
+
+Talbot explained that he hoped to, and being saturated with Infantry
+ideas, he wondered if a passing motor lorry might give him a lift.
+
+The man laughed. "Why don't you telephone Headquarters and ask them to
+send a car over for you?" he asked.
+
+Talbot did not quite know whether the fellow were ragging him or not.
+He decided that he was, for who had ever heard of "telephoning for a
+car"?
+
+"Oh, I don't believe I'll do that--thanks very much for the hint, all
+the same," he said. "Just tell me which road to take and I'll be quite
+all right."
+
+The officer smiled.
+
+"I'm quite serious about it," he said. "We all telephone for cars when
+we need them. There's really no point in your walking--in fact,
+they'll be surprised if you stroll in upon them. Try telephoning and
+you'll find they won't die of shock."
+
+Partly to see whether they would or not, and partly because he found
+the prospect of a motor car more agreeable than a ten-mile walk,
+Talbot telephoned. Here he experienced another pleasant surprise, for
+he was put through to Headquarters with no difficulty at all. A
+cheerful voice answered and he stated his case.
+
+"Cheero," the voice replied. "We'll have a car there for you in an
+hour--haven't one now, but there will be one ready shortly."
+
+Saint-P---- was a typical French town, and Talbot strolled around.
+There were soldiers everywhere, but the town had never seen the
+Germans, and it was a pleasant place. There was, too, a refreshing
+lack of thick mud--at least it was not a foot deep.
+
+Although Talbot could not quite believe that the car would
+materialize, it proved to be a substantial fact in the form of a
+box-body, and in about an hour he was speeding toward Headquarters. It
+was dark when they reached the village, and as they entered, he
+experienced that curious feeling of apprehensive expectancy with which
+one approaches the spot where one is to live and work for some time to
+come. The car slowed up to pass some carts on the road, and started
+forward with such a jerk that Talbot was precipitated from the back of
+the machine into the road. He picked himself up, covered with mud. The
+solemn face of the driver did not lessen his discomfiture. Here was a
+strange village, strange men, and he was covered with mud!
+
+    [Illustration: _Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N.Y._
+    A BRITISH TANK AND ITS CREW IN NEW YORK]
+
+Making himself as presentable as possible, Talbot reported to
+Headquarters, and was posted to "J" Company, 4th Battalion. That night
+he had dinner with them. New men were arriving every few minutes, and
+the next day, after he had been transferred to "K" Company, they
+continued to arrive. The nucleus of this company were officers of the
+original tanks, three or four of them perhaps, and the rest was made
+up with the newcomers.
+
+Men continued to arrive in driblets, from the beginning of December to
+the first of January. When a new man joins an old regiment there is a
+reserve about the others which is rather chilling. They wait to see
+whether he is going to fit in, before they make any attempts to fit
+him in. In a way, this very aloofness makes for comfort on the part of
+the newcomer. At mess, he is left alone until he is absorbed
+naturally. It gives him a chance to find his level.
+
+All this was different with the Tank Corps. With the exception of the
+very few officers who were "old men," we were all painfully new, so
+that we regarded one another without criticism and came to know each
+other without having to break through the wall of reserve and
+instinctive mistrust which is characteristically British. A happy bond
+of good-fellowship was formed immediately.
+
+The first few days were spent in finding billets for the men. They
+were finally quartered at a hospice in the village. This was a private
+almshouse, in charge of a group of French nuns, where lived a number
+of old men and women, most of them in the last stages of consumption.
+The Hospice consisted of the old Abbey of Ste. Berthe, built in the
+twelfth century, and several outbuildings around a courtyard. In these
+barns lived the men, and one large room was reserved for the officers'
+mess. The Company Orderly Room and Quartermaster's Stores were also
+kept in the Hospice, and four or five officers were quartered above
+the Refectory. The buildings were clean and comfortable, and the only
+drawback lay in the fact that one sometimes found it objectionable to
+have to look at these poor old creatures, dragging themselves around.
+They had nothing to do, it seemed, but to wait and die. One old man
+was a gruesome sight. He was about ninety years old and spent his days
+walking about the courtyard, wearing a cigarette tin hung around his
+neck, into which he used to cough with such terrible effort that it
+seemed as if he would die every time the spasm shook him. As a matter
+of fact, he and many others did die before we left the village: the
+extreme cold was too much for them; or perhaps it was the fact that
+their quiet had been invaded by the "mad English."
+
+It was during this time that Talbot developed a positive genius for
+disappearing whenever a gray habit came into sight. The nuns were
+splendid women: kind and hospitable and eager for our comfort, but
+they did not like to be imposed upon, however slightly. The first
+thing that Frenchwomen do--and these nuns were no exception--when
+soldiers are billeted with them, is to learn who is the officer in
+charge, in order that they may lose no time in bringing their
+complaints to him. The Mother Superior of the Hospice selected Talbot
+with unerring zeal. His days were made miserable, until in
+self-defence he thought of formulating a new calendar of "crimes" for
+his men, in which would be included all the terrible offences which
+the Mother Superior told off to him.
+
+Did the Colonel send for Captain Talbot, and did Talbot hurry off to
+obey the command, just so surely would the Mother Superior select that
+moment to bar his path.
+
+"Ah, mon Capitaine!" she would exclaim, with a beaming smile. "J'ai
+quelque chose à vous dire. Un soldat--"
+
+Talbot would break in politely, just as she had settled down for a
+good long chat, and explain that the Colonel wished to see him. As
+well try to move the Rock. It was either stand and listen, or go into
+the presence of his superior officer with an excited nun following him
+with tales of the "crimes" his men had committed. Needless to say, the
+Mother Superior conquered. Talbot would have visions of some fairly
+serious offence, and would hear the tale of a soldier who had borrowed
+a bucket an hour ago, promising, on his honour as a soldier of the
+King, to return it in fifty minutes at the most.
+
+"And it is now a full sixty minutes by the clock on the kitchen
+mantel, M'sieu le Capitaine," she would say, her colour mounting, "and
+your soldier has not returned my bucket. If he does not bring it back,
+when can we get another bucket?"
+
+And so on, until Talbot would pacify her, promising her that the
+bucket would be returned. Then he would go on to the Colonel,
+breathless and perturbed, his mind so full of buckets that there was
+hardly room for the business of the Tank Corps. Small wonder that the
+sight of a gray habit was enough to unnerve the man.
+
+He, himself, was billeted with a French family, just around the corner
+from the Hospice. The head of the family had been, in the halcyon days
+before the war, the village butcher. There was now Madame, the little
+Marie, a sturdy boy about twelve, and the old Grand'mère. The husband
+was away, of course,--"dans les tranchées," explained Madame with
+copious tears.
+
+Talbot was moved to sympathy, and made a few tactful inquiries as to
+where the husband was now, and how he had fared.
+
+"Il est maintenant à Paris," said Madame with a sigh.
+
+"In Paris! What rank has he?--a General, maybe?"
+
+"Ah, M'sieu s'amuse," said Madame, brightening up. No, her husband was
+a chef at an officers' mess in Paris, she explained proudly. He had
+been there since the war broke out. He would soon come home, the
+Saints be praised. Then the Captain would hear him tell his tales of
+life in the Army!
+
+The hero came home one day, and great was the rejoicing. Thrilling
+evenings the family spent around the stove while they listened to
+stories of great deeds. On the day when his _permission_ was finished,
+and he set out for his hazardous post once more, great was the
+lamenting. Madame wept. All the brave man's relatives poured in to
+kiss him good-bye. The departing soldier wept, himself. Even
+Grand'mère desisted for that day from cracking jokes, which she was
+always doing in a patois that to Talbot was unintelligible.
+
+But they were very kind to Talbot, and very courageous through the
+hard winter. When he lay ill with fever in his little low room, where
+the frost whitened the plaster and icicles hung from the ceiling,
+Madame and all the others were most solicitous for his comfort. His
+appreciation and thanks were sincere.
+
+By the middle of December the Battalion had finally settled down and
+we began our training. Our first course of study was in the mechanism
+of the tanks. We marched down, early one morning, to an engine hangar
+that was both cold and draughty. We did not look in the least like
+embryo heroes. Over our khaki we wore ill-fitting blue garments which
+men on the railways, who wear them, call "boilers." The effect of
+wearing them was to cause us to slouch along, and suddenly Talbot
+burst out laughing at the spectacle. Then he remembered having heard
+that some of the original "Tankers" had, during the Somme battles,
+been mistaken for Germans in their blue dungarees. They had been fired
+on from some distance away, by their own infantry; though nothing
+fatal ensued. In consequence, before the next "show" chocolate ones
+were issued.
+
+In the shadows of the engine shed, a gray armour-plated hulk loomed
+up.
+
+"There it is!" cried Gould, and started forward for a better look at
+the "Willie."
+
+Across the face of Rigden, the instructor, flashed a look of scorn and
+pain. Just such a look you may have seen on the face of a young mother
+when you refer to her baby as "it."
+
+"Don't call a tank 'it,' Gould," he said with admirable patience. "A
+tank is either 'he' or 'she'; there is no 'it.'"
+
+"In Heaven's name, what's the difference?" asked Gould, completely
+mystified. The rest of us were all ears.
+
+"The female tank carries machine guns only," Rigden explained. "The
+male tank carries light field guns as well as machine guns. Don't ever
+make the mistake again, any of you fellows."
+
+Having firmly fixed in our minds the fact that we were to begin on a
+female "Willie," the instruction proceeded rapidly. Rigden opened a
+little door in the side of the tank. It was about as big as the door
+to a large, old-fashioned brick oven built into the chimney beside the
+fireplace. His head disappeared and his body followed after. He was
+swallowed up, save for a hand that waved to us and a muffled voice
+which said, "Come on in, you fellows."
+
+Gould went first. He scrambled in, was lost to sight, and then we
+heard his voice.
+
+McKnutt's infectious laugh rose above the sound of our mirth. But not
+for long.
+
+"Hurry up!" called Rigden. "You next, McKnutt."
+
+McKnutt disappeared. Then to our further astonishment his rich Irish
+voice could be heard upraised in picturesque malediction. What was
+Rigden doing to them inside the tank to provoke such profanity from
+them both? The rest of us scrambled to find out. We soon learned.
+
+When you enter a tank, you go in head first, entering by the side
+doors. (There is an emergency exit--a hole in the roof which is used
+by the wise ones.) You wiggle your body in with more or less grace,
+and then you stand up. Then, if it is the first time, you are usually
+profane. For you have banged your head most unmercifully against the
+steel roof and you learn, once and for all, that it is impossible to
+stand upright in a tank. Each one of us received our baptism in this
+way. Seven of us, crouched in uncomfortable positions, ruefully rubbed
+our heads, to Rigden's intense enjoyment. Our life in a tank had
+begun!
+
+We looked around the little chamber with eager curiosity. Our first
+thought was that seven men and an officer could never do any work in
+such a little place. Eight of us were, at present, jammed in here, but
+we were standing still. When it came to going into action and moving
+around inside the tank, it would be impossible,--there was no room to
+pass one another. So we thought. In front are two stiff seats, one for
+the officer and one for the driver. Two narrow slits serve as
+portholes through which to look ahead. In front of the officer is a
+map board, and gun mounting. Behind the engine, one on each side, are
+the secondary gears. Down the middle of the tank is the powerful
+petrol engine, part of it covered with a hood, and along either side a
+narrow passage through which a man can slide from the officer's and
+driver's seat back and forth to the mechanism at the rear. There are
+four gun turrets, two on each side. There is also a place for a gun in
+the rear, but this is rarely used, for "Willies" do not often turn
+tail and flee!
+
+Along the steel walls are numberless ingenious little cupboards for
+stores, and ammunition cases are stacked high. Every bit of space is
+utilized. Electric bulbs light the interior. Beside the driver are the
+engine levers. Behind the engine are the secondary gears, by which the
+machine is turned in any direction. All action inside is directed by
+signals, for when the tank moves the noise is such as to drown a man's
+voice.
+
+All that first day and for many days after, we struggled with the
+intricacies of the mechanism. Sometimes, Rigden despaired of us. We
+might just as well go back to our regiments, unless they were so glad
+to be rid of us that they would refuse. On other days, he beamed with
+pride, even when Darwin and the Old Bird distinguished themselves by
+asking foolish questions. "Darwin" is, of course, not his right name.
+Because he came from South Africa and looked like a baboon, we called
+him "Baboon." So let evolution evolve the name of "Darwin" for him in
+these pages. As for the Old Bird, no other name could have suited him
+so well. He was the craftiest old bird at successfully avoiding work
+we had ever known, and yet he was one of the best liked men in the
+Company. He was one of those men who are absolutely essential to a
+mess because of his never-failing cheer and gaiety. He never did a
+stroke of work that he could possibly "wangle" out of. A Scotchman by
+birth, he was about thirty-eight years old and had lived all over the
+world. He had a special fondness for China. Until he left "K" Company,
+he was never known by any other name than that of "Old Bird."
+
+There was one man, from another Company, who gave us the greatest
+amusement during our Tank-mechanism Course. He was pathetically in
+earnest, but appeared to have no brains at all. Sometimes, while
+asking each other catch questions, we would put the most senseless
+ones to him.
+
+Darwin would say, "Look here, how is the radiator connected with the
+differential?"
+
+The poor fellow would ponder for a minute or two and then reply, "Oh!
+through the magneto."
+
+He naturally failed again and again to pass his tests, and was
+returned to his old Corps.
+
+Somehow we learned not to attempt to stand upright in our steel
+prison. Before long, McKnutt had ceased his remarks about sardines in
+a tin and announced, "Sure! there is plenty of room and to spare for a
+dozen others here." The Old Bird no longer compared the atmosphere,
+when we were all shut in tight, with the Black Hole of Calcutta. In a
+word, we had succumbed to the "Willies," and would permit no man to
+utter a word of criticism against them.
+
+It is necessary here, perhaps, to explain why we always call our
+machines "Willies." When the tanks were first being experimented
+upon, they evolved two, a big and a little one. Standing together they
+looked so ludicrous, that they were nicknamed "Big" and "Little
+Willie." The name stuck; and now, no one in the Corps refers to his
+machine in any other way.
+
+A few days before Christmas, our tank course was finished, and the Old
+Bird suggested a celebration. McKnutt led the cheering. Talbot had an
+idea.
+
+"Let's get a box-body and go over to Amiens and do our Christmas
+shopping," he said.
+
+A chorus of "Jove, that's great!" arose. Every one made himself useful
+excepting the Old Bird, who made up by contributing more than any one
+else to the gaiety of the occasion. The car was secured, and we all
+piled in, making early morning hideous with our songs.
+
+We sped along over the snowy roads. War seemed very far away. We were
+extraordinarily light-hearted. After about twenty miles the cold
+sobered us down a little. Suddenly, the car seemed to slip from under
+us and we found ourselves piled up in the soft snow of the road. A
+rear wheel had shot off, and it went rolling along on its own.
+Fortunately we had been going rather slowly since we were entering a
+town, and no one was hurt. Borwick, the musician of the Company,
+looked like a snow image; Darwin and the Old Bird were locked in each
+other's arms, and had an impromptu and friendly wrestling match in a
+snowdrift. McKnutt was invoking the aid of the Saints in his
+endeavours to prevent the snow from trickling down his back. Talbot
+and Gould, who had got off lightly, supplied the laughter. The wheel
+was finally rescued and restored to its proper place, and we crawled
+along at an ignominious pace until the spires of Amiens welcomed us.
+
+We shopped in the afternoon, buying all sorts of ridiculous things,
+and collecting enough stores to see us through a siege. After a
+hilarious dinner at the Hôtel de l'Univers (never had the Old Bird
+been so witty and gay), we started back about eleven o'clock, and
+forgetting our injured wheel, raced out of the town toward home. A
+short distance down the main boulevard, the wheel again came off, and
+this time the damage could not be repaired. There was nothing for it
+but to wait until morning, and it was a disconsolate group that
+wandered about. All the hotels were full up. Finally, a Y.M.C.A. hut
+made some of us welcome. We sat about, reading and talking, until we
+dozed off in our chairs. The next morning we got a new wheel and ran
+gingerly the sixty-odd miles back, to regale the others with enviable
+tales of our pre-Christmas festivities.
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+LATER DAYS OF TRAINING
+
+
+"Well, thank Heaven, that sweat's over," said the Old Bird the night
+after we finished our tank course, and had our celebration. He
+stretched luxuriously.
+
+"Yes, but you're starting off again on the gun to-morrow morning,"
+said the Major, cheerfully.
+
+The Old Bird protested.
+
+"But I can have a few days' rest, sir, can't I?" he said sorrowfully.
+
+The Major laughed.
+
+"No, you can't. You're down, so you'll have to go through with it."
+
+So for three days we sat in the open, in the driving sleet, from
+half-past eight in the morning until half-past four in the afternoon,
+learning the gun. On the fourth day we finished off our course with
+firing on the range. Surprising as it may seem, after two or three
+rounds we could hit the very smallest object at a distance of four or
+five hundred yards.
+
+"How many more courses must we go through?" asked the Old Bird of
+Rigden, as they strolled back one evening from the range. The Old Bird
+was always interested in how much--or, rather, how little--work he had
+before him.
+
+"There's the machine gun; the signalling course,--you'll have to work
+hard on that, but I know you don't object,--and also revolver
+practice. Aren't you thrilled?"
+
+"No, I'm not," grumbled the Old Bird. "Life isn't worth living with
+all this work to do. I wish we could get into action."
+
+"So do I," said Talbot, joining them. "But while we're waiting,
+wouldn't you rather be back here with good warm billets and a
+comfortable bed and plenty to eat, instead of sitting in a wet trench
+with the Infantry?" He remembered an old man in his regiment who had
+been with the Salvation Army at home. He would stump along on his flat
+feet, trudging miles with his pack on his back, and Talbot had never
+heard him complain. He was bad at drill. He could never get the orders
+or formations through his head. Talbot had often lost patience with
+him, but the old fellow was always cheerful. One morning, in front of
+Bapaume, after a night of terrible cold, the old man could not move.
+Talbot tried to cheer him up and to help him, but he said feebly: "I
+think I'm done for--I don't believe I shall ever get warm. But never
+mind, sir." And in a few minutes he died, as uncomplainingly as he had
+lived.
+
+"You're right, of course, Talbot," the Old Bird said. "We're very well
+off here. But, I say, how I should like to be down in Boulogne for a
+few days!" And until they reached the Mess, the Old Bird dilated on
+the charm of Boulogne and all the luxuries he would indulge in the
+next time he visited the city.
+
+The rest of that week found us each day parading at eight o'clock in
+the courtyard of the Hospice, and after instruction the various
+parties marched off to their several duties. Some of us went to the
+tankdrome; some of us to the hills overlooking historic Agincourt,
+and others to the barn by the railroad where we practised with the
+guns. Another party accompanied Borwick to a secluded spot where he
+drilled them in machine-gun practice. Borwick was as skilful with a
+machine gun as with a piano. This was the highest praise one could
+give him.
+
+That night at mess, Gould said suddenly:--
+
+"To-morrow's a half day, isn't it?"
+
+"Of course. Wake up, you idiot," said Talbot. "We're playing 'J'
+Company at soccer, and on Sunday we're playing 'L' at rugger. Two
+strenuous days before us. Are you feeling fit?"
+
+Gould was feeling most awfully fit. In fact, he assured the mess that
+he, alone, was a match for "J" Company.
+
+Our soccer team was made up almost entirely of men who had been
+professional players. We had great pride in them, so that on the
+following afternoon, an eager crowd streamed out of the village to our
+football field, which we had selected with great care. It was as flat
+as a cricket pitch. A year ago it had been ploughed as part of the
+French farmland, and now here were the English playing football!
+
+Before the game began there was a good deal of cheerful chaffing on
+the respective merits of the "J" and "K" Company teams. And when the
+play was in progress and savage yells rent the air, the French
+villagers looked on in wonder and pity. They had always believed the
+English to be mad. Now they were convinced of it.
+
+From the outset, however, "J" Company was hopelessly outclassed, and
+wishing to be generous to a failing foe, we ceased our wild cheering.
+"J" Company, on the other hand, wishing to exhort their team to
+greater efforts, made up for our moderation, with the result that our
+allies were firmly convinced that "J" Company had won the game! If
+not, why should they dance up and down and wave their hats and shriek?
+And even the score, five to one in favor of "K" Company, failed to
+convince them entirely. But "K" went home to an hilarious tea, with a
+sense of work well done.
+
+And what of the rugger game the next day? Let us draw a veil over it.
+Suffice it to say that the French congratulated "K" Company over the
+outcome of that, although the score was twelve to three in favor of
+"J"!
+
+We awoke on Monday morning with a delightful feeling that something
+pleasant was going to happen, for all the world the same sensation we
+used to experience on waking on our birthday and suddenly remembering
+that gifts were sure to appear and that there would be something
+rather special for tea! By the time full consciousness returned, we
+remembered that this was the day when, for the first time, the tank
+was to be set in motion. Even the Old Bird was eager.
+
+We hurry off to the tankdrome. One after another we slide in through
+the little door and are swallowed up. The door is bolted behind the
+last to enter. Officer and driver slip into their respective seats.
+The steel shutters of the portholes click as they are opened. The
+gunners take their positions. The driver opens the throttle a little
+and tickles the carburetor, and the engine is started up. The driver
+races the engine a moment, to warm her up. The officer reaches out a
+hand and signals for first speed on each gear; the driver throws his
+lever into first; he opens the throttle: the tank--our "Willie"--moves!
+
+Supposing you were locked in a steel box, with neither portholes to
+look through nor airholes to breathe from. Supposing you felt the
+steel box begin to move, and, of course, were unable to see where you
+were going. Can you imagine the sensation? Then you can guess the
+feelings of the men in a tank,--excepting the officer and driver, who
+can see ahead through their portholes,--when the monster gets under
+way. There are times, of course, with the bullets flying thick and
+fast, when all portholes, for officer, driver, and gunners, must be
+closed. Then we plunge ahead, taking an occasional glimpse through the
+special pin-point holes.
+
+Thirty tons of steel rolls along with its human freight. Suddenly,
+the driver rings a bell. He presses another button, and signals the
+driver of the right-hand track into "neutral." This disconnects the
+track from the engine. The tank swings around to the right. The
+right-hand driver gets the signal "First speed," and we are off again,
+at a right angle to our former direction.
+
+Now we are headed for a gentle slope across the field, and as we
+approach it, the tank digs her nose into the base of the hill. She
+crawls up. The men in the rear tip back and enjoy it hugely. If the
+hill is steep enough they may even find themselves lying flat on their
+backs or standing on their heads! But no such luck. Presently they are
+standing as nearly upright as it is ever possible to stand, and the
+tank is balancing on the top of the slope. The driver is not expert as
+yet, and we go over with an awful jolt and tumble forward. This is
+rare fun!
+
+But the instructor is not pleased. We must try it all over again. So
+back again to attack the hill a second time. The top is reached once
+more and we balance there. The driver throws out his clutch, we slip
+over very gently, and carefully he lets the clutch in again and down
+we go. The "Willie" flounders around for the fraction of a second.
+Then, nothing daunted, she starts off once more. We have visions of
+her sweeping all before her some day far behind the German lines.
+
+Three or four weeks of this sort of thing, and we are hardened to it.
+
+Our reward came at last, however. After mess one morning, when the
+conversation had consisted mainly of the question, "When are we going
+into a show?" with no answer to the question, we were called into the
+Major's room, where he told us, in strictest secrecy, that in about
+three weeks a big attack was to come off. We should go in at last!
+
+For the next two or three weeks we studied maps and aeroplane
+photographs, marking out our routes, starting-points, rear
+ammunition-dumps, forward dumps, and lines of supply. At last, then,
+our goal loomed up and these months of training, for the most part
+interesting, but at times terribly boring, would bear fruit. Two
+direct results were noticeable now on looking back to the time when we
+joined. First, each man in the Battalion knew how to run a tank, how
+to effect slight repairs, how to work the guns, and how to obtain the
+best results from the machine. Second, and very important, was the
+fact that the men and officers had got together. The crews and
+officers of each section knew and trusted each other. The strangeness
+of feeling that was apparent in the first days had now entirely
+disappeared, and that cohesion of units which is so essential in
+warfare had been accomplished. Each of us knew the other's faults and
+the mistakes he was prone to make. More important still, we knew our
+own faults and weaknesses and had the courage to carry on and overcome
+them.
+
+A few nights before we moved up the line, we gave a grand concert.
+Borwick and the Old Bird planned it. On an occasion of this sort, the
+Old Bird never grumbled at the amount of work he was obliged to do.
+Some weeks before we had bought a piano from one of the inhabitants of
+the village, and the piano was naturally the _pièce de résistance_ of
+the concert. The Old Bird went around for days at a time, humming
+scraps of music with unintelligible words which it afterwards
+developed at the concert were awfully good songs of his own composing.
+The Battalion tailor was called in to make up rough Pierrot costumes.
+The Old Bird drilled us until we begged for mercy, while Borwick
+strummed untiringly at the piano. At last the great night arrived.
+
+A stage had been built at one end of a hangar, and curtains hung up.
+
+The whole of the Staff and H.Q. had been invited, and the _maire_, the
+_curé_, the _médecin_ of the village, and their families were also to
+attend.
+
+Promptly at eight o'clock, the concert began, with Borwick at the
+piano. Everything went off without a hitch. Although "K" Company
+provided most of the talent, the Battalion shared the honours of the
+entertainment. Each song had a chorus, and so appreciative was our
+audience that the choruses were repeated again and again. The one
+"lady" of the Troupe looked charming, and "she" arranged for "her"
+voice to be entirely in keeping with "her" dress and paint. The French
+spectators enjoyed it hugely. They were a great encouragement, for
+they laughed at everything uproariously, though it could not have been
+due to their understanding of the jokes.
+
+At ten o'clock we finished off with "God Save the King," and went back
+to our billets feeling that our stay in the village had been
+splendidly rounded off.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+MOVING UP THE LINE
+
+
+Two or three days before we were due to leave, we had received orders
+to pack our surplus kit, and have it at the Quartermaster's Stores at
+a certain time. We drew a long breath. This meant that the actual
+date, which up to the present had been somewhat indefinite, was close
+at hand. We were given orders to draw our tanks and the whole Company
+was marched over to work sheds about two miles away at E----, where
+tanks and stores were issued.
+
+The variety and number of little things which it is necessary to draw
+when fitting out a tank for action is inconceivable. Tools, small
+spares, Pyrenes, electric lamps, clocks, binoculars, telescopes,
+petrol and oil funnels, oil squirts, grease guns, machine guns,
+headlights, tail lamps, steel hawsers, crowbars, shovels, picks,
+inspection lamps, and last, but not least, ammunition. The field-gun
+ammunition has to be taken out of its boxes and placed in the shell
+racks inside the tank. The S.A.A. (small arms ammunition) must be
+removed from its boxes and stacked away. At the same time every single
+round, before being put into the drum, must be gauged. All this has to
+be done in the last two or three days, and everything must be checked
+and countersigned. There is always a great deal of fun for Tank
+Commanders in drawing their stores. It is a temptation, when in the
+midst of all these thousands of articles, to seize the opportunity,
+when no one is looking, to pocket a few extra spares and dainty little
+tools, not, of course, for one's own personal benefit, but simply
+because such things are always being lost or stolen, and it is
+exasperating, to say the least, to find one's self, at a critical
+moment, without some article which it is impossible to duplicate at
+the time.
+
+During these last few days it was a continual march for the men from
+B---- to E----. Very often they were called back when their day's work
+was over to draw some new article or make some alteration which had
+been forgotten at the time they were in the workshops.
+
+At last, however,--on the third day following the grand concert,--the
+kits were packed, loaded on to the lorries, and sent off to E----. The
+troops said "Good-bye" to the village which had been such a happy home
+and school during that winter of 1916, and the officers made their
+fond adieus to the mothers and daughters of the houses in which they
+had been billeted.
+
+The companies formed up and marched along to the workshops. Every one
+was in high spirits, and there was a friendly race to see which
+Company of the Battalion could load up their tanks in the shortest
+time on to the specially constructed steel trucks.
+
+A few days before all these activities commenced, Talbot and another
+Tank Commander had gone on to the tanks' ultimate destination, A----,
+a village which had been evacuated a few days before by the Germans on
+their now famous retirement to the Hindenburg Line. It was a most
+extraordinary sight to ride along the road from Albert to Bapaume,
+which during the summer and winter of the preceding year had witnessed
+such heavy fighting. The whole country on each side of the road was a
+desolate vista of shell-holes as far as the eye could see. Where
+villages had been, there was now no trace left of any sort of
+habitation. One might think that, however heavy a bombardment, some
+trace would be left of the village which had suffered. There was
+literally nothing left of the village through which had run the road
+they were now travelling. Over this scarred stretch of country were
+dotted camps and groups of huts, with duck-boards crossing the old
+shell-holes, some of which were still full of water.
+
+On approaching B---- they saw traces everywhere of the methodical and
+organized methods by which the Germans had retired. The first sign was
+a huge shell-crater in the middle of the road, about forty feet deep,
+which the Boche had arranged to prevent armoured cars from following
+him up. If they did succeed, the transports would be delayed in
+reaching them, at all events. These holes were rather a nuisance, for
+the road itself was a mass of lesser shell-craters and the soft ground
+on each side was impassable. The road was crowded with engineers and
+labor battalions, filling in the shell-holes, and laying railways into
+the outskirts of A----.
+
+In A---- the old German notices were still standing as they had been
+left. Strung across the road on a wire was a notice which read:
+"Fuhrweg nach Behagnies." Every house in the town had been pulled
+down. The wily Boche had not even blown them up. Instead he had saved
+explosives by attaching steel hawsers to the houses and by means of
+tractors had pulled them down, so that the roof and sides fell in on
+the foundation. Every pump handle in the village had been broken off
+short, and not a single piece of furniture was left behind. Later, we
+found the furniture from this and other villages in the Hindenburg
+Line.
+
+Saddest of all, however, was the destruction of the beautiful poplar
+trees which once bordered the long French roads built by Napoleon.
+These had been sawn off at their base and allowed to fall on the side
+of the road, not across it, as one might suppose. If they had been
+allowed to fall across the road, the Boche, himself, would have been
+hindered in his last preparations for his retreat. Everything was done
+with military ends in view. The villages were left in such a condition
+as to make them uninhabitable, the more to add to our discomfort and
+to make our hardships severer. The trees were cut down only on those
+parts of the road which were screened from observation from his
+balloons and present trenches. In some places where the road dipped
+into a valley the trees had been left untouched.
+
+At the place where our tanks were scheduled to arrive, and which had
+lately been a railhead of the Boche, all the metals had been torn up,
+and in order to destroy the station itself, he had smashed the
+cast-iron pillars which supported the roof, and in consequence the
+whole building had fallen in. But nothing daunted, the British
+engineers were even now working at top speed laying down new lines.
+Some of the metals, which a few short weeks before had been lying in
+countless stacks down on the quays at the Bases, now unrolled
+themselves at the rate of about two and a quarter miles a day. One
+interesting feature of this rapid track-laying was that when the tank
+train left E----, on its two and a half days' journey down to the
+railhead at A----, the track on which the train was to run was not
+completed into A----. But, nevertheless, the track arrived ahead of
+the train, which was the main point!
+
+As they rode into the ruined village of A---- Talbot and his companion
+came across still further evidence of the steps which the German will
+take to inconvenience his enemy. In order to battle against the hordes
+of rats which are so prevalent in the old parts of the line in France,
+the Boche breeds cats in enormous numbers. Yet, in order to carry out
+to the limit his idea that nothing of value should fall into our
+hands, he had killed every cat in the village. In every house three or
+four of these poor little creatures lay around with their heads
+chopped off. Tabby cats, black cats, white cats, and little kittens,
+all dead. Farther on, over a well at the corner of the main square was
+posted a sign which read: "This well is poisoned. Do not touch. By
+order. R.E."
+
+Here and there a house had been left intact, with its furniture
+untouched. It was not until later that it struck us as peculiar that
+these houses had been spared from the general destruction. Two or
+three days later, however, after we had moved in, and headquarters had
+been established, we discovered that under many of these houses, and
+at certain crossroads which had not been blown up in the usual manner,
+the Boche had left mines, timed to go off at any time up to
+twenty-eight days. One could never be sure that the ground underneath
+one's feet would not blow up at any moment. These mines were small
+boxes of high explosive, inside of which was a little metal tube with
+trigger and detonator attached. Inside the tube was a powerful acid,
+which, when it had eaten its way through, set free the trigger and
+exploded the charge. The length of time it took for the mine to
+explode was gauged by the strength or weakness of the acid in the
+tube.
+
+    [Illustration: A TANK MOVING TO THE ATTACK DOWN WHAT WAS ONCE
+    A MAIN STREET]
+
+We were also impressed with the mechanical genius of the German. The
+Boche had made a veritable mechanical toy out of nearly every house in
+the village which he had spared. Delightful little surprises had been
+prepared for us everywhere. Kick a harmless piece of wood, and in a
+few seconds a bomb exploded. Pick up a bit of string from the floor
+and another bomb went off. Soon we learned to be wary of the most
+innocent objects. Before touching anything we made elaborate
+preparations for our safety.
+
+One of the men was greatly annoyed by a wire which hung over his head
+when he was asleep, but he did not wish to remove it. He had decided
+that it was connected with some devilish device which would do him no
+good. Finally, one morning, he could endure this sword of Damocles no
+longer. With two boon companions, he carefully attached a string about
+fifteen yards long to the wire. They tiptoed gently out of the house
+to a discreet distance, and with a yell of triumph, the hero pulled
+the string,--and nothing happened!
+
+But there was another side to all this. McKnutt some time afterwards
+came in with an interesting story. Some Sappers, he said, had been
+digging under a house in the village, presumably for the mysterious
+reasons that always drive the Engineers to dig in unlikely places. One
+of them pushed his shovel into what had been the cellar of the house,
+but as the roof had fallen in on the entrance, they did not know of
+its existence. When they finally forced their way in, they found two
+German officers and two Frenchwomen in a terribly emaciated condition.
+One of the Boches and one of the women lay dead, locked in each
+other's arms. The other two still breathed, but when they were brought
+up into the open they expired within a few hours without either of
+them giving an explanation. The only reason we could find for their
+terrible plight was that the women had been forced down there by the
+officers to undergo a last farewell, while the Germans were destroying
+the village, and that the house had fallen in on top of them. Later,
+probably no one knew where they had disappeared, and they were unable
+to get out of the ruins or to make themselves heard. The village of
+A---- gained a romantic reputation after that, and it was curious to
+realize that we had been living there for days while this silent
+tragedy was being enacted.
+
+In addition to the destruction in the towns, the beautiful orchards
+which are so numerous in France were ruined. Apple, pear, and plum
+trees lay uprooted on the ground, and here again the military mind of
+the German had been at work. He did not wish the fruit that the trees
+would bear in future to fall into our hands.
+
+But although the village was a pretty poor place in which to stay, the
+near presence of a B.E.F. Canteen was a comfort. It is always amazing
+to visit one of these places. Within perhaps four or five miles of the
+firing line we have stores selling everything from a silver cigarette
+case to a pair of boots, and everything, too, at nearly cost price.
+The Canteen provides almost every variety of smoking materials, and
+eatables, and their only disadvantage is that they make packages from
+home seem so useless. As the tobaccos come straight out of bond, it is
+far cheaper to buy them at the Canteen, than to have them forwarded
+from home. These Canteens are managed by the Army, and are dotted all
+over the country inhabited by the British troops. Since they have
+sprung into existence life at the front has been far more comfortable
+and satisfactory in France, and people at home are discovering that
+money is the best thing to send out to their men.
+
+Finally, one cold, sunny morning, about half-past five, the tank train
+steamed slowly into A----, and drew up on a siding. It was not
+possible to begin the work of unloading the tanks until night fell. So
+the tired crews turned into the roofless houses which had been
+prepared for them, and slept until dusk. When darkness fell, as if by
+magic, the town sprang to activity.
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+PREPARATIONS FOR THE SHOW
+
+
+That night the engines were started up, and one by one the tanks
+crawled off the train. Although the day had begun with brilliant
+sunshine, at dusk the snow had begun to fall, and by the time the
+tanks came off, the snow was a foot thick on the ground. The tanks
+moved down to the temporary tankdrome which had been decided upon near
+the railway, and the sponson trucks were towed there. The night was
+spent in fitting on the sponsons to the sides of the machines. It was
+bitterly cold. The sleet drove in upon us all night, stinging our
+hands and faces. Everything seemed to go wrong. We had the utmost
+difficulty in making the bolt-holes fit, and as each sponson weighs
+about three tons they were not easy to move and adjust. We drove ahead
+with the work, knowing that it must be done while the darkness
+lasted.
+
+Finally, about two hours before dawn broke, the last bolt was
+fastened, and the tanks were ready to move. The night was blacker than
+ever as they lumbered out of the tankdrome, and were led across the
+snow to a halfway house about four miles from the railhead, and an
+equal distance from the front-line trenches. We had not quite reached
+our destination when the darkness began to lift in the east, and with
+feverish energy we pushed ahead, through the driving snow.
+
+Late that afternoon, Talbot was again sent ahead with five or six
+troopers and orderlies to a village in the front line. It was
+necessary for us to spend three or four days there before the attack
+commenced, in order to study out the vulnerable points in the German
+line. We were to decide also the best routes for the tanks to take in
+coming up to the line, and those to be taken later in crossing No
+Man's Land when the "show" was on. We rode along across fields denuded
+of all their trees. The country here was utterly unlike that to which
+we had been accustomed in "peace-time trench warfare." This last
+expression sounds like an anomaly, but actually it means the life
+which is led in trenches where one may go along for two or three
+months without attacking. In comparison with our existence when we are
+making an offensive, the former seems like life in peace times. Hence,
+the expression. But from this it must not be supposed that "peace-time
+trench warfare" is all beer and skittles. Quite the contrary. As a
+matter of fact, during four or five days in the trenches there may be
+as many casualties as during an attack, but taking it on an average,
+naturally the losses and dangers are greater when troops go over the
+top. Curiously enough, too, after one has been in an attack the
+front-line trench seems a haven of refuge. Gould, who was wounded in
+the leg during a battle on the Somme, crawled into a shell-hole. It
+was a blessed relief to be lying there, even though the bullets were
+whistling overhead. At first he felt no pain, and he wished, vaguely,
+that he had brought a magazine along to read! All through the burning
+summer day he stayed there, waiting for the night. As soon as it was
+dark he wriggled back to our trenches, tumbled over the parapet of the
+front-line trench, and narrowly escaped falling on the point of a
+bayonet. But he never forgets the feeling of perfect safety and peace
+at being back, even in an exposed trench, with friends.
+
+The fields across which we rode had been ploughed the preceding autumn
+by the French civilians. Later, when the snow had disappeared, we
+could see where the ground had been torn up by the horses of a German
+riding-school of ten days before. On some of the roads the ruts and
+heavy marks of the retreating German transports could still be seen.
+It was a new and exciting experience to ride along a road which only
+two or three days before had been traversed by the Germans in a
+retreat, even though they called it a "retirement." The thought was
+very pleasant to men who, for the last two years, had been sitting _in
+front_ of the Boche month after month, and who, even in an attack, had
+been unable to find traces of foot, hoof, or wheel mark because of
+the all-effacing shell-fire. Here and there were places where the
+Boche had had his watering-troughs, and also the traces of scattered
+huts and tents on the ground where the grass, of a yellowish green,
+still showed. The front line of defence here was really no front line
+at all, but was merely held as in open warfare by outposts, sentry
+groups, and patrols.
+
+At night it was the easiest thing in the world to lose one's self
+close up to the line and wander into the German trenches. In fact,
+over the whole of this country, where every landmark had been
+destroyed and where owing to the weather the roads were little
+different from the soil on each side, a man could lose himself and
+find no person or any sign to give him his direction. The usual guide
+which one might derive from the Verey lights going up between the
+lines was here non-existent, as both sides kept extremely quiet. Even
+the guns were comparatively noiseless in these days, and were a man to
+find himself at night alone upon this ground, which lay between two
+and three miles behind our own lines, the only thing he could do
+would be to lie down and wait for the dawn to show him the direction.
+
+As we rode toward O---- our only guide was a few white houses two or
+three miles away on the edge of the village. The German had not
+evacuated O---- of his own free will, but a certain "Fighting
+Division" had taken the village two days before and driven the German
+out, when he retired three or four hundred yards farther to his rear
+Hindenburg Line. The probable reason why he hung on to this village,
+which was really in front of his line of advance, was because at the
+time he decided to retire on the Somme, the Hindenburg Line was
+incomplete. In fact, the Boche could still be seen working on his wire
+and trenches.
+
+We arrived in O---- at nightfall. Some batteries were behind the
+village, and the Germans were giving the village and the guns a rather
+nasty time. Unhappily for us, the Boche artillery were dropping
+five-nine's on the road which led into the village, and as they seemed
+unlikely to desist, we decided to make a dash for it. The horses were
+a bit nervous, but behaving very well under the trying circumstances.
+(With us were some limbers bringing up ammunition.) Shells were
+exploding all around us. It would never do to stand still.
+
+The dash up that hundred yards of road was an unpleasant experience.
+As we made the rush, the gunners tearing along "hell for leather" and
+the others galloping ahead on their plunging horses, we heard the dull
+whistle and the nearer roar of two shells approaching. Instinctively
+we leaned forward. We held our breath. When a shell drops near, there
+is always the feeling that it is going to fall on one's head. We
+flattened ourselves out and urged our horses to greater speed. The
+shells exploded about thirty yards behind us, killing two gunners and
+their mules, while the rest of us scrambled into the village and under
+cover.
+
+In the darkness, we found what had once been the shop of the village
+blacksmith, and in the forge we tied up our horses. It was bitterly
+cold. It was either make a fire and trust to luck that it would not be
+observed, or freeze. We decided on the fire, and in its grateful
+warmth we lay down to snatch the first hours of sleep we had had in
+nearly three days. But the German gunners were most inconsiderate, and
+a short time afterward they dropped a small barrage down the road. The
+front of our forge was open, and we were obliged to flatten ourselves
+on the ground to prevent the flying splinters from hitting us. When
+this diversion was over, we stirred up our fire, and made some tea,
+just in time to offer some to a gunner sergeant who came riding up. He
+hitched his horse to one of the posts, and sat down with us by the
+fire. The shell-fire had quieted down, and we dozed off, glad of the
+interlude. Suddenly a shell burst close beside us. The poor beast,
+waiting patiently for his rider, was hit in the neck by the shrapnel,
+but hardly a sound escaped him. In war, especially, one cannot help
+admiring the stoicism of horses, as compared with other animals. One
+sees examples of it on all sides. Tread, for instance, on a dog's
+foot, and he runs away, squealing. A horse is struck by a large lump
+of shrapnel just under its withers, and the poor brute trembles, but
+makes no sound. Almost the only time that horses scream--and the sound
+is horrible--is when they are dying. Then they shriek from sheer pain
+and fear. Strange as it may seem, one is often more affected by seeing
+horses struck than when men are killed. Somehow they seem so
+particularly helpless.
+
+It was during these days at O---- that Talbot discovered Johnson.
+Johnson was one of his orderlies. Although it did not lie in the path
+of his duty, he took the greatest delight in doing all sorts of little
+odd jobs for Talbot. So unobtrusive he was about it all, that for some
+time Talbot hardly noticed that some one was trying to make him
+comfortable. When he did, by mutual agreement Johnson became his
+servant and faithful follower through everything. The man was
+perfectly casual and apparently unaffected by the heaviest shell-fire.
+It is absurd to say that a man "doesn't mind shell-fire." Every one
+dislikes it, and gets nervous under it. The man who "doesn't mind it"
+is the man who fights his nervousness and gets such control of
+himself that he is able to _appear_ as if he were unaffected. Between
+"not minding it" and "appearing not to mind it" lie hard-won moral
+battles, increased strength of character, and victory over fear.
+Johnson had accomplished this. He preserved an attitude of careless
+calm, and could walk down a road with shells bursting all around him
+with a sublime indifference that was inspiring. Between him and his
+officer sprang up an extraordinary and lasting affection.
+
+The wretched night in the forge at last came to an end, and the next
+morning we looked around for more comfortable billets. We selected the
+cellar of a house in fairly good condition and prepared to move in,
+when we discovered that we were not the first to whom it had appealed.
+Two dead Germans still occupied the premises, and when we had disposed
+of the bodies, we took up our residence. Here we stayed, going out
+each day to find the best points from which to view No Man's Land,
+which lay in front of the village. With the aid of maps, we planned
+the best routes for the tanks to take when the battle should have
+begun. Not a detail was neglected.
+
+Then something happened to break the monotony of life. Just back of
+the village one of our batteries was concealed in such a fashion that
+it was impossible to find it from an aeroplane. Yet every day,
+regularly, the battery was shelled. Every night under cover of the
+darkness, the position was changed, and the battery concealed as
+cleverly as before, but to no avail. The only solution was that some
+one behind our lines was in communication with the Germans, _every
+day_. Secrecy was increased. Guards were doubled to see that no one
+slipped through the lines. Signals were watched. The whole affair was
+baffling, and yet we could find no clue.
+
+Just in front of the wood where the battery was concealed, stood an
+old farmhouse where a genial Frenchwoman lived and dispensed good
+cheer to us. She had none of the men of her own family nor any
+farmhands to help her, but kept up the farmwork all alone. Every day,
+usually in the middle of the morning, she went out to the fields
+behind her house and ploughed, with an old white horse drawing the
+plough. For some reason she never ploughed more than one or two
+furrows at a time, and when this was done, she drove the white horse
+back to the barn. One day, an officer noticed that a German plane
+hovered over the field while the woman was ploughing, and that when
+she went back to the house, the plane shot away. The next day the same
+thing happened. Later in the day, the battery received its daily
+reminder from the Boche gunners, as unerringly accurate as ever.
+
+Here was a clue. The solution of the problem followed. The woman knew
+the position of the battery, and every day when she went out to
+plough, she drove the white horse up and down, making a furrow
+directly in front of the battery. When the men in the German plane saw
+the white horse, they flew overhead, took a photograph of the newly
+turned furrow, and turned the photograph over to their gunners. The
+rest was easy.
+
+    [Illustration: A TANK GOING OVER A TRENCH ON ITS WAY INTO
+    ACTION]
+
+The next day we missed three events which had become part of our daily
+life. The German plane no longer hovered in the air. Our battery, for
+the first time in weeks, spent a peaceful day. And in the field behind
+her house, a woman with an old white horse no longer made the earth
+ready for the sowing.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+For three days now we had received no rations, and were obliged to
+subsist on the food which the Boche had left behind him when he fled.
+Finally, when all our plans were complete, we were notified that the
+point of attack had been shifted to N----, a village about four miles
+away. This practical joke we thought in extremely bad taste, but there
+was nothing for it but to pack up and move as quickly as possible. We
+learned that our troops at N---- had tried twice to break through the
+German lines by bombing. A third attempt was to be made, and the tanks
+were depended upon to open the way. Hence the change in our plans.
+
+Early the next morning we left O----, and dashed along a road which
+lay parallel with our line, and was under direct observation from the
+German trenches. Owing to the fact, probably, that he was not properly
+settled in his new line, the Boche did not bother us much, excepting
+at one place, where we were obliged to make a run for it. We arrived
+at N---- just after the tanks had been brought up. They were hurriedly
+concealed close up to houses, in cuttings, and under trees.
+
+The show was scheduled to come off the next morning at 4.30. That
+night we gathered at Brigade Headquarters and made the final plans.
+Each tank had its objective allotted to it, and marked out on the Tank
+Commander's course. Each tank was to go just so far and no farther.
+Talbot and Darwin were detailed to go forward as far as possible on
+foot when the battle was in progress, and send back messages as to how
+the show was progressing. Talbot also was given the task of going out
+that night to make the marks in No Man's Land which would guide the
+tanks in the morning.
+
+At eleven o'clock, in the bright moonlight, Talbot, with Johnson and a
+couple of orderlies, started out. They climbed over the front line,
+which was at present a railway embankment, crawled into No Man's Land,
+and set to work. Immediately the Boche snipers spotted them and
+bullets began to whistle over their heads. Luckily, no one was hit,
+but a couple of "whizz bangs" dropped uncomfortably close. The men
+dropped for cover. Only Johnson stood still, his figure black against
+the white snow gleaming in the moonlight.
+
+The shells continued to fall about them as they wriggled back when the
+work was done. As they reached N---- the tanks were being led up
+toward the line, so that later, under cover of the darkness, they
+might be taken farther forward to their starting-points.
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+THE FIRST BATTLE
+
+
+At dawn the next morning, the tanks were already lined up, sullen and
+menacing in the cold half-light. The men shivered in the biting air.
+One by one the crews entered the machines, and one by one the little
+steel doors closed behind them. The engines throbbed, and they moved
+off sluggishly.
+
+Darwin and Talbot, with their orderlies, waited impatiently. The
+moments just before an attack are always the hardest. A few batteries
+were keeping up a desultory fire. They glanced at their watches.
+
+"Only a minute to go," said Darwin. "I bet the show's put off or
+something. Isn't this snow damnably cold, though!"
+
+Suddenly a sixty-pounder in our rear crashed out. Then from all sides
+a deafening roar burst forth and the barrage began. As we became
+accustomed to the intensity and ear-splittingness 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 flashes, large and small, each one showing, for a second, trenches
+or trees or houses, and during this tornado we knew that the "Willies"
+must have started forward on their errand.
+
+As the barrage lifted and the noise died down a little, the first
+streaks of light began to show in the sky, although we could
+distinguish nothing. No sign of the infantry or of the tanks could be
+seen. But the ominous sound of machine guns and heavy rifle-fire told
+us that the Boche was prepared.
+
+We could stand this inactivity no longer. We trudged forward through
+the snow, taking the broad bands left by the tracks of the busses as
+our guide, the officers leading the way and the orderlies behind in
+single file.
+
+"The blighter's starting, himself, now," said Talbot, as a four-two
+landed a hundred yards away, and pieces of earth came showering down
+on our heads. Then another and another fell, each closer than the one
+before, and instinctively we quickened our steps, for it is difficult
+to walk slowly through shell-fire.
+
+The embankment loomed before us, and big splotches of black and yellow
+leaped from its surface. The deafening crashes gave us that peculiar
+feeling in the stomach which danger alone can produce. 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 ordinary tap of ones and twos had
+developed into a sharp crackle of tens and twenties. By listening
+carefully one could feel, rather than hear, the more intermittent
+bursts from the rifles.
+
+"There's one, sir," shouted one of the orderlies.
+
+"Where?"
+
+"Half-right and about five hundred yards ahead."
+
+By dint of straining, we discovered a little animal--or so it
+looked--crawling forward on the far side of the Hindenburg Line.
+Already it was doing a left incline in accordance with its
+instructions, 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 air. But the
+little animal seemed to bear a charmed life. No harm came to her, and
+she went calmly on her way, for all the world like a giant tortoise at
+which one vainly throws clods of earth.
+
+As it grows lighter, we can now see others in the distance. One is not
+moving--is it out of action? The only motion on the whole landscape is
+that of the bursting shells, and the tanks. Over the white snow in
+front of the German wire, are dotted little 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 bayonets. This is quite erroneous. To an observer in a post
+or in a balloon, no concerted action is visible at all. Here and there
+a line or two of men dash forward and disappear. A single man or a
+small group of men wriggle across the ground. That is all.
+
+"Well, they haven't got it in the neck as I supposed," said Darwin.
+"Remarkably few lying about. Let's push on."
+
+"All right," Talbot assented. "If you like."
+
+We crawled over the top of the embankment and continued down the side.
+About two hundred yards to the left, we saw one of the tanks, with her
+nose in the air. A little group of three or four men were digging
+around her, frantically. We rushed over to them, and found that the
+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
+there about ten minutes when the German gunners had bracketed on her,
+and were dropping five-nines, all of them within a radius of seventy
+yards of the tank, and yet no one was hurt. Finally, by dint of
+strenuous digging, she started up and pulled herself wearily out of
+the pit.
+
+    [Illustration: _Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N.Y._
+    A TANK HALFWAY OVER THE TOP AND AWAITING THE ORDER TO ADVANCE
+    IN THE BATTLE OF MENIN ROAD]
+
+Suddenly, Darwin shouted:--
+
+"Look here, you fellows! What are these Boches doing?"
+
+Looking up, we saw about forty or fifty Germans stumbling over their
+own wire, and running toward us as hard as they could go. For a moment
+we thought it was the preliminary step of a counter-attack, but
+suddenly we discovered that they carried no arms and were attempting
+to run with 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 it. One simply doesn't have time to pay any attention to
+it all. But the sad part was that the German machine gunners, seeing
+their men surrendering, opened a furious fire on them. There they
+were, caught from behind, and many of them dropped from the bullets of
+their own comrades.
+
+Twenty or thirty of them came straight on, rushed up to the pit where
+the tank had come to grief, and tumbled down into this refuge.
+Evidently, they knew of the British passion for souvenirs, for when
+our men surrounded them, the Germans plucked wildly at their own
+shoulder straps as if to entreat their captors to take the shoulder
+straps instead of anything else!
+
+We gave two or three of the wounded Germans some cigarettes and a
+drink of water. They were then told to find their quickest way to the
+rear. Like other German prisoners we had seen, they went willingly
+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
+started on the right road, the prisoner will plod along, their
+N.C.O.'s saluting the English officers, and inquiring the way to the
+concentration camp. When they find it, they usually appear well
+pleased.
+
+The Old Bird's tank moved on.
+
+"I suppose everything's going all right," said Talbot. "Suppose we
+move on and see if we can get some information."
+
+"Yes, or some souvenirs," Darwin replied with a laugh.
+
+We pushed on slowly. Three tanks which had completed their job were
+coming back and passed us. A little later we met some fellows who were
+slightly wounded and asked them how the battle was going. Every story
+was different. The wounded are rarely able to give a correct version
+of any engagement, and we saw that no accurate information was to be
+gleaned from these men.
+
+We had been out now for an hour and a half and still had no news to
+send back to Headquarters. We knew how hard it was for the officers
+behind the lines, who had planned the whole show, to sit hour after
+hour waiting for news of their troops. The minutes are like hours.
+
+"My God, Darwin, look!" Talbot cried. "Something's happened to her.
+She's on fire!"
+
+In the distance we saw one of our tanks stuck in the German wire,
+which at that point was about a hundred yards thick. Smoke was
+belching from every porthole. A shell had registered a direct hit,
+exploding the petrol, and the tank was on fire. We dashed forward
+toward her.
+
+A German machine gun rattled viciously. They had seen us. An instant
+later, the bullets were spattering around us, and we dropped flat. One
+man slumped 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 slid into a shell-hole for protection. Then, after a
+moment's breathing space, we popped out and tried to rush again.
+Another man stopped a bullet.
+
+It was suicide to go farther. Into another shell-hole we fell, and
+thought things over. We decided to send a message, giving roughly 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 steps,
+dropped flat, wriggled along across the snow, sprang to his feet, ran
+another few steps, and so on until we lost sight of him.
+
+A moment or two later we started across the snow in a direction
+parallel with the lines. Behind an embankment we came across a little
+group of Australians at an impromptu dressing-station. Some of them
+were wounded and the others were binding up their wounds. We watched
+them for a while and started on again. We had gone about fifty yards
+when a shell screeched 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 been hit below
+the knee and his leg was nearly severed. We tied him up and managed to
+get him back to the Australian aid-post. Two of the original four
+stretcher-bearers had been blown up a few minutes before. But the
+remaining two were carrying on with their work as though nothing had
+happened. Here he was bandaged and started on his way for the
+dressing-station.
+
+Far across the snow, we saw three more tanks plodding back toward the
+rear. Little by little, we gained ground until we reached a more
+sheltered area where we could make greater speed. We 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 were being supported by others less
+seriously wounded. They could tell us nothing. They had been with the
+infantry and only knew that two tanks were right on the other side of
+the village.
+
+A moment or two later, Talbot started running toward two men, one of
+whom was supporting the other. The wounded man proved to be the
+Sergeant of the tank we had seen on fire. We hurried up to him. He was
+hurt in the leg. So, instead of firing questions at him, we kept quiet
+and accompanied him back to the dressing-station.
+
+Later we heard the tragic news that it was Gould's tank that had
+burned up. None of us talked much about it. It did not seem real.
+They had got stuck in the German wire. A crump had hit them 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 they must all have lost
+consciousness quickly from the fumes of the petrol before they
+suffered from fire. But it was small consolation. Every one had liked
+Gould and every one would miss him.
+
+We waited at Brigade Headquarters for the others to return. A Tank
+Commander from another Company was brought in, badly wounded and
+looking ghastly, but joking 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 had been the last to leave the
+tank, and as he had stepped out to the ground, a shell exploded
+directly beneath him, taking off both of his legs below the knee.
+
+The last of the tanks waddled wearily in and the work of checking-up
+began. All were accounted for but two. Their fate still remains a
+secret. Our theory was that they had gone too far ahead and had
+entered the village in back of the German lines; that the infantry had
+not been able to keep up with them, 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 took,
+we found several photographs of these identical tanks. Then one day,
+when we had stopped wondering about them, a Sergeant in our Company
+received a letter from one of the crew of the missing machines, saying
+that he was a prisoner in Germany. But of the officers we have never
+heard to this day.
+
+We sat around wearily, waiting for the motor lorries which were to
+take some of us back to B----. Years seemed to have been crowded into
+the hours that had elapsed. Talbot 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 happen in the hours
+between dawn and early morning and who discovers that the day has but
+just begun. He had thought it must be three o'clock in the afternoon,
+at least.
+
+The lorries arrived eventually, and took those who had no tanks, back
+to B----. The others brought the "Willies" in by the evening.
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+THE SECOND BATTLE
+
+
+Ten days had now elapsed since that day when we had gone back to B----
+with the officers and men who had survived. We had enjoyed every
+minute of our rest and once more were feeling fit. The remainder of
+the Company had been divided up into crews. The "Willies" themselves
+had had the best of care and attention.
+
+Most important of all, to the childish minds of that part of the
+British Army which we represented, we had given another concert which
+had been an even greater success than the first. The Old Bird and
+Borwick had excelled themselves. We were convinced that something was
+wrong with a Government that would send two such artists to the front!
+They should be at home, writing "words and music" that would live
+forever.
+
+Toward the end of the week, plans for another attack were arranged.
+This time it was to take place at C----, about five miles north of
+N----. We were told that this was to be a "big show" at last. Part of
+the Hindenburg Line had been taken, and part was still in the hands of
+the enemy. It had been decided, 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 close as we
+could get to the Boche, to see what the ground was like, and to decide
+if possible on the routes for the tanks. In the line were innumerable
+souvenirs. We found the furniture that the Germans had taken out of
+the villages on their retirement, and had used to make their line more
+comfortable.
+
+We found, too, an extraordinary piece of engineering. A tunnel about
+ten miles long ran underneath the whole of the Hindenburg Line. It was
+about thirty or forty feet down, and had been dug, we heard, by
+Russian prisoners. The tunnel was 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 under
+the circumstances. He could not resist its charm, so he started
+lugging it back the six miles to camp. It was very heavy and its charm
+had decreased greatly by the time he reached camp and found that no
+one could make any use of it.
+
+The day of the attack was still undecided, and in order to be quite
+ready when it should come off, we left B---- with the tanks one
+evening and took them up to Saint-L----, 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 blown up. This was the same embankment, as a matter of fact,
+behind which, four or five miles away, the Australian dressing-station
+had been established in the last battle.
+
+Here we spent two or three days tuning up the machines, and many of
+our leisure moments in watching a howitzer battery which was just
+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 black
+mass shoot its seven or eight thousand yards until it becomes a small
+speck and finally vanishes just before it hits the ground.
+
+We also made an interesting collection of German and English
+shell-cases. These cases are made of brass, and the four-fives,
+especially, in the opinion of some 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 at times,
+when we gave an impromptu concert, by putting several of these
+shell-cases on a log of wood and playing elaborate tunes on them with
+a bit of stone.
+
+All this merry-making came to an end, though. One day we received word
+that the attack was to come off the next morning. Then began the
+preparations in 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 scheduled to start moving up at ten o'clock.
+Talbot and the Old Bird, with several men, set out at about eight, and
+arranged for marks to guide the machines.
+
+We had just reached a part of the Hindenburg Line which was now in our
+possession, and were near an ammunition dump, when shells began to
+fall around us. They were not near enough to do us any harm, and we
+continued our work, when one dropped into the ammunition 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 steely splinters. The noise was
+deafening. Cursing our luck, we waited until it died down into a red,
+smouldering mass, and then edged up cautiously to continue our work.
+By this time, Borwick's tank came up, and he emerged, with a broad
+smile on his face.
+
+"Having a good time?" he asked genially.
+
+There was a frozen silence, excepting for his inane laughter. He made
+a few more irritating remarks which he seemed to think were very
+funny, and then he disappeared inside his tank and prepared to follow
+us. We had gone ahead a couple of hundred yards when we heard bombs
+exploding, 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. They had run over a box of bombs, the only thing that
+had survived the fire in the ammunition dump, and one of the tracks
+was damaged. To repair it meant several hours' hard work in the cold
+in unpleasant proximity to the still smouldering dump. Over Talbot's
+face spread a broad smile.
+
+"Having a good time?" he asked pleasantly of Borwick.
+
+Infuriated growls were his only answer. He moved on with his men,
+while Borwick and his crew settled down to work.
+
+The night was fortunately dark. They went slowly forward and brought
+the route almost up to within calling distance of the Germans. The
+Verey lights, shattering the darkness over No Man's Land, did not
+disclose them to the enemy. Suddenly, a Boche machine gun mechanically
+turned its attentions toward the place where they were working. With a
+tightening of every muscle, Talbot heard the slow whisper of the gun.
+As it turned to sweep the intervening space between the lines, the
+whisper rose to a shirring hiss. The 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 viciously a few inches above his head. Then as it passed, it
+dropped into a patter once more and finally dropped away in a whisper.
+Talbot suddenly realized that his throat was aching, but that he was
+untouched by the storm. The men slowly got to their feet and continued
+their work in silence. Although the machine gun continued to spatter
+bullets near them all through the hours they were working, not once
+again did the men drop when they heard the whisper begin. The job was
+finally done and they filed wearily back.
+
+The attack was timed to come off at dawn. An hour before, while it was
+still as black as pitch, the tanks moved again for their final
+starting-point. McKnutt's machine was the first to go.
+
+"Cheero, McKnutt," we said as he clambered in. "Good luck!"
+
+The men followed, some through the top and some through the side. The
+doors and portholes were closed, and in a moment the exhaust began to
+puff merrily. The tank crawled forward and soon disappeared into the
+blackness.
+
+She had about fifteen hundred yards to go, parallel with the
+Hindenburg Line, and several trenches to cross before coming up with
+the enemy. We had planned that the tanks would take about three
+quarters of an hour to reach their starting-point, and that soon after
+they arrived there, the show would begin.
+
+Since it was still dark and the attack had not commenced, McKnutt and
+his first driver opened the windows in front of them. They looked out
+into impenetrable gloom. It was necessary 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 and mine-craters at the exhilarating speed of about
+four miles an hour, and then arrived at the first trench to be
+crossed. It was about ten feet wide with high banks on each side.
+
+"One up!" signals the driver. The gears-men get into first gear, and
+the tank tilts back as it goes up one side of the trench. Suddenly she
+starts tipping over, and the driver takes out his clutch and puts 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 other side and
+pulls herself up slowly, while her tail dips down into the bottom of
+the trench. Then comes the great strain as she pulls herself bodily
+out of the trench until she balances on the far side.
+
+It was now no longer safe to run with lights. They were snapped off.
+Once more the darkness closed around them, blacker than ever. They
+could no longer find their route, 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 his
+intense relief, the moon shone out with a feeble light. It was just
+enough to illumine faintly the ground before them and McKnutt
+reëntered the tank, and started on.
+
+Their route ran close to the sides of an old quarry and they edged
+along cautiously. McKnutt, with his eyes glued to the front, decided
+that they must 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 action. The moon had again disappeared behind
+the clouds, but he did not consider it worth while to get out again.
+The journey would be over in a few minutes.
+
+Suddenly, his heart took a great dive and he seemed to stop breathing.
+He felt the tank balance ever so slightly. Staring with aching 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 them. The
+black depth seemed bottomless. The tank was slipping over. When she
+shot down they would all be killed from concussion alone.
+
+His heart was pounding so that he could hardly speak. But the driver,
+too, had seen the danger.
+
+"For God's sake, take out your clutch and put your brake on!" McKnutt
+yelled, his voice almost drowned by the rattle and roar inside the
+tank. The man kept his head. As the tail of the tank started tipping
+up, he managed somehow with the brakes to hold her on the edge. For a
+second 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. Slowly he put his gears in reverse, keeping the brake on
+hard until the engine had taken up the strain. Slowly she moved back
+until her tail bumped on the ground, and she settled down. Neither
+McKnutt nor his driver spoke. They pushed back their tin hats and
+wiped their foreheads.
+
+McKnutt glanced back at the men in the rear of the tank. They, of
+course, had been unable to see out, and had no idea of what they had
+escaped. Now that 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. Then the feeling passed, he
+signalled, "Neutral left," the gearsman locked his left track, and the
+tank swung over, passing safely by the perilous spot.
+
+They settled down now to a snail's pace, shutting off their engine, as
+the Germans could not be more than one hundred and fifty or two
+hundred yards away. Running at full speed, the engine would have been
+heard by them. In a few moments, they arrived at their appointed
+station. McKnutt glanced at his watch. They had only a few moments to
+wait. The engine was shut off and they stopped.
+
+The heat inside the tank was oppressive. McKnutt and James opened the
+top, and crawled out, the men following. They looked around. The first
+streaks of light were beginning to show in the sky. A heavy silence
+hung over everything--the silence that always precedes a bombardment.
+Presumably, only the attacking 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 their
+significance. One seems to have become all ears--to have no sense of
+sight or touch or taste or smell. All seem to have become merged in
+the sense of hearing. The very air itself seems tense with listening.
+Only the occasional rattle of a machine gun breaks the stillness. Even
+this passes unnoticed.
+
+Slowly the minute-hand crept round to the half-hour, and the men
+slipped back into their steel home. Doors were bolted and portholes
+shut, save for the tiny slits in front of officer and driver, through
+which they peered. The engine was ready to start. The petrol was on
+and flooding. They waited quietly. Their heavy breathing was the only
+sound. The minute-hand reached the half-hour.
+
+With the crash and swish of thousands of shells, the guns smashed the
+stillness. Instantly, the flash of their explosion lit up the opposite
+trenches. For a fraction of a second the thought came to McKnutt how
+wonderful it was that man could produce a sound to which Nature had no
+equal, either in violence or intensity. But the time was for action
+and not for reflection.
+
+"Start her up!" yelled out McKnutt.
+
+But the engine would not fire.
+
+"What the devil's the matter?" cried James.
+
+A bit of tinkering with the carburetor, and the engine purred softly.
+Its noise was drowned in the pandemonium raging around them. James let
+in the clutch, and the monster moved forward on her errand of
+destruction.
+
+Although it was not light enough to distinguish forms, the flashes of
+the shell-fire and the bursts from the shrapnel lit up that part of
+the 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. Bombs were exploding on both sides. McKnutt slammed down
+the shutters of the portholes in front of him and his driver.
+"Bullets," he said shortly.
+
+"One came through, I think, sir," James replied. With the portholes
+shut, there was no chance for bullets to enter now through the little
+pin-points directly above the slits in the shutters. In order to see
+through these, it is necessary to place one's eye directly against
+the cold metal. They are safe, for if a bullet does hit them, it
+cannot come through, although it may stop up the hole.
+
+Suddenly a dull explosion was heard on the roof of the tank.
+
+"They're bombing us, sir!" cried one of the gunners. McKnutt signalled
+to him, and he opened fire from his sponson. They plunged along, amid
+a hail of bullets, while bombs exploded all around them.
+
+McKnutt and James, with that instinctive sense of direction which
+comes to men who control these machines, felt that they were hovering
+on the edge of the German trench. Then a sudden flash from the
+explosion of a huge shell lit up the ground around them, 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 crash in the bottom. For a moment she
+lay there without moving. The Germans thought she was stuck. They
+came running along thinking to grapple with her. But they never
+reached her, for at once the guns from both sides opened fire and the
+Germans disappeared.
+
+The huge machine dragged herself up the steep ten-foot side of the
+trench. As she neared the top, it seemed as if the engine would not
+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 jerk, the tank
+pulled herself right on to the point of balance, and tipped slowly
+over what had been the parapet of the German position.
+
+Now she was in the wire which lay in front of the trench. McKnutt
+signalled back, "Swing round to the left," parallel to the lay of the
+line. A moment's pause, and she moved forward relentlessly, crushing
+everything in her path, and sending out a stream of bullets from every
+turret to any of the enemy who dared to show themselves above the top
+of the trench.
+
+At the same time our own troops, who had waited behind the barricade
+to bomb their way down, from traverse to traverse, rushed over the
+heap of sandbags, tangled wire, wood, and dead 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, unaware of the infantry's action, as none of our
+own men could be seen. The only indication of the fact was the
+bursting of the bombs which gradually moved from fire bay to fire bay.
+
+The Corporal touched McKnutt on the arm.
+
+"I don't believe our people are keeping up with us, sir," he said.
+"They seem to have been stopped about thirty yards back."
+
+"All right," McKnutt answered. "We'll turn round."
+
+McKnutt and James opened their portholes to obtain a clearer view.
+Five yards along to the left, a group of Germans were holding up the
+advancing British. They had evidently prepared a barricade in case of
+a possible bombing attack 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 enough to get an
+aim on the enemy. But James was in a better position. He picked the
+gray figures off, one by one, until the bombing ceased and our own men
+jumped over the barricade and came down among the dead and wounded
+Germans.
+
+Then a sudden and unexplainable sense of disaster caused McKnutt to
+look round. One of his gunners lay quite still on the floor of the
+tank, his back against the engine, and a stream of blood trickling
+down his face. 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 along the barrel of his gun. There he lay,
+along one side of the tank between the engine and the sponson. The
+Corporal tried to get in position to carry on firing with his own gun,
+but the dead body impeded his movements.
+
+There was only one thing to do. The Corporal looked questioningly at
+McKnutt and pointed to the body. The officer nodded quickly, and the
+left gearsman and the Corporal dragged the body and propped it up
+against the door. Immediately the door flew open. The back of the
+corpse fell down 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 dead man upside down, shoved the body
+out and slammed the door shut. They were just in time. A bomb exploded
+directly beneath the sponson, where the dead body had fallen. To every
+man in the tank came a feeling of swift gratitude that the bombs had
+caught the dead man and not themselves.
+
+They ploughed across another trench without dropping into the bottom,
+for it was only six feet wide. Daylight had come by now and the enemy
+was beginning to find that his brave efforts were of no avail against
+these monsters of steel.
+
+All this time the German guns had not been silent. McKnutt's tank
+crunched across the ground amid a furious storm of flying earth and
+splinters. The strain was beginning to be felt. Although one is
+protected from machine-gun fire in a tank, the sense of confinement
+is, at times, terrible. One does not know what 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 cooped up. One is entirely at the mercy of the
+big shells. If a shell hits a tank near the petrol tank, the men may
+perish by fire, as did Gould, without a chance of escape. Going down
+with your ship seems pleasant compared to burning up with your tank.
+In fighting in the open, one has, at least, air and space.
+
+McKnutt, however, was lucky. They could now see the sunken road before
+them which was their objective. Five-nines were dropping around them
+now. It was only a matter of moments, it seemed, when they would be
+struck.
+
+"Do you think we shall make it?" McKnutt asked James.
+
+"We may get there, but shall we get back? That's the question, sir."
+
+McKnutt did not answer. They had both had over two years' experience
+of the accuracy of the German artillery. And they did not believe in
+miracles. But they had their orders. They must simply do their duty
+and trust to luck.
+
+They reached the sunken road. The tank was swung around. Their orders
+were to reach their objective and remain there until the bombers
+arrived. McKnutt peered out. No British were in sight, and he snapped
+his porthole shut. Grimly they settled down to wait.
+
+The moments passed. Each one seemed as if it would be their last.
+Would the infantry never come? Would there be any sense in just
+sitting there until a German shell annihilated them if the infantry
+never arrived? Had they been pushed back by a German rush? Should he
+take it upon himself to turn back? McKnutt's brain whirled.
+
+Then, after hours, it seemed, of waiting, around the corner of a
+traverse, he saw one of the British tin hats. Nothing in the world
+could have been a happier sight. A great wave of relief swept over
+him. Three or four more appeared. Realizing that they, too, had
+reached their objective, they stopped and began to throw up a rough
+form of barricade. More men poured in. The position was consolidated,
+and there was nothing more for the tank to do.
+
+They swung round and started back. Two shells dropped about twenty
+yards in front of them. For a moment McKnutt wondered whether it would
+be well to change their direction. "No, we'll keep right on and 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 see the top of the
+machine blown off. But nothing had happened inside, and no one was
+injured. Although shells continued to fall around them and a German
+machine gun raged at them, they got back safely.
+
+    [Illustration: _Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N.Y._
+    A TANK BRINGING IN A CAPTURED GERMAN GUN UNDER PROTECTION OF
+    CAMOUFLAGE]
+
+Brigade Headquarters, where McKnutt reported, was full of expectancy.
+Messages were pouring in over the wires. The men at the telephones
+were dead beat, but cool and collected.
+
+"Any news of the other 'busses?" McKnutt asked eagerly. The Buzzers
+shook their heads wearily. He rushed up to a couple of men who were
+being carried to a dressing-station.
+
+"Do you fellows know how the tanks made out?" he asked.
+
+One of them had seen two of the machines on the other side of the
+German line, he said. In answer to the questions which were fired at
+him he could only say that the tanks had pushed on beyond the German
+front line.
+
+Then on the top of the hill, against the sky-line, they saw a little
+group of three or four men. James recognized them.
+
+"Why, there's Sergeant Browning and Mr. Borwick, sir," he said.
+"What's happened to their tank, I wonder?" He and McKnutt hurried over
+to meet them.
+
+Borwick smiled coolly.
+
+"Hullo!" he said in his casual manner.
+
+"What's happened to your 'bus?" "What did you do?" was fired at him.
+
+"We got stuck in the German wire, and the infantry got ahead of us,"
+he said. "We pushed on, and fell into a nest of three machine guns.
+They couldn't hurt us, of course, 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 circles. What
+do you think had happened? A trench mortar had got us full in one of
+our tracks, and the beastly thing broke. So we all tumbled out and
+left her there."
+
+"Didn't you go on with the infantry?" asked McKnutt.
+
+"No. They'd reached their objective by that time," Borwick replied,
+"so we saved the tank guns, and I pinched the clock. Then we strolled
+back, and here we are," he concluded.
+
+Talbot joined the group as he finished.
+
+"But where's the rest of your crew?" he asked.
+
+Borwick said quietly: "Jameson and Corporal Fiske got knocked out
+coming back." He lit a cigarette and puffed at it.
+
+There was silence for a moment.
+
+Then Talbot said, "Bad luck; have you got their pay-books?"
+
+"No, I forgot them," Borwick answered.
+
+But his Sergeant handed over the little brown books which were the
+only tangible remains of two men who had gone into action that
+morning. The pay-books contained two or three pages on which were
+jotted down their pay, 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 killed, but he never failed to be
+affected when he discovered the letters and little trifles which had
+meant so much to the men who had carried them, and which now would
+mean so much to those whom they had left behind.
+
+In silence they went back to McKnutt's tank and sat down, waiting for
+news. Scraps of information were beginning to trickle in.
+
+"Have gained our objective in X Wood. Have not been counter-attacked."
+
+"Cannot push on owing to heavy machine-gun fire from C----."
+
+"Holding out with twenty men in trench running north from Derelict
+Wood. Can I have reinforcements?"
+
+These were the messages pouring in from different points on the lines
+of attack. Sometimes the messages came in twos and threes. Sometimes
+there were minutes when only a wild buzzing could be heard and the men
+at the telephones tried to make the buzzing intelligible.
+
+The situation cleared up finally, however. Our troops had, apparently,
+gained their objectives along the entire line to the right. On the
+left the next Brigade had been hung up by devastating machine-gun
+fire. As McKnutt and Talbot waited around for news and fresh orders,
+one of their men hurried down and saluted.
+
+He brought the news that the other three tanks had returned, having
+reached their objectives. Two had but little opposition and the
+infantry had found no difficulty in gaining their points of attack.
+The third tank, however, had had three men wounded at a "pill-box."
+These pill-boxes are little concrete forts which the German had
+planted 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, escorting
+ten Germans, filed out. The Germans had their hands above their heads,
+and when ordered to the rear they went with the greatest alacrity. One
+of the three Englishmen was badly wounded; the other two were only
+slightly injured, but they wandered down to the dressing-station, with
+the hope that "Blighty" would soon welcome them.
+
+Although Talbot had his orders to hold the tanks in readiness in case
+they were needed, no necessity arose, and after a few hours' waiting,
+the Major 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---- in the motor lorries, just as they had been
+after the first battle. Water, comparative quiet, blankets,--these
+were the luxuries that lay before them.
+
+As he sat crowded into the swaying motor lorry that lurched back along
+the shell-torn road to B----, Talbot slipped his hand into his pocket.
+He touched a cheque-book, a 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 them, but one
+never could tell, one might be taken prisoner. One needed no such
+material preparations against the possibility of death, but a
+prisoner--that was different.
+
+The cheque-book had been for use in a possible gray prison camp in the
+land of his enemies. Cheques would some time or other reach his
+English bank and his people would know that he was, at least, alive.
+The cigarettes were to keep up his courage in the face of whatever
+disaster might befall him.
+
+And the razor? Most important of all.
+
+The razor was to keep, bright and untarnished, the traditions and
+prestige of the British Army!
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+REST AND DISCIPLINE
+
+
+We stayed in that region of the Front for a few more weeks, preparing
+for any other task that might be demanded of us. One day the Battalion
+received its orders to pack up, to load the tanks that were left over,
+and to be ready for its return to the district in which we had spent
+the winter.
+
+We entrained on a Saturday evening at A----, and arrived at St.-P----
+at about ten o'clock on Sunday night. From there a twelve-mile march
+lay before us to our old billets in B----. As may well be imagined,
+the men, though tired, were in high spirits. We simply ate up the
+distance, and the troops disguised their fatigue by singing songs.
+There were two which appeared to be favorites on this occasion.
+
+One, to the tune of "The Church's One Foundation," ran as follows:--
+
+    "We are Fred Karno's[1] Army,
+    The ragtime A.S.C.,[2]
+    We cannot work, we do not fight,
+    So what ruddy use are we?
+    And when we get to Berlin,
+    The Kaiser he will say,
+    Hoch, hoch, mein Gott!
+    What a ruddy rotten lot,
+    Is the ragtime A.S.C."
+
+The other was a refrain to the tune of a Salvation Army hymn, "When
+the Roll is called up Yonder":--
+
+    "When you wash us in the water,
+    That you washed your dirty daughter,
+    Oh! then we will be much whiter!
+    We'll be whiter than the whitewash on the wall."
+
+Eventually the companies arrived in the village at all hours of the
+morning. No one was up. We saw that the men received their meals,
+which had been prepared by the cooks who had gone ahead in motor
+lorries. They did not spend much time over the food, for in less than
+half an hour "K" billets--the same Hospice de Ste. Berthe--were
+perfectly quiet. We then wandered away with our servants, to be met
+at each of our houses by hastily clad landladies, with sleep in their
+eyes and smoking lamps or guttering candles in their hands.
+
+The next morning the Company paraded at half-past nine, and the day
+was spent in reforming sections, in issuing new kits to the men, and
+in working the rosters for the various courses. On Tuesday, just as
+breakfast was starting, an orderly brought a couple of memorandums
+from Battalion Orderly Room for McKnutt and Borwick.
+
+No one watched them read the chits, but Talbot, glancing up from his
+plate, saw a look on Borwick's face. It was a look of the purest joy.
+
+"What is it?" he said.
+
+"Leave, my God!" replied Borwick; "and McKnutt's got it too."
+
+"When are you going? To-day?" shouted the Old Bird.
+
+"Yes; there's a car to take us to the station in a quarter of an
+hour."
+
+They both left their unfinished breakfasts and tore off to their
+billets. There it was but a matter of moments to throw a few things
+into their packs. No one ever takes any luggage when going on leave.
+They tore back to the mess to leave instructions for their servants,
+and we strolled out _en masse_ to see the lucky fellows off.
+
+The box-body drew away from where we were standing. We watched it grow
+smaller and smaller down the long white road, and turned back with
+regrets and pleasure in our hearts. With regrets, that we ourselves
+were not the lucky ones, and knowing that for some of us leave would
+never come; with pleasure, because one is always glad that a few of
+the deserving reap a small share of their reward.
+
+Then, strolling over to the Parade Ground, we heard the "Five Minutes"
+sounding. Some dashed off to get their Sam Brownes, others called for
+their servants to wipe a few flecks of dust from their boots and
+puttees.
+
+When the "Fall In" began, the entire Company was standing "At Ease" on
+the Parade Ground. As the last note of the call sounded, the whole
+parade sprang to "Attention," and the Major, who had been standing on
+the edge of the field, walked forward to inspect.
+
+Every morning was spent in this manner, except for those who had
+special courses to follow. We devoted all our time and attention to
+"Forming Fours" in as perfect a manner as possible; to saluting with
+the greatest accuracy and fierceness; and to unwearying repetition of
+every movement and detail, until machinelike precision was attained.
+
+All that we were doing then is the very foundation and essence of good
+discipline. Discipline is the state to which a man is trained, in
+order that under all circumstances he shall carry out without
+secondary reasoning any order that may be given him by a superior.
+There is nothing of a servile nature in this form of obedience. Each
+man realizes that it is for the good of the whole. By placing his
+implicit confidence in the commands of one of a higher rank than his
+own, he gives an earnest of his ability to himself command at some
+future time. It is but another proof of the old adage, that the man
+who obeys least is the least fitted to command.
+
+    [Illustration: _Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N.Y._
+    A BRITISH TANK IN THE LIBERTY LOAN PARADE IN NEW YORK]
+
+When this war started, certain large formations, with the sheer lust
+for fighting in their blood, did not, while being formed, realize the
+absolute necessity of unending drill and inspection. Their first cry
+was, "Give us a rifle, a bayonet, and a bomb, show us how to use them,
+and we will do the rest." Acting upon this idea, they flung themselves
+into battle, disregarding the iron rules of a preliminary training. At
+first their very impetus and courage carried them over incredible
+obstacles. But after a time, and as their best were killed off, the
+original blaze died down, and the steady flame of ingrained discipline
+was not there to take the place of burning enthusiasm. The terrible
+waste and useless sacrifice that ensued showed only too plainly that
+even the greatest individual bravery is not enough.
+
+In this modern warfare there are many trials and experiences
+unimagined before, which wear down the actual will-power of the men
+who undergo them. When troops are forced to sit in a trench under the
+most terrific shell-fire, the nerve-racking noise, the sight of their
+comrades and their defences being blown to atoms, and the constant
+fear that they themselves will be the next to go, all deprive the
+ordinary mind of vital initiative. Having lost the active mental
+powers that a human being possesses, they are reduced to the level of
+machines. The officers and non-commissioned officers, on whom the
+responsibility of leadership rests, have that spur to maintain their
+equilibrium, but the private soldiers, who have themselves only to
+think of, are the most open to this devastating influence. If these
+machines are to be controlled, as they must be, by an exterior
+intelligence, they must obey automatically, and if in the past
+automatic obedience has not been implanted, there is nothing to take
+its place.
+
+The only means by which to obtain inherent response to a given order
+is so to train a man in minute details, by constant, inflexible
+insistence on perfection, that it becomes part of his being to obey
+without thinking.
+
+It must not be presumed that, in obtaining this almost inhuman
+reaction, all independent qualities are obliterated. For, though a
+man's mind is adjusted to carrying out, without questioning, any task
+that is demanded of him, yet in the execution of this duty he is
+allowed the full scope of his invention and initiative.
+
+Thus, by this dull and unending routine, we laid the foundation of
+that inevitable success toward which we were slowly working.
+
+When the Company dismissed, the Major, Talbot, and the Old Bird walked
+over to lunch together.
+
+"Well, it's a great war, isn't it?" said the Major, turning to the
+other two.
+
+"It's very nice to have got through a couple of shows, sir," replied
+Talbot. "What do you think about it, Old Bird?"
+
+"Well, of course, war is all very well for those who like it. But give
+me the Base every time," answered the Old Bird, true to his
+reputation. Then, turning to the Major with his most ingratiating
+smile, he said, "By the way, sir, what about a few days in Boulogne?"
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] A late, third-rate English pantomime producer.
+
+[2] Stands for Army Service Corps, and its equivalent in the American
+Army is the Quartermaster's Corps.
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+A PHILOSOPHY OF WAR
+
+
+It has often been observed that if this war is to end war for all
+time, and if all the sacrifices and misery and suffering will help to
+prevent any recurrence of them, then it is well worth while.
+
+In these days of immediate demands and quick results, this question is
+too vague and too far-reaching to bring instant consolation. Apart
+from that, too, it cannot decide whether any war, however great, can
+ever abolish the natural and primitive fighting instinct in man.
+
+The source from which we must draw the justification for our optimism
+lies much nearer to hand. We must regard the effect that warring life
+has already produced upon each individual member of the nations who
+are and who are not engaged in it.
+
+At the very heart of it is the effect on the man who is actually
+fighting. Take the case of him who before the war was either working
+in a factory, who was a clerk in a business house, or who was nothing
+at all beyond the veriest loafer and bar-lounger. To begin with, he
+was perhaps purely selfish. The foundation of his normal life was
+self-protection. Whether worthless or worthy, whether hating or
+respecting his superiors, the private gain and comfort for himself and
+his was the object of his existence. He becomes a soldier, and that
+act alone is a conversion. His wife and children are cared for, it is
+true; but he himself, for a shilling a day, sells to his country his
+life, his health, his pleasures, and his hopes for the future. To make
+good measure he throws in cheerfulness, devotion, philosophy, humour,
+and an unfailing kindness. One man, for instance, sells up three
+grocery businesses in the heart of Lancashire, an ambition which it
+has taken him ten years to accomplish. Without a trace of bitterness
+he divorces himself from the routine of a lifetime, and goes out to
+France to begin life again at the very bottom of a new ladder. He who
+for years had many men under him is now under all, and receives,
+unquestioningly, orders which in a different sphere he had been
+accustomed to give. Apart from the mere letter of obedience and
+discipline he gains a spirit of devotion and self-sacrifice, which
+turns the bare military instrument into a divine virtue. He may, for
+instance, take up the duties of an officer's servant. Immediately he
+throws himself whole-heartedly into a new form of selfless generosity,
+which leads him to a thousand ways of care and forethought, that even
+the tenderest woman could hardly conceive. The man who receives this
+unwavering devotion can only accept it with the knowledge that no one
+can deserve it, and that it is greater gain to him who gives than to
+him who takes.
+
+What life of peace is there that produces this god-like fibre in the
+plainest of men? Why, indeed, is it produced in the life of war? It is
+because in war sordidness and petty worries are eliminated; because
+the one great and ever-present fear, the fear of death, reduces all
+other considerations to their proper values. The actual fear of death
+is always present, but this fear itself cannot be sordid when men can
+meet it of their own free will and with the most total absence of
+cringing or of cowardice.
+
+In commercial rivalry a man will sacrifice the friend of years to gain
+a given sum, which will insure him increased material comforts. In war
+a man will deliberately sacrifice the life for which he wanted those
+comforts, to save perhaps a couple of men who have no claim on him
+whatsoever. He who before feared any household calamity now throws
+himself upon a live bomb, which, even though he might escape himself,
+will without his action kill other men who are near it. This deed
+loses none of its value because of the general belief among soldiers
+that life is cheap. Other men's lives are cheap. One's own life is
+always very dear.
+
+One of the most precious results has been the resurrection of the
+quality of admiration. The man who before the war said, "Why is he my
+master?" is now only too glad to accept a leader who is a leader
+indeed. He has learned that as his leader cannot do without him, so he
+cannot do without his leader, and although each is of equal
+importance in the scheme of affairs, their positions in the scheme are
+different. He has learned that there is a higher equality than the
+equality of class: it is the equality of spirit.
+
+This same feeling is reflected, more especially among the leaders of
+the men, in the complete disappearance of snobbishness. No such
+artificial imposition can survive in a life where inherent value
+automatically finds its level; where a disguise which in peace-time
+passed as superiority, now disintegrates when in contact with this
+life of essentials. For war is, above all, a reduction to essentials.
+It is the touchstone which proves the qualities of our youth's
+training. All those pleasures that formed the gamut of a young man's
+life either fall away completely or find their proper place. Sport,
+games, the open-air life, have taught him that high cheerfulness,
+through failure or success, which makes endurance possible. But the
+complicated, artificial pleasures of ordinary times have receded into
+a dim, unspoken background. The wholesomeness of the existence that
+he now leads has taught him to delight in the most simple and natural
+of things. This throwing aside of the perversions and fripperies of an
+over-civilization has forced him to regard them with a disgust that
+can never allow him to be tempted again by their inducements of
+delight and dissipation. The natural, healthy desires which a man is
+sometimes inclined to indulge in are no longer veiled under a mask of
+hypocrisy. They are treated in a perfectly outspoken fashion as the
+necessary accompaniments to a hard, open-air life, where a man's
+vitality is at its best. In consequence of this, and as the result of
+the deepening of man's character which war inevitably produces, the
+sense of adventure and mystery which accompanied the fulfilment of
+these desires has disappeared, and with it to a great extent the
+desires themselves have assumed a far less importance.
+
+In peace, and especially in war, the young man's creed is casualness.
+Not the casualness of carelessness, but that which comes from the
+knowledge that up to each given point he has done his best. It is
+this fundamental peace of mind which comes to a soldier that forms the
+beauty of his life. The order received must be obeyed in its exact
+degree, neither more nor less; and the responsibility, though great,
+is clearly defined. Each man must use his individual intelligence
+within the scope of the part assigned to him. The responsibility
+differs in kind, but not in degree, and the last link of the chain is
+as important as the first. There can be no shirking or shifting, and,
+knowing this, each task is finished, rounded out, and put away. One
+might think that this made thought mechanical: but it is mechanical
+only in so far as each man's intelligence is concentrated on his own
+particular duty, and each part working in perfect order contributes to
+the unison through which the whole machine develops its power. Thus
+the military life induces in men a clearer and more accurate habit of
+thought, and teaches each one to do his work well and above all to do
+his own work only.
+
+From this very simplicity of life, which brings out a calmness of mind
+and that equable temperament that minor worries can no longer shake,
+springs the mental leisure which gives time for other and unaccustomed
+ideas. Men who wittingly, time and again, have faced but escaped
+death, will inevitably begin to think what death may mean. As the
+first lessons of obedience teach each man that he needs a leader to
+pass through a certain crisis, so the crisis of death, where man must
+pass alone, demands a still higher Leader. With the admission that no
+man is self-sufficient, that sin of pride, which is the strongest
+barrier between a man and his God, falls away. He is forced, if only
+in self-defence, to recognize that faith in some all-sufficient Power
+is the only thing that will carry him through. If he could cut away
+the thousand sins of thought, man would automatically find himself at
+faith. It is the central but often hidden point of our intelligence;
+and although there are a hundred roads that lead to it, they may be
+completely blocked. The clean flame of the disciplined life burns away
+the rubbish that chokes these roads, and faith becomes a nearer and
+more constant thing.
+
+The sadness of war lies in the loss of actual personalities, but it is
+only by means of these losses that this surrender can be attained.
+
+It must not be thought that faith comes overnight as a free gift. It
+is a long and slow process of many difficult steps. There may be first
+the actual literal crumbling, unknown in peace-time, of one's solid
+surroundings, to be repeated perhaps again and again until the old
+habit of reliance upon them is uprooted. Then comes the realization
+that this life at the front has but two possible endings. The first is
+to be so disabled that a man's fighting days are over. The other is
+death. Instant death rather than a slow death from wounds. Every man
+hopes for a wound which will send him home to England. That, however,
+is only a respite, as his return to France follows upon his
+convalescence. The other most important step is the loss of one's
+friends. It is not the fact of actually seeing them killed, for in the
+chaos and tumult of a battle the mind hardly registers such
+impressions. One's only feeling is the purely primitive one of relief,
+that it is another and not one's self. It is only afterwards, when
+the excitement is over, and a man realizes that again there is a space
+of life, for him, but not for his friend, that the loneliness and the
+loss are felt. He then says to himself, "Why am I spared when many
+better men have gone?" At first resentment swallows up all other
+emotions. In time, when this bitterness begins to pass, the belief
+that somehow this loss is of some avail, carries him a little farther
+on the road to faith. This all comes to the man who before the war
+believed that the world was made for his pleasure, and who treated
+life from that standpoint. All that he wanted he took without asking.
+Now, all that he has he gives without being asked.
+
+Woman, too, gives more than herself. She gives her men, her peace of
+mind and all that makes her life worth living. The man after all may
+have little hope, but while he is alive he has the daily pleasures of
+health, vitality, excitement, and a thousand interests. A woman has
+but a choice of sorrows: the sorrow of unbearable suspense or the
+acceptance of the end.
+
+Yet it needed this war to show again to women what they could best do
+in life: to love their men, bear their children, care for the sick and
+suffering, and learn to endure. It has taught them also to accept from
+man what he is able or willing to give, and to admit a higher claim
+than their own. They have been forced to put aside the demands and
+exactions which they felt before were their right, and to accept
+loneliness and loss without murmur or question.
+
+A woman who loses her son loses the supreme reason of her existence;
+and yet the day after the news has come, she goes back to her work for
+the sons of other women. If she has more sons to give she gives them,
+and faces again the eternal suspense that she has lived through
+before. The younger women, who in times of peace would have looked
+forward to an advantageous and comfortable marriage, will now marry
+men whom they may never see again after the ten days' honeymoon is
+over, and will unselfishly face the very real possibility of widowhood
+and lonely motherhood. They have had to learn the old lesson that work
+for others is the only cure for sorrow, and they have learned too
+that it is the only cure for all those petty worries and boredoms
+which assailed them in times of peace. If they have learned this, then
+again one may say that war is worth while.
+
+What effect has the war had upon those countries who in the beginning
+were not engaged in it? The United States, for instance, has for three
+years been an onlooker. The people of that country have had every
+opportunity to view, in their proper perspectives, the feelings and
+changes brought about among the men and women of the combatant
+countries. At first, the enormous casualties, the sufferings and the
+sorrow, led them to believe that nothing was worth the price they
+would have to pay, were they to enter into the lists. For in the
+beginning, before that wonderful philosophy of spirit and cheerfulness
+of outlook arose, and before the far-reaching effects of the sacrifice
+of loved ones could be perceived, there seemed to be little reason or
+right for such a train of desolation. They were perfectly justified,
+too, in thinking this, when insufficient time had elapsed to enable
+them to judge of the immense, sweeping, beneficial effects that this
+struggle has produced in the moral fibre and stamina of the nations
+engaged.
+
+It must be remembered that the horrors of the imagination are far
+worse than the realities. The men who fight and the women who tend
+their wounds suffer mentally far less than those who paint the
+pictures in their minds, from data which so very often are grossly
+exaggerated. One must realize that the hardships of war are merely
+transient. Men suffer untold discomforts, and yet, when these
+sufferings are over and mind and body are at ease for a while, they
+are completely forgotten. The only mark they leave is the
+disinclination to undergo them again. But on those who do not realize
+them in their actuality, they cause a far more terrifying effect.
+
+Now, others, as well, have discovered that war's advantages outweigh
+so much its losses. They who with their own eyes had seen the
+wonderful fortitude with which men stand pain, and the amazing
+submission with which women bear sorrow, returned full of zeal and
+enthusiasm, to carry the torch of this uplifting flame to their own
+countrymen.
+
+Others will realize, too, that although one may lose one's best, yet
+one's worst is made better. The women will find that the characters of
+their men will become softened. The clear-cut essentials of a life of
+war must make the mind of man direct. It may be brutal in its
+simplicity, but it is clear and frank. Yet to counteract this, the
+continual sight of suffering bravely borne, the deep love and humility
+that the devotion of others unconsciously produces, bring about this
+charity of feeling, this desire to forgive and this moderation in
+criticism, which is so marked in those who have passed through the
+strenuous, searing realities of war. Since the thirty pieces of
+silver, no minted coin in the world has bought so much as has the
+King's shilling of to-day.
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+The Riverside Press
+CAMBRIDGE · MASSACHUSETTS
+U·S·A
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Life in a Tank, by Richard Haigh
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Life in a Tank, by Richard Haigh
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Life in a Tank
+
+Author: Richard Haigh
+
+Release Date: March 13, 2009 [EBook #28319]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE IN A TANK ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jeannie Howse and Friend, and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<h3>LIFE IN A TANK</h3>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+
+<div class="img"><a name="frontis" id="frontis"></a>
+<a href="images/frontis.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/frontis.jpg" width="48%" alt="A Tank on its Way into Action" /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">A TANK ON ITS WAY INTO ACTION<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+
+
+<h1>LIFE IN A TANK</h1>
+
+<br />
+
+<h4><i>By</i></h4>
+<h3>RICHARD HAIGH, M.C.</h3>
+<h4>CAPTAIN IN THE TANK CORPS</h4>
+
+<br />
+
+<h4><i>With Illustrations</i></h4>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<div class="img">
+<img border="0" src="images/deco.jpg" width="12%" alt="Publisher's Mark" />
+</div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<h5>BOSTON AND NEW YORK<br />
+HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY<br />
+The Riverside Press Cambridge</h5>
+
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<h5>COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY RICHARD HAIGH<br />
+<br />
+ALL RIGHTS RESERVED<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<i>Published June 1918</i></h5>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="toc" id="toc"></a><hr />
+<br />
+
+<h2>Contents</h2>
+<br />
+
+<div class="centered">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="65%" summary="Table of Contents">
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdr">I.</td>
+  <td class="tdl"><a href="#I">The Meaning of the Tank Corps</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">1</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdr">II.</td>
+  <td class="tdl"><a href="#II">First Days of Training</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">11</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdr">III.</td>
+  <td class="tdl"><a href="#III">Later Days of Training</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">37</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdr">IV.</td>
+  <td class="tdl"><a href="#IV">Moving up the Line</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">49</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdr">V.</td>
+  <td class="tdl"><a href="#V">Preparations for the Show</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">61</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdr">VI.</td>
+  <td class="tdl"><a href="#VI">The First Battle</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">76</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdr">VII.</td>
+  <td class="tdl"><a href="#VII">The Second Battle</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">90</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdr">VIII.</td>
+  <td class="tdl"><a href="#VIII">Rest and Discipline</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">120</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdr">IX.</td>
+  <td class="tdl"><a href="#IX">A Philosophy of War</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">128</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="toi" id="toi"></a><hr />
+<br />
+
+<h2>Illustrations</h2>
+<br />
+
+<div class="centered">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="65%" summary="List of Illustrations">
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" width="80%">A Tank on its Way into Action</td>
+  <td class="tdr" width="20%"><a href="#frontis"><i>Frontispiece</i></a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl2">British Official Photograph</td>
+  <td class="tdr">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">King George and Queen Mary inspecting a Tank on the British
+  Front in France</td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#imagep008">8</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl2">British Official Photograph</td>
+  <td class="tdr">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">A British Tank and its Crew in New York</td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#imagep020">20</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl2">Photograph by Underwood &amp; Underwood</td>
+  <td class="tdr">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">A Tank moving to the Attack down what was once a Main Street</td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#imagep056">56</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl2">British Official Photograph</td>
+  <td class="tdr">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">A Tank going over a Trench on its Way into Action</td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#imagep072">72</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl2">British Official Photograph</td>
+  <td class="tdr">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">A Tank halfway over the Top and awaiting the Order to
+  Advance in the Battle of Menin Road</td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#imagep080">80</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl2">Photograph by Underwood &amp; Underwood</td>
+  <td class="tdr">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">A Tank bringing in a Captured German Gun under Protection
+  of Camouflage</td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#imagep112">112</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl2">Photograph by Underwood &amp; Underwood</td>
+  <td class="tdr">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">A British Tank in the Liberty Loan Parade in New York</td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#imagep124">124</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl2">Photograph by Underwood &amp; Underwood</td>
+  <td class="tdr">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="I" id="I"></a><hr />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span><br />
+
+<h1>LIFE IN A TANK</h1>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<h2>I</h2>
+
+<h3>THE MEANING OF THE TANK CORPS<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>TANKS!</p>
+
+<p>To the uninitiated&mdash;as were we in those days when we returned to the
+Somme, too late to see the tanks make their first dramatic
+entrance&mdash;the name conjures up a picture of an iron monster, breathing
+fire and exhaling bullets and shells, hurling itself against the
+enemy, unassailable by man and impervious to the most deadly engines
+of war; sublime, indeed, in its expression of indomitable power and
+resolution.</p>
+
+<p>This picture was one of the two factors which attracted us toward the
+Heavy Branch Machine-Gun Corps&mdash;as the Tank Corps was known in the
+first year of its being. On the Somme we had seen a derelict tank,
+wrecked, despoiled of her guns, and forsaken in No <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span>Man's Land. We had
+swarmed around and over her, wild with curiosity, much as the
+Lilliputians must have swarmed around the prostrate Gulliver. Our
+imagination was fired.</p>
+
+<p>The second factor was, frankly, that we were tired of going over the
+top as infantrymen. The first time that a man goes into an attack, he
+as a rule enjoys it. He has no conception of its horrors,&mdash;no, not
+horrors, for war possesses no horrors,&mdash;but, rather, he has no
+knowledge of the sudden realization of the sweetness of life that
+comes to a man when he is "up against it." The first time, it is a
+splendid, ennobling novelty. And as for the "show" itself, in actual
+practice it is more like a dream which only clarifies several days
+later, after it is all over. But to do the same thing a second and
+third and fourth time, is to bring a man face to face with Death in
+its fullest and most realistic uncertainty. In soldier jargon he "gets
+most awful wind up." It is five minutes before "Zero Hour." All
+preparations are complete. You are waiting for the signal to hop over
+the parapet. Very probably the Boche knows that you are <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span>coming, and
+is already skimming the sandbags with his machine guns and knocking
+little pieces of earth and stone into your face. Extraordinary, how
+maddening is the sting of these harmless little pebbles and bits of
+dirt! The bullets ricochet away with a peculiar singing hiss, or crack
+overhead when they go too high. The shells which burst on the other
+side of the parapet shake the ground with a dull thud and crash. There
+are two minutes to wait before going over. Then is the time when a man
+feels a sinking sensation in his stomach; when his hands tremble ever
+so slightly, and when he offers up a pathetic little prayer to God
+that if he's a bit of a sportsman he may be spared from death, should
+his getting through not violate the divine and fatalistic plans. He
+has that unpleasant lack of knowledge of what comes beyond. For after
+all, with the most intense belief in the world, it is hard to
+reconcile the comforting feeling of what one knows with that terrible
+dread of the unknown.</p>
+
+<p>A man has no great and glorious ideas that nothing matters because he
+is ready to die for <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span>his country. He is, of course, ready to die for
+her. But he does not think about it. He lights a cigarette and tries
+to be nonchalant, for he knows that his men are watching him, and it
+is his duty to keep up a front for their sake. Probably, at the same
+time, they are keeping up a front for him. Then the Sergeant Major
+comes along, cool and smiling, as if he were out for a stroll at home.
+Suddenly he is an immense comfort. One forgets that sinking feeling in
+the stomach and thinks, "How easy and jolly he is! What a splendid
+fellow!" Immediately, one begins unconsciously to imitate him. Then
+another thinks the same thing about one, and begins to imitate too. So
+it passes on, down the line. But there is nothing heroic or exalting
+in going over the top.</p>
+
+<p>This, then, was our possible second reason for preferring to attack
+inside bullet-proof steel; not that death is less likely in a tank,
+but there seems to be a more sporting chance with a shell than with a
+bullet. The enemy infantryman looks along his sight and he has you for
+a certainty, but the gunner cannot be so accurate <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span>and twenty yards
+may mean a world of difference. Above all, the new monster had our
+imaginations in thrall. Here were novelty and wonderful developments.</p>
+
+<p>In the end of 1916, therefore, a certain number of officers and men
+received their orders to join the H.B.M.G.C., and proceeded
+sorrowfully and joyfully away from the trenches. Sorrowfully, because
+it is a poor thing to leave your men and your friends in danger, and
+get out of it yourself into something new and fresh; joyfully, because
+one is, after all, but human.</p>
+
+<p>About thirty miles behind the line some villages were set aside for
+the housing and training of the new units. Each unit had a nucleus of
+men who had already served in tanks, with the new arrivals spread
+around to make up to strength.</p>
+
+<p>The new arrivals came from all branches of the Service; Infantry,
+Sappers, Gunners, Cavalry, and the Army Service Corps. Each man was
+very proud of his own Branch; and a wonderfully healthy rivalry and
+affection <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span>sprang up between them. The gunner twitted the sapper, the
+cavalryman made jokes at the A.S.C., and the infantryman groused at
+the whole lot. But all knew at the bottom of their hearts, how each is
+essential to the other.</p>
+
+<p>It was to be expected when all these varied men came together, that
+the inculcating of a proper <i>esprit de corps</i>&mdash;the training of each
+individual in an entirely new science for the benefit of the
+whole&mdash;would prove a very difficult and painstaking task. But the
+wonderful development, however, in a few months, of a large,
+heterogeneous collection of men into a solid, keen, self-sacrificing
+unit, was but another instance of the way in which war improves the
+character and temperament of man.</p>
+
+<p>It was entirely new for men who were formerly in a regiment, full of
+traditions, to find themselves in the Tank Corps. Here was a Corps,
+the functions of which resulted from an idea born of the exigencies of
+this science-demanding war. Unlike every other branch of the Service,
+it has no regimental history to direct it, no traditions upon which to
+build, and still <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span>more important from a practical point of view, no
+experience from which to draw for guidance, either in training or in
+action. In the Infantry, the attack has resulted from a steady
+development in ideas and tactics, with past wars to give a foundation
+and this present one to suggest changes and to bring about remedies
+for the defects which crop up daily. With this new weapon, which was
+launched on the Somme on September 15, 1916, the tactics had to be
+decided upon with no realistic experimentation as ground work; and,
+moreover, with the very difficult task of working in concert with
+other arms of the Service that had had two years of fighting, from
+which to learn wisdom.</p>
+
+<p>With regard to discipline, too,&mdash;of all things the most important, for
+the success of a battle has depended, does, and always will depend,
+upon the state of discipline of the troops engaged,&mdash;all old regiments
+have their staff of regular instructors to drill and teach recruits.
+In them has grown up that certain feeling and loyalty which time and
+past deeds have done so much to foster and cherish. Here were <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span>we,
+lacking traditions, history, and experience of any kind.</p>
+
+<p>It is easy to realize the responsibility that lay not only upon the
+Chief of this new Corps, but upon each individual and lowest member
+thereof. It was for us all to produce <i>esprit de corps</i>, and to
+produce it quickly. It was necessary for us to develop a love of the
+work, not because we felt it was worth while, but because we knew that
+success or failure depended on each man's individual efforts.</p>
+
+<p>But, naturally, the real impetus came from the top, and no admiration
+or praise can be worthy of that small number of men in whose hands the
+real destinies of this new formation lay; who were continually
+devising new schemes and ideas for binding the whole together, and for
+turning that whole into a highly efficient, up-to-date machine.</p>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep008" id="imagep008"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep008.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep008.jpg" width="85%" alt="King George and Queen Mary in France" /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">KING GEORGE AND QUEEN MARY INSPECTING A TANK ON THE
+BRITISH FRONT IN FRANCE<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>"How did the tank happen to be invented?" is a common question. The
+answer is that in past wars experience has made it an axiom that the
+defenders suffer more casualties than the attacking forces. From the
+first days of 1914, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span>however, this condition was reversed, and whole
+waves of attacking troops were mown down by two or three machine guns,
+each manned, possibly, by not more than three men. There may be in a
+certain sector, before an attack, an enormous preliminary bombardment
+which is destined to knock out guns, observation posts, dumps, men,
+and above all, machine-gun emplacements. Nevertheless, it has been
+found in actual practice that despite the most careful observation and
+equally careful study of aeroplane photographs, there are, as a rule,
+just one or two machine guns which, either through bad luck or through
+precautions on the part of the enemy, have escaped destruction. These
+are the guns which inflict the damage when the infantrymen go over and
+which may hold up a whole attack.</p>
+
+<p>It was thought, therefore, that a machine might be devised which would
+cross shell-craters, wire and trenches, and be at the same time
+impervious to bullets, and which would contain a certain number of
+guns to be used for knocking out such machine guns as were <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span>still in
+use, or to lay low the enemy infantry. With this idea, a group of men,
+in the end of 1915, devised the present type of heavy armoured car. In
+order to keep the whole plan as secret as possible, about twenty-five
+square miles of ground in Great Britain were set aside and surrounded
+with armed guards. There, through all the spring and early summer of
+1916, the work was carried on, without the slightest hint of its
+existence reaching the outside world. Then, one night, the tanks were
+loaded up and shipped over to France, to make that first sensational
+appearance on the Somme, with the success which warranted their
+further production on a larger and more ambitious scale.</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="II" id="II"></a><hr />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span><br />
+
+<h2>II</h2>
+
+<h3>FIRST DAYS OF TRAINING<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>We were at a rest camp on the Somme when the chit first came round
+regarding the joining of the H.B.M.G.C. The Colonel came up to us one
+day with some papers in his hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Does anybody want to join this?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>We all crowded around to find out what "this" might be.</p>
+
+<p>"Tanks!" some one cried. Some were facetious; others indifferent; a
+few mildly interested. But no one seemed very keen about it,
+especially as the tanks in those days had a reputation for rather
+heavy casualties. Only Talbot, remembering the derelict and the
+interest she had inspired, said, with a laugh,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I rather think I'll put my name down, sir. Nothing will come of it,
+but one might just as well try." And taking one of the papers he
+filled it in, while the others stood around making all the remarks
+appropriate to such an occasion.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span>Two or three weeks went by and Talbot had forgotten all about it, in
+the more absorbing events which crowded months into days on the Somme.</p>
+
+<p>One day the Adjutant came up to him and, smiling, put out his hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, good-bye, Talbot. Good luck."</p>
+
+<p>When a man puts out his hand and says "Good-bye," you naturally take
+the proffered hand and say "Good-bye," too. Talbot found himself
+saying "Good-bye" before he realized what he was doing. Then he
+laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"Now that I've said 'Good-bye,' where am I going?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"To the Tanks," the Adjutant replied.</p>
+
+<p>So he was really to go; really to leave behind his battalion, his
+friends, his men, and his servant. For a moment the Somme and the camp
+seemed the most desirable places on earth. He thought he must have
+been a fool the day he signed that paper signifying his desire to join
+another Corps. But it was done now. There were his orders in the
+Colonel's hand.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span>"When do I start, sir? And where do I go?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"You're to leave immediately for B&mdash;&mdash;, wherever that is. Take your
+horse as far as the railhead and get a train for B&mdash;&mdash;, where the Tank
+Headquarters are. Good-bye, Talbot; I'm sorry to lose you." A silent
+handshake, and they parted.</p>
+
+<p>Talbot's kit was packed and sent off on the transport. A few minutes
+later he was shaking hands all round. His spirits were rising at the
+thought of this new adventure, but it was a wrench, leaving his
+regiment. It was, in a way, he thought, as if he were turning his back
+on an old friend. The face of Dobbin, his groom, as he brought the
+horses round was not conducive to cheer. He must get the business over
+and be off. So he mounted and rode off through a gray, murky drizzle,
+to the railhead about eight miles away. There came the parting with
+Dobbin and with his pony. Horses mean as much as men sometimes, and
+his had worked so nobly with him through the mud on the Somme. He
+wondered if there would <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span>be any one in the new place who would be so
+faithful to him as Polly. Finally, there was Dobbin riding away, back
+to M&mdash;&mdash;, with the horse, and its empty saddle, trotting along beside
+him. It was simply rotten leaving them all!</p>
+
+<p>One has, however, little time for introspection in the Army, and
+especially when one engages in a tilt with an R.T.O. The R.T.O. has
+been glorified by an imaginative soul with the title of "Royal
+Transportation Officer." As a matter of fact, the "R" does not stand
+for "royal," but for "railway," and the "T" is "transport," nothing so
+grandiose as "transportation." Now an R.T.O.'s job, though it may be a
+safe one, is not enviable. He is forced to combine the qualities of
+booking-clerk, station-master, goods-agent, information clerk, and day
+and night watchman all into one. In consequence of this it is
+necessary for the traveller's speech and attitude to be strictly
+soothing and complimentary. Talbot's obsession at this moment was as
+to whether B&mdash;&mdash; was near or far back from the line.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span>If he supposed that B&mdash;&mdash; was "near" the line, the R.T.O. might tell
+him&mdash;just to prove how kind Fate is&mdash;that it was a good many miles in
+the rear. But no such luck. The R.T.O. coldly informed Talbot that he
+hadn't the slightest idea where B&mdash;&mdash; was. He only knew that trains
+went there. And, by the way, the trains didn't go there direct. It
+would be necessary for him to change at Boulogne. Talbot noticed these
+signs of thawing with delight. And to change at Boulogne! Life was
+brighter.</p>
+
+<p>Travelling in France in the northern area, at the present time, would
+seem to be a refutation of the truth that a straight line is the
+shortest distance between two points. For in order to arrive at one's
+destination, it is usually necessary to go about sixty miles out of
+one's way,&mdash;hence the necessity for Talbot's going to Boulogne in
+order to get a train running north.</p>
+
+<p>He arrived at Boulogne only to find that the train for B&mdash;&mdash; left in
+an hour.</p>
+
+<p>He strolled out into the streets. Boulogne had then become the Mecca
+for all those in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span>search of gaiety. Here were civilized people once
+again. And a restaurant with linen and silver and shining glass, and
+the best dinner he had ever eaten.</p>
+
+<p>When he had paid his bill and gone out, he stopped at the corner of
+the street just to look at the people passing by. A large part of the
+monotony of this war is occasioned, of course, by the fact that the
+soldier sees nothing but the everlasting drab of uniforms. When a man
+is in the front line, or just behind, for weeks at a time he sees
+nothing but soldiers, soldiers, soldiers! Each man has the same
+coloured uniform; each has the same pattern tunic, the same puttees.
+Each is covered with the same mud for days at a time. It is the
+occasion for a thrill when a "Brass Hat" arrives, for he at least has
+the little brilliant red tabs on his tunic! A man sometimes finds
+himself envying the soldiers of the old days who could have occasional
+glimpses of the dashing uniforms of their officers, and although a red
+coat makes a target of a man, the colour is at least more cheerful
+than the eternal khaki. The old-time <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span>soldier had his red coat and his
+bands, blaring encouragingly. The soldier of to-day has his drab and
+no music at all, unless he sings. And every man in an army is not
+gifted with a voice.</p>
+
+<p>So Talbot looked with joy on the charming dresses and still more
+charming faces of the women and girls who passed him. Even the men in
+their civilian clothes were good to look upon.</p>
+
+<p>Riding on French trains is very soothing unless one is in a hurry. But
+unlike a man in civil life, the soldier has no interest in the speed
+of trains. The civilian takes it as a personal affront if his train is
+a few minutes late, or if it does not go as fast as he thinks it
+should. But the soldier can afford to let the Government look after
+such minor details. The train moved along at a leisurely pace through
+the lovely French countryside, making frequent friendly stops at
+wayside stations. On the platform at &Eacute;taples station was posted a
+rhyme which read:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"A wise old owl lived in an oak,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The more he saw, the less he spoke;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The less he spoke, the more he heard;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Soldiers should imitate that old bird."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span>It was the first time that Talbot had seen this warlike ditty. Its
+intention was to guard soldiers from saying too much in front of
+strangers. Talbot vowed, however, to apply its moral to himself at all
+times and under all conditions.</p>
+
+<p>From nine in the morning until half-past two in the afternoon they
+rolled along, and had covered by this time the extraordinary distance
+of about forty miles! Here at last was the station of Saint-P&mdash;&mdash;.</p>
+
+<p>Talbot looked about him. Standing near was an officer with the
+Machine-Gun Corps Badge, whom he hailed, and questioned about the
+Headquarters of the Tank Corps.</p>
+
+<p>"About ten miles from here. Are you going there?" the fellow asked.</p>
+
+<p>Talbot explained that he hoped to, and being saturated with Infantry
+ideas, he wondered if a passing motor lorry might give him a lift.</p>
+
+<p>The man laughed. "Why don't you telephone Headquarters and ask them to
+send a car over for you?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>Talbot did not quite know whether the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span>fellow were ragging him or not.
+He decided that he was, for who had ever heard of "telephoning for a
+car"?</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I don't believe I'll do that&mdash;thanks very much for the hint, all
+the same," he said. "Just tell me which road to take and I'll be quite
+all right."</p>
+
+<p>The officer smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm quite serious about it," he said. "We all telephone for cars when
+we need them. There's really no point in your walking&mdash;in fact,
+they'll be surprised if you stroll in upon them. Try telephoning and
+you'll find they won't die of shock."</p>
+
+<p>Partly to see whether they would or not, and partly because he found
+the prospect of a motor car more agreeable than a ten-mile walk,
+Talbot telephoned. Here he experienced another pleasant surprise, for
+he was put through to Headquarters with no difficulty at all. A
+cheerful voice answered and he stated his case.</p>
+
+<p>"Cheero," the voice replied. "We'll have a car there for you in an
+hour&mdash;haven't one now, but there will be one ready shortly."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span>Saint-P&mdash;&mdash; was a typical French town, and Talbot strolled around.
+There were soldiers everywhere, but the town had never seen the
+Germans, and it was a pleasant place. There was, too, a refreshing
+lack of thick mud&mdash;at least it was not a foot deep.</p>
+
+<p>Although Talbot could not quite believe that the car would
+materialize, it proved to be a substantial fact in the form of a
+box-body, and in about an hour he was speeding toward Headquarters. It
+was dark when they reached the village, and as they entered, he
+experienced that curious feeling of apprehensive expectancy with which
+one approaches the spot where one is to live and work for some time to
+come. The car slowed up to pass some carts on the road, and started
+forward with such a jerk that Talbot was precipitated from the back of
+the machine into the road. He picked himself up, covered with mud. The
+solemn face of the driver did not lessen his discomfiture. Here was a
+strange village, strange men, and he was covered with mud!</p>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep020" id="imagep020"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep020.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep020.jpg" width="85%" alt="A British Tank and its crew in New York" /></a><br />
+<p class="right" style="margin-top: .2em; font-size: 90%;"><i>Copyright by Underwood &amp; Underwood, N.Y.</i></p>
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">A BRITISH TANK AND ITS CREW IN NEW YORK<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Making himself as presentable as possible, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span>Talbot reported to
+Headquarters, and was posted to "J" Company, 4th Battalion. That night
+he had dinner with them. New men were arriving every few minutes, and
+the next day, after he had been transferred to "K" Company, they
+continued to arrive. The nucleus of this company were officers of the
+original tanks, three or four of them perhaps, and the rest was made
+up with the newcomers.</p>
+
+<p>Men continued to arrive in driblets, from the beginning of December to
+the first of January. When a new man joins an old regiment there is a
+reserve about the others which is rather chilling. They wait to see
+whether he is going to fit in, before they make any attempts to fit
+him in. In a way, this very aloofness makes for comfort on the part of
+the newcomer. At mess, he is left alone until he is absorbed
+naturally. It gives him a chance to find his level.</p>
+
+<p>All this was different with the Tank Corps. With the exception of the
+very few officers who were "old men," we were all painfully new, so
+that we regarded one another without criticism and came to know each
+other without having <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span>to break through the wall of reserve and
+instinctive mistrust which is characteristically British. A happy bond
+of good-fellowship was formed immediately.</p>
+
+<p>The first few days were spent in finding billets for the men. They
+were finally quartered at a hospice in the village. This was a private
+almshouse, in charge of a group of French nuns, where lived a number
+of old men and women, most of them in the last stages of consumption.
+The Hospice consisted of the old Abbey of Ste. Berthe, built in the
+twelfth century, and several outbuildings around a courtyard. In these
+barns lived the men, and one large room was reserved for the officers'
+mess. The Company Orderly Room and Quartermaster's Stores were also
+kept in the Hospice, and four or five officers were quartered above
+the Refectory. The buildings were clean and comfortable, and the only
+drawback lay in the fact that one sometimes found it objectionable to
+have to look at these poor old creatures, dragging themselves around.
+They had nothing to do, it seemed, but to wait and die. One old man
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span>was a gruesome sight. He was about ninety years old and spent his days
+walking about the courtyard, wearing a cigarette tin hung around his
+neck, into which he used to cough with such terrible effort that it
+seemed as if he would die every time the spasm shook him. As a matter
+of fact, he and many others did die before we left the village: the
+extreme cold was too much for them; or perhaps it was the fact that
+their quiet had been invaded by the "mad English."</p>
+
+<p>It was during this time that Talbot developed a positive genius for
+disappearing whenever a gray habit came into sight. The nuns were
+splendid women: kind and hospitable and eager for our comfort, but
+they did not like to be imposed upon, however slightly. The first
+thing that Frenchwomen do&mdash;and these nuns were no exception&mdash;when
+soldiers are billeted with them, is to learn who is the officer in
+charge, in order that they may lose no time in bringing their
+complaints to him. The Mother Superior of the Hospice selected Talbot
+with unerring zeal. His days were made miserable, until in
+self-defence he thought of formulating <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span>a new calendar of "crimes" for
+his men, in which would be included all the terrible offences which
+the Mother Superior told off to him.</p>
+
+<p>Did the Colonel send for Captain Talbot, and did Talbot hurry off to
+obey the command, just so surely would the Mother Superior select that
+moment to bar his path.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, mon Capitaine!" she would exclaim, with a beaming smile. "J'ai
+quelque chose &agrave; vous dire. Un soldat&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Talbot would break in politely, just as she had settled down for a
+good long chat, and explain that the Colonel wished to see him. As
+well try to move the Rock. It was either stand and listen, or go into
+the presence of his superior officer with an excited nun following him
+with tales of the "crimes" his men had committed. Needless to say, the
+Mother Superior conquered. Talbot would have visions of some fairly
+serious offence, and would hear the tale of a soldier who had borrowed
+a bucket an hour ago, promising, on his honour as a soldier of the
+King, to return it in fifty minutes at the most.</p>
+
+<p>"And it is now a full sixty minutes by the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span>clock on the kitchen
+mantel, M'sieu le Capitaine," she would say, her colour mounting, "and
+your soldier has not returned my bucket. If he does not bring it back,
+when can we get another bucket?"</p>
+
+<p>And so on, until Talbot would pacify her, promising her that the
+bucket would be returned. Then he would go on to the Colonel,
+breathless and perturbed, his mind so full of buckets that there was
+hardly room for the business of the Tank Corps. Small wonder that the
+sight of a gray habit was enough to unnerve the man.</p>
+
+<p>He, himself, was billeted with a French family, just around the corner
+from the Hospice. The head of the family had been, in the halcyon days
+before the war, the village butcher. There was now Madame, the little
+Marie, a sturdy boy about twelve, and the old Grand'm&egrave;re. The husband
+was away, of course,&mdash;"dans les tranch&eacute;es," explained Madame with
+copious tears.</p>
+
+<p>Talbot was moved to sympathy, and made a few tactful inquiries as to
+where the husband was now, and how he had fared.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span>"Il est maintenant &agrave; Paris," said Madame with a sigh.</p>
+
+<p>"In Paris! What rank has he?&mdash;a General, maybe?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, M'sieu s'amuse," said Madame, brightening up. No, her husband was
+a chef at an officers' mess in Paris, she explained proudly. He had
+been there since the war broke out. He would soon come home, the
+Saints be praised. Then the Captain would hear him tell his tales of
+life in the Army!</p>
+
+<p>The hero came home one day, and great was the rejoicing. Thrilling
+evenings the family spent around the stove while they listened to
+stories of great deeds. On the day when his <i>permission</i> was finished,
+and he set out for his hazardous post once more, great was the
+lamenting. Madame wept. All the brave man's relatives poured in to
+kiss him good-bye. The departing soldier wept, himself. Even
+Grand'm&egrave;re desisted for that day from cracking jokes, which she was
+always doing in a patois that to Talbot was unintelligible.</p>
+
+<p>But they were very kind to Talbot, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span>very courageous through the
+hard winter. When he lay ill with fever in his little low room, where
+the frost whitened the plaster and icicles hung from the ceiling,
+Madame and all the others were most solicitous for his comfort. His
+appreciation and thanks were sincere.</p>
+
+<p>By the middle of December the Battalion had finally settled down and
+we began our training. Our first course of study was in the mechanism
+of the tanks. We marched down, early one morning, to an engine hangar
+that was both cold and draughty. We did not look in the least like
+embryo heroes. Over our khaki we wore ill-fitting blue garments which
+men on the railways, who wear them, call "boilers." The effect of
+wearing them was to cause us to slouch along, and suddenly Talbot
+burst out laughing at the spectacle. Then he remembered having heard
+that some of the original "Tankers" had, during the Somme battles,
+been mistaken for Germans in their blue dungarees. They had been fired
+on from some distance away, by their own infantry; though nothing
+fatal ensued. In consequence, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span>before the next "show" chocolate ones
+were issued.</p>
+
+<p>In the shadows of the engine shed, a gray armour-plated hulk loomed
+up.</p>
+
+<p>"There it is!" cried Gould, and started forward for a better look at
+the "Willie."</p>
+
+<p>Across the face of Rigden, the instructor, flashed a look of scorn and
+pain. Just such a look you may have seen on the face of a young mother
+when you refer to her baby as "it."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't call a tank 'it,' Gould," he said with admirable patience. "A
+tank is either 'he' or 'she'; there is no 'it.'"</p>
+
+<p>"In Heaven's name, what's the difference?" asked Gould, completely
+mystified. The rest of us were all ears.</p>
+
+<p>"The female tank carries machine guns only," Rigden explained. "The
+male tank carries light field guns as well as machine guns. Don't ever
+make the mistake again, any of you fellows."</p>
+
+<p>Having firmly fixed in our minds the fact that we were to begin on a
+female "Willie," the instruction proceeded rapidly. Rigden opened <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span>a
+little door in the side of the tank. It was about as big as the door
+to a large, old-fashioned brick oven built into the chimney beside the
+fireplace. His head disappeared and his body followed after. He was
+swallowed up, save for a hand that waved to us and a muffled voice
+which said, "Come on in, you fellows."</p>
+
+<p>Gould went first. He scrambled in, was lost to sight, and then we
+heard his voice.</p>
+
+<p>McKnutt's infectious laugh rose above the sound of our mirth. But not
+for long.</p>
+
+<p>"Hurry up!" called Rigden. "You next, McKnutt."</p>
+
+<p>McKnutt disappeared. Then to our further astonishment his rich Irish
+voice could be heard upraised in picturesque malediction. What was
+Rigden doing to them inside the tank to provoke such profanity from
+them both? The rest of us scrambled to find out. We soon learned.</p>
+
+<p>When you enter a tank, you go in head first, entering by the side
+doors. (There is an emergency exit&mdash;a hole in the roof which is used
+by the wise ones.) You wiggle your body in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span>with more or less grace,
+and then you stand up. Then, if it is the first time, you are usually
+profane. For you have banged your head most unmercifully against the
+steel roof and you learn, once and for all, that it is impossible to
+stand upright in a tank. Each one of us received our baptism in this
+way. Seven of us, crouched in uncomfortable positions, ruefully rubbed
+our heads, to Rigden's intense enjoyment. Our life in a tank had
+begun!</p>
+
+<p>We looked around the little chamber with eager curiosity. Our first
+thought was that seven men and an officer could never do any work in
+such a little place. Eight of us were, at present, jammed in here, but
+we were standing still. When it came to going into action and moving
+around inside the tank, it would be impossible,&mdash;there was no room to
+pass one another. So we thought. In front are two stiff seats, one for
+the officer and one for the driver. Two narrow slits serve as
+portholes through which to look ahead. In front of the officer is a
+map board, and gun mounting. Behind the engine, one on each side, are
+the secondary <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span>gears. Down the middle of the tank is the powerful
+petrol engine, part of it covered with a hood, and along either side a
+narrow passage through which a man can slide from the officer's and
+driver's seat back and forth to the mechanism at the rear. There are
+four gun turrets, two on each side. There is also a place for a gun in
+the rear, but this is rarely used, for "Willies" do not often turn
+tail and flee!</p>
+
+<p>Along the steel walls are numberless ingenious little cupboards for
+stores, and ammunition cases are stacked high. Every bit of space is
+utilized. Electric bulbs light the interior. Beside the driver are the
+engine levers. Behind the engine are the secondary gears, by which the
+machine is turned in any direction. All action inside is directed by
+signals, for when the tank moves the noise is such as to drown a man's
+voice.</p>
+
+<p>All that first day and for many days after, we struggled with the
+intricacies of the mechanism. Sometimes, Rigden despaired of us. We
+might just as well go back to our regiments, unless they were so glad
+to be rid of us that <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span>they would refuse. On other days, he beamed with
+pride, even when Darwin and the Old Bird distinguished themselves by
+asking foolish questions. "Darwin" is, of course, not his right name.
+Because he came from South Africa and looked like a baboon, we called
+him "Baboon." So let evolution evolve the name of "Darwin" for him in
+these pages. As for the Old Bird, no other name could have suited him
+so well. He was the craftiest old bird at successfully avoiding work
+we had ever known, and yet he was one of the best liked men in the
+Company. He was one of those men who are absolutely essential to a
+mess because of his never-failing cheer and gaiety. He never did a
+stroke of work that he could possibly "wangle" out of. A Scotchman by
+birth, he was about thirty-eight years old and had lived all over the
+world. He had a special fondness for China. Until he left "K" Company,
+he was never known by any other name than that of "Old Bird."</p>
+
+<p>There was one man, from another Company, who gave us the greatest
+amusement during our Tank-mechanism Course. He was <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span>pathetically in
+earnest, but appeared to have no brains at all. Sometimes, while
+asking each other catch questions, we would put the most senseless
+ones to him.</p>
+
+<p>Darwin would say, "Look here, how is the radiator connected with the
+differential?"</p>
+
+<p>The poor fellow would ponder for a minute or two and then reply, "Oh!
+through the magneto."</p>
+
+<p>He naturally failed again and again to pass his tests, and was
+returned to his old Corps.</p>
+
+<p>Somehow we learned not to attempt to stand upright in our steel
+prison. Before long, McKnutt had ceased his remarks about sardines in
+a tin and announced, "Sure! there is plenty of room and to spare for a
+dozen others here." The Old Bird no longer compared the atmosphere,
+when we were all shut in tight, with the Black Hole of Calcutta. In a
+word, we had succumbed to the "Willies," and would permit no man to
+utter a word of criticism against them.</p>
+
+<p>It is necessary here, perhaps, to explain why we always call our
+machines "Willies." When <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span>the tanks were first being experimented
+upon, they evolved two, a big and a little one. Standing together they
+looked so ludicrous, that they were nicknamed "Big" and "Little
+Willie." The name stuck; and now, no one in the Corps refers to his
+machine in any other way.</p>
+
+<p>A few days before Christmas, our tank course was finished, and the Old
+Bird suggested a celebration. McKnutt led the cheering. Talbot had an
+idea.</p>
+
+<p>"Let's get a box-body and go over to Amiens and do our Christmas
+shopping," he said.</p>
+
+<p>A chorus of "Jove, that's great!" arose. Every one made himself useful
+excepting the Old Bird, who made up by contributing more than any one
+else to the gaiety of the occasion. The car was secured, and we all
+piled in, making early morning hideous with our songs.</p>
+
+<p>We sped along over the snowy roads. War seemed very far away. We were
+extraordinarily light-hearted. After about twenty miles the cold
+sobered us down a little. Suddenly, the car seemed to slip from under
+us and we found <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span>ourselves piled up in the soft snow of the road. A
+rear wheel had shot off, and it went rolling along on its own.
+Fortunately we had been going rather slowly since we were entering a
+town, and no one was hurt. Borwick, the musician of the Company,
+looked like a snow image; Darwin and the Old Bird were locked in each
+other's arms, and had an impromptu and friendly wrestling match in a
+snowdrift. McKnutt was invoking the aid of the Saints in his
+endeavours to prevent the snow from trickling down his back. Talbot
+and Gould, who had got off lightly, supplied the laughter. The wheel
+was finally rescued and restored to its proper place, and we crawled
+along at an ignominious pace until the spires of Amiens welcomed us.</p>
+
+<p>We shopped in the afternoon, buying all sorts of ridiculous things,
+and collecting enough stores to see us through a siege. After a
+hilarious dinner at the H&ocirc;tel de l'Univers (never had the Old Bird
+been so witty and gay), we started back about eleven o'clock, and
+forgetting our injured wheel, raced out of the town <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span>toward home. A
+short distance down the main boulevard, the wheel again came off, and
+this time the damage could not be repaired. There was nothing for it
+but to wait until morning, and it was a disconsolate group that
+wandered about. All the hotels were full up. Finally, a Y.M.C.A. hut
+made some of us welcome. We sat about, reading and talking, until we
+dozed off in our chairs. The next morning we got a new wheel and ran
+gingerly the sixty-odd miles back, to regale the others with enviable
+tales of our pre-Christmas festivities.</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="III" id="III"></a><hr />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span><br />
+
+<h2>III</h2>
+
+<h3>LATER DAYS OF TRAINING<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>"Well, thank Heaven, that sweat's over," said the Old Bird the night
+after we finished our tank course, and had our celebration. He
+stretched luxuriously.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, but you're starting off again on the gun to-morrow morning,"
+said the Major, cheerfully.</p>
+
+<p>The Old Bird protested.</p>
+
+<p>"But I can have a few days' rest, sir, can't I?" he said sorrowfully.</p>
+
+<p>The Major laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"No, you can't. You're down, so you'll have to go through with it."</p>
+
+<p>So for three days we sat in the open, in the driving sleet, from
+half-past eight in the morning until half-past four in the afternoon,
+learning the gun. On the fourth day we finished off our course with
+firing on the range. Surprising as it may seem, after two or three
+rounds <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span>we could hit the very smallest object at a distance of four or
+five hundred yards.</p>
+
+<p>"How many more courses must we go through?" asked the Old Bird of
+Rigden, as they strolled back one evening from the range. The Old Bird
+was always interested in how much&mdash;or, rather, how little&mdash;work he had
+before him.</p>
+
+<p>"There's the machine gun; the signalling course,&mdash;you'll have to work
+hard on that, but I know you don't object,&mdash;and also revolver
+practice. Aren't you thrilled?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, I'm not," grumbled the Old Bird. "Life isn't worth living with
+all this work to do. I wish we could get into action."</p>
+
+<p>"So do I," said Talbot, joining them. "But while we're waiting,
+wouldn't you rather be back here with good warm billets and a
+comfortable bed and plenty to eat, instead of sitting in a wet trench
+with the Infantry?" He remembered an old man in his regiment who had
+been with the Salvation Army at home. He would stump along on his flat
+feet, trudging miles with his pack on his back, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span>Talbot had never
+heard him complain. He was bad at drill. He could never get the orders
+or formations through his head. Talbot had often lost patience with
+him, but the old fellow was always cheerful. One morning, in front of
+Bapaume, after a night of terrible cold, the old man could not move.
+Talbot tried to cheer him up and to help him, but he said feebly: "I
+think I'm done for&mdash;I don't believe I shall ever get warm. But never
+mind, sir." And in a few minutes he died, as uncomplainingly as he had
+lived.</p>
+
+<p>"You're right, of course, Talbot," the Old Bird said. "We're very well
+off here. But, I say, how I should like to be down in Boulogne for a
+few days!" And until they reached the Mess, the Old Bird dilated on
+the charm of Boulogne and all the luxuries he would indulge in the
+next time he visited the city.</p>
+
+<p>The rest of that week found us each day parading at eight o'clock in
+the courtyard of the Hospice, and after instruction the various
+parties marched off to their several duties. Some of us went to the
+tankdrome; some of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span>us to the hills overlooking historic Agincourt,
+and others to the barn by the railroad where we practised with the
+guns. Another party accompanied Borwick to a secluded spot where he
+drilled them in machine-gun practice. Borwick was as skilful with a
+machine gun as with a piano. This was the highest praise one could
+give him.</p>
+
+<p>That night at mess, Gould said suddenly:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"To-morrow's a half day, isn't it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course. Wake up, you idiot," said Talbot. "We're playing 'J'
+Company at soccer, and on Sunday we're playing 'L' at rugger. Two
+strenuous days before us. Are you feeling fit?"</p>
+
+<p>Gould was feeling most awfully fit. In fact, he assured the mess that
+he, alone, was a match for "J" Company.</p>
+
+<p>Our soccer team was made up almost entirely of men who had been
+professional players. We had great pride in them, so that on the
+following afternoon, an eager crowd streamed out of the village to our
+football field, which we had selected with great care. It <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span>was as flat
+as a cricket pitch. A year ago it had been ploughed as part of the
+French farmland, and now here were the English playing football!</p>
+
+<p>Before the game began there was a good deal of cheerful chaffing on
+the respective merits of the "J" and "K" Company teams. And when the
+play was in progress and savage yells rent the air, the French
+villagers looked on in wonder and pity. They had always believed the
+English to be mad. Now they were convinced of it.</p>
+
+<p>From the outset, however, "J" Company was hopelessly outclassed, and
+wishing to be generous to a failing foe, we ceased our wild cheering.
+"J" Company, on the other hand, wishing to exhort their team to
+greater efforts, made up for our moderation, with the result that our
+allies were firmly convinced that "J" Company had won the game! If
+not, why should they dance up and down and wave their hats and shriek?
+And even the score, five to one in favor of "K" Company, failed to
+convince them entirely. But "K" went home to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span>an hilarious tea, with a
+sense of work well done.</p>
+
+<p>And what of the rugger game the next day? Let us draw a veil over it.
+Suffice it to say that the French congratulated "K" Company over the
+outcome of that, although the score was twelve to three in favor of
+"J"!</p>
+
+<p>We awoke on Monday morning with a delightful feeling that something
+pleasant was going to happen, for all the world the same sensation we
+used to experience on waking on our birthday and suddenly remembering
+that gifts were sure to appear and that there would be something
+rather special for tea! By the time full consciousness returned, we
+remembered that this was the day when, for the first time, the tank
+was to be set in motion. Even the Old Bird was eager.</p>
+
+<p>We hurry off to the tankdrome. One after another we slide in through
+the little door and are swallowed up. The door is bolted behind the
+last to enter. Officer and driver slip into their respective seats.
+The steel shutters of the portholes click as they are opened. The
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span>gunners take their positions. The driver opens the throttle a little
+and tickles the carburetor, and the engine is started up. The driver
+races the engine a moment, to warm her up. The officer reaches out a
+hand and signals for first speed on each gear; the driver throws his
+lever into first; he opens the throttle: the tank&mdash;our "Willie"&mdash;moves!</p>
+
+<p>Supposing you were locked in a steel box, with neither portholes to
+look through nor airholes to breathe from. Supposing you felt the
+steel box begin to move, and, of course, were unable to see where you
+were going. Can you imagine the sensation? Then you can guess the
+feelings of the men in a tank,&mdash;excepting the officer and driver, who
+can see ahead through their portholes,&mdash;when the monster gets under
+way. There are times, of course, with the bullets flying thick and
+fast, when all portholes, for officer, driver, and gunners, must be
+closed. Then we plunge ahead, taking an occasional glimpse through the
+special pin-point holes.</p>
+
+<p>Thirty tons of steel rolls along with its <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span>human freight. Suddenly,
+the driver rings a bell. He presses another button, and signals the
+driver of the right-hand track into "neutral." This disconnects the
+track from the engine. The tank swings around to the right. The
+right-hand driver gets the signal "First speed," and we are off again,
+at a right angle to our former direction.</p>
+
+<p>Now we are headed for a gentle slope across the field, and as we
+approach it, the tank digs her nose into the base of the hill. She
+crawls up. The men in the rear tip back and enjoy it hugely. If the
+hill is steep enough they may even find themselves lying flat on their
+backs or standing on their heads! But no such luck. Presently they are
+standing as nearly upright as it is ever possible to stand, and the
+tank is balancing on the top of the slope. The driver is not expert as
+yet, and we go over with an awful jolt and tumble forward. This is
+rare fun!</p>
+
+<p>But the instructor is not pleased. We must try it all over again. So
+back again to attack the hill a second time. The top is reached once
+more and we balance there. The driver throws <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span>out his clutch, we slip
+over very gently, and carefully he lets the clutch in again and down
+we go. The "Willie" flounders around for the fraction of a second.
+Then, nothing daunted, she starts off once more. We have visions of
+her sweeping all before her some day far behind the German lines.</p>
+
+<p>Three or four weeks of this sort of thing, and we are hardened to it.</p>
+
+<p>Our reward came at last, however. After mess one morning, when the
+conversation had consisted mainly of the question, "When are we going
+into a show?" with no answer to the question, we were called into the
+Major's room, where he told us, in strictest secrecy, that in about
+three weeks a big attack was to come off. We should go in at last!</p>
+
+<p>For the next two or three weeks we studied maps and aeroplane
+photographs, marking out our routes, starting-points, rear
+ammunition-dumps, forward dumps, and lines of supply. At last, then,
+our goal loomed up and these months of training, for the most part
+interesting, but at times terribly boring, would bear <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span>fruit. Two
+direct results were noticeable now on looking back to the time when we
+joined. First, each man in the Battalion knew how to run a tank, how
+to effect slight repairs, how to work the guns, and how to obtain the
+best results from the machine. Second, and very important, was the
+fact that the men and officers had got together. The crews and
+officers of each section knew and trusted each other. The strangeness
+of feeling that was apparent in the first days had now entirely
+disappeared, and that cohesion of units which is so essential in
+warfare had been accomplished. Each of us knew the other's faults and
+the mistakes he was prone to make. More important still, we knew our
+own faults and weaknesses and had the courage to carry on and overcome
+them.</p>
+
+<p>A few nights before we moved up the line, we gave a grand concert.
+Borwick and the Old Bird planned it. On an occasion of this sort, the
+Old Bird never grumbled at the amount of work he was obliged to do.
+Some weeks before we had bought a piano from one of the inhabitants of
+the village, and the piano was <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span>naturally the <i>pi&egrave;ce de r&eacute;sistance</i> of
+the concert. The Old Bird went around for days at a time, humming
+scraps of music with unintelligible words which it afterwards
+developed at the concert were awfully good songs of his own composing.
+The Battalion tailor was called in to make up rough Pierrot costumes.
+The Old Bird drilled us until we begged for mercy, while Borwick
+strummed untiringly at the piano. At last the great night arrived.</p>
+
+<p>A stage had been built at one end of a hangar, and curtains hung up.</p>
+
+<p>The whole of the Staff and H.Q. had been invited, and the <i>maire</i>, the
+<i>cur&eacute;</i>, the <i>m&eacute;decin</i> of the village, and their families were also to
+attend.</p>
+
+<p>Promptly at eight o'clock, the concert began, with Borwick at the
+piano. Everything went off without a hitch. Although "K" Company
+provided most of the talent, the Battalion shared the honours of the
+entertainment. Each song had a chorus, and so appreciative was our
+audience that the choruses were repeated again and again. The one
+"lady" of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span>the Troupe looked charming, and "she" arranged for "her"
+voice to be entirely in keeping with "her" dress and paint. The French
+spectators enjoyed it hugely. They were a great encouragement, for
+they laughed at everything uproariously, though it could not have been
+due to their understanding of the jokes.</p>
+
+<p>At ten o'clock we finished off with "God Save the King," and went back
+to our billets feeling that our stay in the village had been
+splendidly rounded off.</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="IV" id="IV"></a><hr />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span><br />
+
+<h2>IV</h2>
+
+<h3>MOVING UP THE LINE<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>Two or three days before we were due to leave, we had received orders
+to pack our surplus kit, and have it at the Quartermaster's Stores at
+a certain time. We drew a long breath. This meant that the actual
+date, which up to the present had been somewhat indefinite, was close
+at hand. We were given orders to draw our tanks and the whole Company
+was marched over to work sheds about two miles away at E&mdash;&mdash;, where
+tanks and stores were issued.</p>
+
+<p>The variety and number of little things which it is necessary to draw
+when fitting out a tank for action is inconceivable. Tools, small
+spares, Pyrenes, electric lamps, clocks, binoculars, telescopes,
+petrol and oil funnels, oil squirts, grease guns, machine guns,
+headlights, tail lamps, steel hawsers, crowbars, shovels, picks,
+inspection lamps, and last, but not least, ammunition. The field-gun
+ammunition has to be taken out <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span>of its boxes and placed in the shell
+racks inside the tank. The S.A.A. (small arms ammunition) must be
+removed from its boxes and stacked away. At the same time every single
+round, before being put into the drum, must be gauged. All this has to
+be done in the last two or three days, and everything must be checked
+and countersigned. There is always a great deal of fun for Tank
+Commanders in drawing their stores. It is a temptation, when in the
+midst of all these thousands of articles, to seize the opportunity,
+when no one is looking, to pocket a few extra spares and dainty little
+tools, not, of course, for one's own personal benefit, but simply
+because such things are always being lost or stolen, and it is
+exasperating, to say the least, to find one's self, at a critical
+moment, without some article which it is impossible to duplicate at
+the time.</p>
+
+<p>During these last few days it was a continual march for the men from
+B&mdash;&mdash; to E&mdash;&mdash;. Very often they were called back when their day's work
+was over to draw some new article or make some alteration which had
+been <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span>forgotten at the time they were in the workshops.</p>
+
+<p>At last, however,&mdash;on the third day following the grand concert,&mdash;the
+kits were packed, loaded on to the lorries, and sent off to E&mdash;&mdash;. The
+troops said "Good-bye" to the village which had been such a happy home
+and school during that winter of 1916, and the officers made their
+fond adieus to the mothers and daughters of the houses in which they
+had been billeted.</p>
+
+<p>The companies formed up and marched along to the workshops. Every one
+was in high spirits, and there was a friendly race to see which
+Company of the Battalion could load up their tanks in the shortest
+time on to the specially constructed steel trucks.</p>
+
+<p>A few days before all these activities commenced, Talbot and another
+Tank Commander had gone on to the tanks' ultimate destination, A&mdash;&mdash;,
+a village which had been evacuated a few days before by the Germans on
+their now famous retirement to the Hindenburg Line. It was a most
+extraordinary sight to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span>ride along the road from Albert to Bapaume,
+which during the summer and winter of the preceding year had witnessed
+such heavy fighting. The whole country on each side of the road was a
+desolate vista of shell-holes as far as the eye could see. Where
+villages had been, there was now no trace left of any sort of
+habitation. One might think that, however heavy a bombardment, some
+trace would be left of the village which had suffered. There was
+literally nothing left of the village through which had run the road
+they were now travelling. Over this scarred stretch of country were
+dotted camps and groups of huts, with duck-boards crossing the old
+shell-holes, some of which were still full of water.</p>
+
+<p>On approaching B&mdash;&mdash; they saw traces everywhere of the methodical and
+organized methods by which the Germans had retired. The first sign was
+a huge shell-crater in the middle of the road, about forty feet deep,
+which the Boche had arranged to prevent armoured cars from following
+him up. If they did succeed, the transports would be delayed in
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span>reaching them, at all events. These holes were rather a nuisance, for
+the road itself was a mass of lesser shell-craters and the soft ground
+on each side was impassable. The road was crowded with engineers and
+labor battalions, filling in the shell-holes, and laying railways into
+the outskirts of A&mdash;&mdash;.</p>
+
+<p>In A&mdash;&mdash; the old German notices were still standing as they had been
+left. Strung across the road on a wire was a notice which read:
+"Fuhrweg nach Behagnies." Every house in the town had been pulled
+down. The wily Boche had not even blown them up. Instead he had saved
+explosives by attaching steel hawsers to the houses and by means of
+tractors had pulled them down, so that the roof and sides fell in on
+the foundation. Every pump handle in the village had been broken off
+short, and not a single piece of furniture was left behind. Later, we
+found the furniture from this and other villages in the Hindenburg
+Line.</p>
+
+<p>Saddest of all, however, was the destruction of the beautiful poplar
+trees which once bordered the long French roads built by Napoleon.
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span>These had been sawn off at their base and allowed to fall on the side
+of the road, not across it, as one might suppose. If they had been
+allowed to fall across the road, the Boche, himself, would have been
+hindered in his last preparations for his retreat. Everything was done
+with military ends in view. The villages were left in such a condition
+as to make them uninhabitable, the more to add to our discomfort and
+to make our hardships severer. The trees were cut down only on those
+parts of the road which were screened from observation from his
+balloons and present trenches. In some places where the road dipped
+into a valley the trees had been left untouched.</p>
+
+<p>At the place where our tanks were scheduled to arrive, and which had
+lately been a railhead of the Boche, all the metals had been torn up,
+and in order to destroy the station itself, he had smashed the
+cast-iron pillars which supported the roof, and in consequence the
+whole building had fallen in. But nothing daunted, the British
+engineers were even now working at top speed laying down new lines.
+Some of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span>metals, which a few short weeks before had been lying in
+countless stacks down on the quays at the Bases, now unrolled
+themselves at the rate of about two and a quarter miles a day. One
+interesting feature of this rapid track-laying was that when the tank
+train left E&mdash;&mdash;, on its two and a half days' journey down to the
+railhead at A&mdash;&mdash;, the track on which the train was to run was not
+completed into A&mdash;&mdash;. But, nevertheless, the track arrived ahead of
+the train, which was the main point!</p>
+
+<p>As they rode into the ruined village of A&mdash;&mdash; Talbot and his companion
+came across still further evidence of the steps which the German will
+take to inconvenience his enemy. In order to battle against the hordes
+of rats which are so prevalent in the old parts of the line in France,
+the Boche breeds cats in enormous numbers. Yet, in order to carry out
+to the limit his idea that nothing of value should fall into our
+hands, he had killed every cat in the village. In every house three or
+four of these poor little creatures lay around with their heads
+chopped off. Tabby cats, black cats, white cats, and little <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span>kittens,
+all dead. Farther on, over a well at the corner of the main square was
+posted a sign which read: "This well is poisoned. Do not touch. By
+order. R.E."</p>
+
+<p>Here and there a house had been left intact, with its furniture
+untouched. It was not until later that it struck us as peculiar that
+these houses had been spared from the general destruction. Two or
+three days later, however, after we had moved in, and headquarters had
+been established, we discovered that under many of these houses, and
+at certain crossroads which had not been blown up in the usual manner,
+the Boche had left mines, timed to go off at any time up to
+twenty-eight days. One could never be sure that the ground underneath
+one's feet would not blow up at any moment. These mines were small
+boxes of high explosive, inside of which was a little metal tube with
+trigger and detonator attached. Inside the tube was a powerful acid,
+which, when it had eaten its way through, set free the trigger and
+exploded the charge. The length of time it took for the mine to
+explode was gauged <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span>by the strength or weakness of the acid in the
+tube.</p>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep056" id="imagep056"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep056.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep056.jpg" width="48%" alt="A Tank Moving to the Attack" /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">A TANK MOVING TO THE ATTACK DOWN WHAT WAS ONCE A MAIN STREET<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>We were also impressed with the mechanical genius of the German. The
+Boche had made a veritable mechanical toy out of nearly every house in
+the village which he had spared. Delightful little surprises had been
+prepared for us everywhere. Kick a harmless piece of wood, and in a
+few seconds a bomb exploded. Pick up a bit of string from the floor
+and another bomb went off. Soon we learned to be wary of the most
+innocent objects. Before touching anything we made elaborate
+preparations for our safety.</p>
+
+<p>One of the men was greatly annoyed by a wire which hung over his head
+when he was asleep, but he did not wish to remove it. He had decided
+that it was connected with some devilish device which would do him no
+good. Finally, one morning, he could endure this sword of Damocles no
+longer. With two boon companions, he carefully attached a string about
+fifteen yards long to the wire. They tiptoed gently out of the house
+to a discreet distance, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span>and with a yell of triumph, the hero pulled
+the string,&mdash;and nothing happened!</p>
+
+<p>But there was another side to all this. McKnutt some time afterwards
+came in with an interesting story. Some Sappers, he said, had been
+digging under a house in the village, presumably for the mysterious
+reasons that always drive the Engineers to dig in unlikely places. One
+of them pushed his shovel into what had been the cellar of the house,
+but as the roof had fallen in on the entrance, they did not know of
+its existence. When they finally forced their way in, they found two
+German officers and two Frenchwomen in a terribly emaciated condition.
+One of the Boches and one of the women lay dead, locked in each
+other's arms. The other two still breathed, but when they were brought
+up into the open they expired within a few hours without either of
+them giving an explanation. The only reason we could find for their
+terrible plight was that the women had been forced down there by the
+officers to undergo a last farewell, while the Germans were destroying
+the village, and that the house had <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span>fallen in on top of them. Later,
+probably no one knew where they had disappeared, and they were unable
+to get out of the ruins or to make themselves heard. The village of
+A&mdash;&mdash; gained a romantic reputation after that, and it was curious to
+realize that we had been living there for days while this silent
+tragedy was being enacted.</p>
+
+<p>In addition to the destruction in the towns, the beautiful orchards
+which are so numerous in France were ruined. Apple, pear, and plum
+trees lay uprooted on the ground, and here again the military mind of
+the German had been at work. He did not wish the fruit that the trees
+would bear in future to fall into our hands.</p>
+
+<p>But although the village was a pretty poor place in which to stay, the
+near presence of a B.E.F. Canteen was a comfort. It is always amazing
+to visit one of these places. Within perhaps four or five miles of the
+firing line we have stores selling everything from a silver cigarette
+case to a pair of boots, and everything, too, at nearly cost price.
+The Canteen <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span>provides almost every variety of smoking materials, and
+eatables, and their only disadvantage is that they make packages from
+home seem so useless. As the tobaccos come straight out of bond, it is
+far cheaper to buy them at the Canteen, than to have them forwarded
+from home. These Canteens are managed by the Army, and are dotted all
+over the country inhabited by the British troops. Since they have
+sprung into existence life at the front has been far more comfortable
+and satisfactory in France, and people at home are discovering that
+money is the best thing to send out to their men.</p>
+
+<p>Finally, one cold, sunny morning, about half-past five, the tank train
+steamed slowly into A&mdash;&mdash;, and drew up on a siding. It was not
+possible to begin the work of unloading the tanks until night fell. So
+the tired crews turned into the roofless houses which had been
+prepared for them, and slept until dusk. When darkness fell, as if by
+magic, the town sprang to activity.</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="V" id="V"></a><hr />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span><br />
+
+<h2>V</h2>
+
+<h3>PREPARATIONS FOR THE SHOW<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>That night the engines were started up, and one by one the tanks
+crawled off the train. Although the day had begun with brilliant
+sunshine, at dusk the snow had begun to fall, and by the time the
+tanks came off, the snow was a foot thick on the ground. The tanks
+moved down to the temporary tankdrome which had been decided upon near
+the railway, and the sponson trucks were towed there. The night was
+spent in fitting on the sponsons to the sides of the machines. It was
+bitterly cold. The sleet drove in upon us all night, stinging our
+hands and faces. Everything seemed to go wrong. We had the utmost
+difficulty in making the bolt-holes fit, and as each sponson weighs
+about three tons they were not easy to move and adjust. We drove ahead
+with the work, knowing that it must be done while the darkness
+lasted.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span>Finally, about two hours before dawn broke, the last bolt was
+fastened, and the tanks were ready to move. The night was blacker than
+ever as they lumbered out of the tankdrome, and were led across the
+snow to a halfway house about four miles from the railhead, and an
+equal distance from the front-line trenches. We had not quite reached
+our destination when the darkness began to lift in the east, and with
+feverish energy we pushed ahead, through the driving snow.</p>
+
+<p>Late that afternoon, Talbot was again sent ahead with five or six
+troopers and orderlies to a village in the front line. It was
+necessary for us to spend three or four days there before the attack
+commenced, in order to study out the vulnerable points in the German
+line. We were to decide also the best routes for the tanks to take in
+coming up to the line, and those to be taken later in crossing No
+Man's Land when the "show" was on. We rode along across fields denuded
+of all their trees. The country here was utterly unlike that to which
+we had been accustomed in "peace-time trench <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span>warfare." This last
+expression sounds like an anomaly, but actually it means the life
+which is led in trenches where one may go along for two or three
+months without attacking. In comparison with our existence when we are
+making an offensive, the former seems like life in peace times. Hence,
+the expression. But from this it must not be supposed that "peace-time
+trench warfare" is all beer and skittles. Quite the contrary. As a
+matter of fact, during four or five days in the trenches there may be
+as many casualties as during an attack, but taking it on an average,
+naturally the losses and dangers are greater when troops go over the
+top. Curiously enough, too, after one has been in an attack the
+front-line trench seems a haven of refuge. Gould, who was wounded in
+the leg during a battle on the Somme, crawled into a shell-hole. It
+was a blessed relief to be lying there, even though the bullets were
+whistling overhead. At first he felt no pain, and he wished, vaguely,
+that he had brought a magazine along to read! All through the burning
+summer day he stayed there, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span>waiting for the night. As soon as it was
+dark he wriggled back to our trenches, tumbled over the parapet of the
+front-line trench, and narrowly escaped falling on the point of a
+bayonet. But he never forgets the feeling of perfect safety and peace
+at being back, even in an exposed trench, with friends.</p>
+
+<p>The fields across which we rode had been ploughed the preceding autumn
+by the French civilians. Later, when the snow had disappeared, we
+could see where the ground had been torn up by the horses of a German
+riding-school of ten days before. On some of the roads the ruts and
+heavy marks of the retreating German transports could still be seen.
+It was a new and exciting experience to ride along a road which only
+two or three days before had been traversed by the Germans in a
+retreat, even though they called it a "retirement." The thought was
+very pleasant to men who, for the last two years, had been sitting <i>in
+front</i> of the Boche month after month, and who, even in an attack, had
+been unable to find traces of foot, hoof, or wheel mark because of
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span>the all-effacing shell-fire. Here and there were places where the
+Boche had had his watering-troughs, and also the traces of scattered
+huts and tents on the ground where the grass, of a yellowish green,
+still showed. The front line of defence here was really no front line
+at all, but was merely held as in open warfare by outposts, sentry
+groups, and patrols.</p>
+
+<p>At night it was the easiest thing in the world to lose one's self
+close up to the line and wander into the German trenches. In fact,
+over the whole of this country, where every landmark had been
+destroyed and where owing to the weather the roads were little
+different from the soil on each side, a man could lose himself and
+find no person or any sign to give him his direction. The usual guide
+which one might derive from the Verey lights going up between the
+lines was here non-existent, as both sides kept extremely quiet. Even
+the guns were comparatively noiseless in these days, and were a man to
+find himself at night alone upon this ground, which lay between two
+and three miles behind our own lines, the only thing he <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span>could do
+would be to lie down and wait for the dawn to show him the direction.</p>
+
+<p>As we rode toward O&mdash;&mdash; our only guide was a few white houses two or
+three miles away on the edge of the village. The German had not
+evacuated O&mdash;&mdash; of his own free will, but a certain "Fighting
+Division" had taken the village two days before and driven the German
+out, when he retired three or four hundred yards farther to his rear
+Hindenburg Line. The probable reason why he hung on to this village,
+which was really in front of his line of advance, was because at the
+time he decided to retire on the Somme, the Hindenburg Line was
+incomplete. In fact, the Boche could still be seen working on his wire
+and trenches.</p>
+
+<p>We arrived in O&mdash;&mdash; at nightfall. Some batteries were behind the
+village, and the Germans were giving the village and the guns a rather
+nasty time. Unhappily for us, the Boche artillery were dropping
+five-nine's on the road which led into the village, and as they seemed
+unlikely to desist, we decided to make a dash <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span>for it. The horses were
+a bit nervous, but behaving very well under the trying circumstances.
+(With us were some limbers bringing up ammunition.) Shells were
+exploding all around us. It would never do to stand still.</p>
+
+<p>The dash up that hundred yards of road was an unpleasant experience.
+As we made the rush, the gunners tearing along "hell for leather" and
+the others galloping ahead on their plunging horses, we heard the dull
+whistle and the nearer roar of two shells approaching. Instinctively
+we leaned forward. We held our breath. When a shell drops near, there
+is always the feeling that it is going to fall on one's head. We
+flattened ourselves out and urged our horses to greater speed. The
+shells exploded about thirty yards behind us, killing two gunners and
+their mules, while the rest of us scrambled into the village and under
+cover.</p>
+
+<p>In the darkness, we found what had once been the shop of the village
+blacksmith, and in the forge we tied up our horses. It was bitterly
+cold. It was either make a fire and trust to luck that it would not be
+observed, or freeze. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span>We decided on the fire, and in its grateful
+warmth we lay down to snatch the first hours of sleep we had had in
+nearly three days. But the German gunners were most inconsiderate, and
+a short time afterward they dropped a small barrage down the road. The
+front of our forge was open, and we were obliged to flatten ourselves
+on the ground to prevent the flying splinters from hitting us. When
+this diversion was over, we stirred up our fire, and made some tea,
+just in time to offer some to a gunner sergeant who came riding up. He
+hitched his horse to one of the posts, and sat down with us by the
+fire. The shell-fire had quieted down, and we dozed off, glad of the
+interlude. Suddenly a shell burst close beside us. The poor beast,
+waiting patiently for his rider, was hit in the neck by the shrapnel,
+but hardly a sound escaped him. In war, especially, one cannot help
+admiring the stoicism of horses, as compared with other animals. One
+sees examples of it on all sides. Tread, for instance, on a dog's
+foot, and he runs away, squealing. A horse is struck by a large lump
+of shrapnel <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span>just under its withers, and the poor brute trembles, but
+makes no sound. Almost the only time that horses scream&mdash;and the sound
+is horrible&mdash;is when they are dying. Then they shriek from sheer pain
+and fear. Strange as it may seem, one is often more affected by seeing
+horses struck than when men are killed. Somehow they seem so
+particularly helpless.</p>
+
+<p>It was during these days at O&mdash;&mdash; that Talbot discovered Johnson.
+Johnson was one of his orderlies. Although it did not lie in the path
+of his duty, he took the greatest delight in doing all sorts of little
+odd jobs for Talbot. So unobtrusive he was about it all, that for some
+time Talbot hardly noticed that some one was trying to make him
+comfortable. When he did, by mutual agreement Johnson became his
+servant and faithful follower through everything. The man was
+perfectly casual and apparently unaffected by the heaviest shell-fire.
+It is absurd to say that a man "doesn't mind shell-fire." Every one
+dislikes it, and gets nervous under it. The man who "doesn't mind it"
+is the man who fights <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span>his nervousness and gets such control of
+himself that he is able to <i>appear</i> as if he were unaffected. Between
+"not minding it" and "appearing not to mind it" lie hard-won moral
+battles, increased strength of character, and victory over fear.
+Johnson had accomplished this. He preserved an attitude of careless
+calm, and could walk down a road with shells bursting all around him
+with a sublime indifference that was inspiring. Between him and his
+officer sprang up an extraordinary and lasting affection.</p>
+
+<p>The wretched night in the forge at last came to an end, and the next
+morning we looked around for more comfortable billets. We selected the
+cellar of a house in fairly good condition and prepared to move in,
+when we discovered that we were not the first to whom it had appealed.
+Two dead Germans still occupied the premises, and when we had disposed
+of the bodies, we took up our residence. Here we stayed, going out
+each day to find the best points from which to view No Man's Land,
+which lay in front of the village. With the aid <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span>of maps, we planned
+the best routes for the tanks to take when the battle should have
+begun. Not a detail was neglected.</p>
+
+<p>Then something happened to break the monotony of life. Just back of
+the village one of our batteries was concealed in such a fashion that
+it was impossible to find it from an aeroplane. Yet every day,
+regularly, the battery was shelled. Every night under cover of the
+darkness, the position was changed, and the battery concealed as
+cleverly as before, but to no avail. The only solution was that some
+one behind our lines was in communication with the Germans, <i>every
+day</i>. Secrecy was increased. Guards were doubled to see that no one
+slipped through the lines. Signals were watched. The whole affair was
+baffling, and yet we could find no clue.</p>
+
+<p>Just in front of the wood where the battery was concealed, stood an
+old farmhouse where a genial Frenchwoman lived and dispensed good
+cheer to us. She had none of the men of her own family nor any
+farmhands to help her, but kept up the farmwork all alone. Every day,
+usually <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span>in the middle of the morning, she went out to the fields
+behind her house and ploughed, with an old white horse drawing the
+plough. For some reason she never ploughed more than one or two
+furrows at a time, and when this was done, she drove the white horse
+back to the barn. One day, an officer noticed that a German plane
+hovered over the field while the woman was ploughing, and that when
+she went back to the house, the plane shot away. The next day the same
+thing happened. Later in the day, the battery received its daily
+reminder from the Boche gunners, as unerringly accurate as ever.</p>
+
+<p>Here was a clue. The solution of the problem followed. The woman knew
+the position of the battery, and every day when she went out to
+plough, she drove the white horse up and down, making a furrow
+directly in front of the battery. When the men in the German plane saw
+the white horse, they flew overhead, took a photograph of the newly
+turned furrow, and turned the photograph over to their gunners. The
+rest was easy.</p>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep072" id="imagep072"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep072.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep072.jpg" width="85%" alt="A Tank going over a Trench" /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">A TANK GOING OVER A TRENCH ON ITS WAY INTO ACTION<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span>The next day we missed three events which had become part of our daily
+life. The German plane no longer hovered in the air. Our battery, for
+the first time in weeks, spent a peaceful day. And in the field behind
+her house, a woman with an old white horse no longer made the earth
+ready for the sowing.</p>
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 15%;' />
+<br />
+
+<p>For three days now we had received no rations, and were obliged to
+subsist on the food which the Boche had left behind him when he fled.
+Finally, when all our plans were complete, we were notified that the
+point of attack had been shifted to N&mdash;&mdash;, a village about four miles
+away. This practical joke we thought in extremely bad taste, but there
+was nothing for it but to pack up and move as quickly as possible. We
+learned that our troops at N&mdash;&mdash; had tried twice to break through the
+German lines by bombing. A third attempt was to be made, and the tanks
+were depended upon to open the way. Hence the change in our plans.</p>
+
+<p>Early the next morning we left O&mdash;&mdash;, and dashed along a road which
+lay parallel with our <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span>line, and was under direct observation from the
+German trenches. Owing to the fact, probably, that he was not properly
+settled in his new line, the Boche did not bother us much, excepting
+at one place, where we were obliged to make a run for it. We arrived
+at N&mdash;&mdash; just after the tanks had been brought up. They were hurriedly
+concealed close up to houses, in cuttings, and under trees.</p>
+
+<p>The show was scheduled to come off the next morning at 4.30. That
+night we gathered at Brigade Headquarters and made the final plans.
+Each tank had its objective allotted to it, and marked out on the Tank
+Commander's course. Each tank was to go just so far and no farther.
+Talbot and Darwin were detailed to go forward as far as possible on
+foot when the battle was in progress, and send back messages as to how
+the show was progressing. Talbot also was given the task of going out
+that night to make the marks in No Man's Land which would guide the
+tanks in the morning.</p>
+
+<p>At eleven o'clock, in the bright moonlight, Talbot, with Johnson and a
+couple of orderlies, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span>started out. They climbed over the front line,
+which was at present a railway embankment, crawled into No Man's Land,
+and set to work. Immediately the Boche snipers spotted them and
+bullets began to whistle over their heads. Luckily, no one was hit,
+but a couple of "whizz bangs" dropped uncomfortably close. The men
+dropped for cover. Only Johnson stood still, his figure black against
+the white snow gleaming in the moonlight.</p>
+
+<p>The shells continued to fall about them as they wriggled back when the
+work was done. As they reached N&mdash;&mdash; the tanks were being led up
+toward the line, so that later, under cover of the darkness, they
+might be taken farther forward to their starting-points.</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="VI" id="VI"></a><hr />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span><br />
+
+<h2>VI</h2>
+
+<h3>THE FIRST BATTLE<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>At dawn the next morning, the tanks were already lined up, sullen and
+menacing in the cold half-light. The men shivered in the biting air.
+One by one the crews entered the machines, and one by one the little
+steel doors closed behind them. The engines throbbed, and they moved
+off sluggishly.</p>
+
+<p>Darwin and Talbot, with their orderlies, waited impatiently. The
+moments just before an attack are always the hardest. A few batteries
+were keeping up a desultory fire. They glanced at their watches.</p>
+
+<p>"Only a minute to go," said Darwin. "I bet the show's put off or
+something. Isn't this snow damnably cold, though!"</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly a sixty-pounder in our rear crashed out. Then from all sides
+a deafening roar burst forth and the barrage began. As we became
+accustomed to the intensity and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span>ear-splittingness 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 flashes, large and small, each one showing, for a second, trenches
+or trees or houses, and during this tornado we knew that the "Willies"
+must have started forward on their errand.</p>
+
+<p>As the barrage lifted and the noise died down a little, the first
+streaks of light began to show in the sky, although we could
+distinguish nothing. No sign of the infantry or of the tanks could be
+seen. But the ominous sound of machine guns and heavy rifle-fire told
+us that the Boche was prepared.</p>
+
+<p>We could stand this inactivity no longer. We trudged forward through
+the snow, taking the broad bands left by the tracks of the busses as
+our guide, the officers leading the way and the orderlies behind in
+single file.</p>
+
+<p>"The blighter's starting, himself, now," said Talbot, as a four-two
+landed a hundred yards away, and pieces of earth came showering down
+on our heads. Then another and another fell, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span>each closer than the one
+before, and instinctively we quickened our steps, for it is difficult
+to walk slowly through shell-fire.</p>
+
+<p>The embankment loomed before us, and big splotches of black and yellow
+leaped from its surface. The deafening crashes gave us that peculiar
+feeling in the stomach which danger alone can produce. 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&mdash;&mdash;, where the ordinary tap of ones and twos had
+developed into a sharp crackle of tens and twenties. By listening
+carefully one could feel, rather than hear, the more intermittent
+bursts from the rifles.</p>
+
+<p>"There's one, sir," shouted one of the orderlies.</p>
+
+<p>"Where?"</p>
+
+<p>"Half-right and about five hundred yards ahead."</p>
+
+<p>By dint of straining, we discovered a little animal&mdash;or so it
+looked&mdash;crawling forward on the far side of the Hindenburg Line.
+Already <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span>it was doing a left incline in accordance with its
+instructions, so as to enfilade a communication trench which ran back
+to N&mdash;&mdash;. The German observer had spotted her. Here and there, on each
+side of her, a column of dirt and snow rose into the air. But the
+little animal seemed to bear a charmed life. No harm came to her, and
+she went calmly on her way, for all the world like a giant tortoise at
+which one vainly throws clods of earth.</p>
+
+<p>As it grows lighter, we can now see others in the distance. One is not
+moving&mdash;is it out of action? The only motion on the whole landscape is
+that of the bursting shells, and the tanks. Over the white snow in
+front of the German wire, are dotted little 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 bayonets. This is quite erroneous. To an observer in a post
+or in a balloon, no concerted action is visible at all. Here and there
+a line or <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span>two of men dash forward and disappear. A single man or a
+small group of men wriggle across the ground. That is all.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, they haven't got it in the neck as I supposed," said Darwin.
+"Remarkably few lying about. Let's push on."</p>
+
+<p>"All right," Talbot assented. "If you like."</p>
+
+<p>We crawled over the top of the embankment and continued down the side.
+About two hundred yards to the left, we saw one of the tanks, with her
+nose in the air. A little group of three or four men were digging
+around her, frantically. We rushed over to them, and found that the
+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
+there about ten minutes when the German gunners had bracketed on her,
+and were dropping five-nines, all of them within a radius of seventy
+yards of the tank, and yet no one was hurt. Finally, by dint of
+strenuous digging, she <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span>started up and pulled herself wearily out of
+the pit.</p>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep080" id="imagep080"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep080.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep080.jpg" width="85%" alt="A Tank Halfway over the Top" /></a><br />
+<p class="right" style="margin-top: .2em; font-size: 90%;"><i>Copyright by Underwood &amp; Underwood, N.Y.</i></p>
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">A TANK HALFWAY OVER THE TOP AND AWAITING THE ORDER TO ADVANCE IN THE
+BATTLE OF MENIN ROAD<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Suddenly, Darwin shouted:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Look here, you fellows! What are these Boches doing?"</p>
+
+<p>Looking up, we saw about forty or fifty Germans stumbling over their
+own wire, and running toward us as hard as they could go. For a moment
+we thought it was the preliminary step of a counter-attack, but
+suddenly we discovered that they carried no arms and were attempting
+to run with 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 it. One simply doesn't have time to pay any attention to
+it all. But the sad part was that the German machine gunners, seeing
+their men surrendering, opened a furious fire on them. There they
+were, caught from behind, and many of them dropped from the bullets of
+their own comrades.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span>Twenty or thirty of them came straight on, rushed up to the pit where
+the tank had come to grief, and tumbled down into this refuge.
+Evidently, they knew of the British passion for souvenirs, for when
+our men surrounded them, the Germans plucked wildly at their own
+shoulder straps as if to entreat their captors to take the shoulder
+straps instead of anything else!</p>
+
+<p>We gave two or three of the wounded Germans some cigarettes and a
+drink of water. They were then told to find their quickest way to the
+rear. Like other German prisoners we had seen, they went willingly
+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
+started on the right road, the prisoner will plod along, their
+N.C.O.'s saluting the English officers, and inquiring the way to the
+concentration camp. When they find it, they usually appear well
+pleased.</p>
+
+<p>The Old Bird's tank moved on.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span>"I suppose everything's going all right," said Talbot. "Suppose we
+move on and see if we can get some information."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, or some souvenirs," Darwin replied with a laugh.</p>
+
+<p>We pushed on slowly. Three tanks which had completed their job were
+coming back and passed us. A little later we met some fellows who were
+slightly wounded and asked them how the battle was going. Every story
+was different. The wounded are rarely able to give a correct version
+of any engagement, and we saw that no accurate information was to be
+gleaned from these men.</p>
+
+<p>We had been out now for an hour and a half and still had no news to
+send back to Headquarters. We knew how hard it was for the officers
+behind the lines, who had planned the whole show, to sit hour after
+hour waiting for news of their troops. The minutes are like hours.</p>
+
+<p>"My God, Darwin, look!" Talbot cried. "Something's happened to her.
+She's on fire!"</p>
+
+<p>In the distance we saw one of our tanks stuck in the German wire,
+which at that point <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span>was about a hundred yards thick. Smoke was
+belching from every porthole. A shell had registered a direct hit,
+exploding the petrol, and the tank was on fire. We dashed forward
+toward her.</p>
+
+<p>A German machine gun rattled viciously. They had seen us. An instant
+later, the bullets were spattering around us, and we dropped flat. One
+man slumped 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 slid into a shell-hole for protection. Then, after a
+moment's breathing space, we popped out and tried to rush again.
+Another man stopped a bullet.</p>
+
+<p>It was suicide to go farther. Into another shell-hole we fell, and
+thought things over. We decided to send a message, giving roughly the
+news that the Hindenburg Line and N&mdash;&mdash; had been taken. An orderly was
+given a message. He crawled out of the shell-hole, ran a few steps,
+dropped flat, wriggled along across the snow, sprang to his feet, ran
+another few steps, and so on until we lost sight of him.</p>
+
+<p>A moment or two later we started across the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span>snow in a direction
+parallel with the lines. Behind an embankment we came across a little
+group of Australians at an impromptu dressing-station. Some of them
+were wounded and the others were binding up their wounds. We watched
+them for a while and started on again. We had gone about fifty yards
+when a shell screeched 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 been hit below
+the knee and his leg was nearly severed. We tied him up and managed to
+get him back to the Australian aid-post. Two of the original four
+stretcher-bearers had been blown up a few minutes before. But the
+remaining two were carrying on with their work as though nothing had
+happened. Here he was bandaged and started on his way for the
+dressing-station.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span>Far across the snow, we saw three more tanks plodding back toward the
+rear. Little by little, we gained ground until we reached a more
+sheltered area where we could make greater speed. We 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 were being supported by others less
+seriously wounded. They could tell us nothing. They had been with the
+infantry and only knew that two tanks were right on the other side of
+the village.</p>
+
+<p>A moment or two later, Talbot started running toward two men, one of
+whom was supporting the other. The wounded man proved to be the
+Sergeant of the tank we had seen on fire. We hurried up to him. He was
+hurt in the leg. So, instead of firing questions at him, we kept quiet
+and accompanied him back to the dressing-station.</p>
+
+<p>Later we heard the tragic news that it was Gould's tank that had
+burned up. None of us talked much about it. It did not seem real.
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span>They had got stuck in the German wire. A crump had hit them 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 they must all have lost
+consciousness quickly from the fumes of the petrol before they
+suffered from fire. But it was small consolation. Every one had liked
+Gould and every one would miss him.</p>
+
+<p>We waited at Brigade Headquarters for the others to return. A Tank
+Commander from another Company was brought in, badly wounded and
+looking ghastly, but joking 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 had been the last to leave the
+tank, and as he had stepped out to the ground, a shell exploded
+directly beneath him, taking off both of his legs below the knee.</p>
+
+<p>The last of the tanks waddled wearily in and the work of checking-up
+began. All were accounted for but two. Their fate still remains <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span>a
+secret. Our theory was that they had gone too far ahead and had
+entered the village in back of the German lines; that the infantry had
+not been able to keep up with them, 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 took,
+we found several photographs of these identical tanks. Then one day,
+when we had stopped wondering about them, a Sergeant in our Company
+received a letter from one of the crew of the missing machines, saying
+that he was a prisoner in Germany. But of the officers we have never
+heard to this day.</p>
+
+<p>We sat around wearily, waiting for the motor lorries which were to
+take some of us back to B&mdash;&mdash;. Years seemed to have been crowded into
+the hours that had elapsed. Talbot glanced at his watch. It was still
+only eight o'clock in the morning. Again he experienced the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span>feeling
+of incredulity that comes to one who has had much happen in the hours
+between dawn and early morning and who discovers that the day has but
+just begun. He had thought it must be three o'clock in the afternoon,
+at least.</p>
+
+<p>The lorries arrived eventually, and took those who had no tanks, back
+to B&mdash;&mdash;. The others brought the "Willies" in by the evening.</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="VII" id="VII"></a><hr />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span><br />
+
+<h2>VII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE SECOND BATTLE<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>Ten days had now elapsed since that day when we had gone back to B&mdash;&mdash;
+with the officers and men who had survived. We had enjoyed every
+minute of our rest and once more were feeling fit. The remainder of
+the Company had been divided up into crews. The "Willies" themselves
+had had the best of care and attention.</p>
+
+<p>Most important of all, to the childish minds of that part of the
+British Army which we represented, we had given another concert which
+had been an even greater success than the first. The Old Bird and
+Borwick had excelled themselves. We were convinced that something was
+wrong with a Government that would send two such artists to the front!
+They should be at home, writing "words and music" that would live
+forever.</p>
+
+<p>Toward the end of the week, plans for another attack were arranged.
+This time it was <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span>to take place at C&mdash;&mdash;, about five miles north of
+N&mdash;&mdash;. We were told that this was to be a "big show" at last. Part of
+the Hindenburg Line had been taken, and part was still in the hands of
+the enemy. It had been decided, 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 close as we
+could get to the Boche, to see what the ground was like, and to decide
+if possible on the routes for the tanks. In the line were innumerable
+souvenirs. We found the furniture that the Germans had taken out of
+the villages on their retirement, and had used to make their line more
+comfortable.</p>
+
+<p>We found, too, an extraordinary piece of engineering. A tunnel about
+ten miles long ran underneath the whole of the Hindenburg Line. It was
+about thirty or forty feet down, and had been dug, we heard, by
+Russian prisoners. The tunnel was about six feet wide and about five
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span>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 under
+the circumstances. He could not resist its charm, so he started
+lugging it back the six miles to camp. It was very heavy and its charm
+had decreased greatly by the time he reached camp and found that no
+one could make any use of it.</p>
+
+<p>The day of the attack was still undecided, and in order to be quite
+ready when it should come off, we left B&mdash;&mdash; with the tanks one
+evening and took them up to Saint-L&mdash;&mdash;, 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 blown up. This was the same embankment, as a matter of fact,
+behind which, four or five miles away, the Australian dressing-station
+had been established in the last battle.</p>
+
+<p>Here we spent two or three days tuning up the machines, and many of
+our leisure moments <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span>in watching a howitzer battery which was just
+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 black
+mass shoot its seven or eight thousand yards until it becomes a small
+speck and finally vanishes just before it hits the ground.</p>
+
+<p>We also made an interesting collection of German and English
+shell-cases. These cases are made of brass, and the four-fives,
+especially, in the opinion of some 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 at times,
+when we gave an impromptu concert, by putting several of these
+shell-cases on a log of wood and playing elaborate tunes on them with
+a bit of stone.</p>
+
+<p>All this merry-making came to an end, though. One day we received word
+that the attack was to come off the next morning. Then began the
+preparations in 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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span>night. The tanks were scheduled to start moving up at ten o'clock.
+Talbot and the Old Bird, with several men, set out at about eight, and
+arranged for marks to guide the machines.</p>
+
+<p>We had just reached a part of the Hindenburg Line which was now in our
+possession, and were near an ammunition dump, when shells began to
+fall around us. They were not near enough to do us any harm, and we
+continued our work, when one dropped into the ammunition 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 steely splinters. The noise was
+deafening. Cursing our luck, we waited until it died down into a red,
+smouldering mass, and then edged up cautiously to continue our work.
+By this time, Borwick's tank came up, and he emerged, with a broad
+smile on his face.</p>
+
+<p>"Having a good time?" he asked genially.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span>There was a frozen silence, excepting for his inane laughter. He made
+a few more irritating remarks which he seemed to think were very
+funny, and then he disappeared inside his tank and prepared to follow
+us. We had gone ahead a couple of hundred yards when we heard bombs
+exploding, 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. They had run over a box of bombs, the only thing that
+had survived the fire in the ammunition dump, and one of the tracks
+was damaged. To repair it meant several hours' hard work in the cold
+in unpleasant proximity to the still smouldering dump. Over Talbot's
+face spread a broad smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Having a good time?" he asked pleasantly of Borwick.</p>
+
+<p>Infuriated growls were his only answer. He moved on with his men,
+while Borwick and his crew settled down to work.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span>The night was fortunately dark. They went slowly forward and brought
+the route almost up to within calling distance of the Germans. The
+Verey lights, shattering the darkness over No Man's Land, did not
+disclose them to the enemy. Suddenly, a Boche machine gun mechanically
+turned its attentions toward the place where they were working. With a
+tightening of every muscle, Talbot heard the slow whisper of the gun.
+As it turned to sweep the intervening space between the lines, the
+whisper rose to a shirring hiss. The 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 viciously a few inches above his head. Then as it passed, it
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span>dropped into a patter once more and finally dropped away in a whisper.
+Talbot suddenly realized that his throat was aching, but that he was
+untouched by the storm. The men slowly got to their feet and continued
+their work in silence. Although the machine gun continued to spatter
+bullets near them all through the hours they were working, not once
+again did the men drop when they heard the whisper begin. The job was
+finally done and they filed wearily back.</p>
+
+<p>The attack was timed to come off at dawn. An hour before, while it was
+still as black as pitch, the tanks moved again for their final
+starting-point. McKnutt's machine was the first to go.</p>
+
+<p>"Cheero, McKnutt," we said as he clambered in. "Good luck!"</p>
+
+<p>The men followed, some through the top and some through the side. The
+doors and portholes were closed, and in a moment the exhaust began to
+puff merrily. The tank crawled forward and soon disappeared into the
+blackness.</p>
+
+<p>She had about fifteen hundred yards to go, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span>parallel with the
+Hindenburg Line, and several trenches to cross before coming up with
+the enemy. We had planned that the tanks would take about three
+quarters of an hour to reach their starting-point, and that soon after
+they arrived there, the show would begin.</p>
+
+<p>Since it was still dark and the attack had not commenced, McKnutt and
+his first driver opened the windows in front of them. They looked out
+into impenetrable gloom. It was necessary 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 and mine-craters at the exhilarating speed of about
+four miles an hour, and then arrived at the first trench to be
+crossed. It was about ten feet wide with high banks on each side.</p>
+
+<p>"One up!" signals the driver. The gears-men get into first gear, and
+the tank tilts back as it goes up one side of the trench. Suddenly she
+starts tipping over, and the driver takes out his clutch and puts on
+his brake hard. McKnutt yells out, "Hold tight!" and the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span>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 other side and
+pulls herself up slowly, while her tail dips down into the bottom of
+the trench. Then comes the great strain as she pulls herself bodily
+out of the trench until she balances on the far side.</p>
+
+<p>It was now no longer safe to run with lights. They were snapped off.
+Once more the darkness closed around them, blacker than ever. They
+could no longer find their route, 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 his
+intense relief, the moon shone out with a feeble light. It was just
+enough to illumine faintly the ground before them and McKnutt
+re&euml;ntered the tank, and started on.</p>
+
+<p>Their route ran close to the sides of an old quarry and they edged
+along cautiously. McKnutt, with his eyes glued to the front, decided
+that they must have already passed the end of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span>the quarry. That would
+mean that they were not far from the spot where they were to wait for
+the signal to go into action. The moon had again disappeared behind
+the clouds, but he did not consider it worth while to get out again.
+The journey would be over in a few minutes.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly, his heart took a great dive and he seemed to stop breathing.
+He felt the tank balance ever so slightly. Staring with aching 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 them. The
+black depth seemed bottomless. The tank was slipping over. When she
+shot down they would all be killed from concussion alone.</p>
+
+<p>His heart was pounding so that he could hardly speak. But the driver,
+too, had seen the danger.</p>
+
+<p>"For God's sake, take out your clutch and put your brake on!" McKnutt
+yelled, his voice almost drowned by the rattle and roar inside the
+tank. The man kept his head. As the tail of the tank started tipping
+up, he managed somehow with the brakes to hold her on the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span>edge. For a
+second 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. Slowly he put his gears in reverse, keeping the brake on
+hard until the engine had taken up the strain. Slowly she moved back
+until her tail bumped on the ground, and she settled down. Neither
+McKnutt nor his driver spoke. They pushed back their tin hats and
+wiped their foreheads.</p>
+
+<p>McKnutt glanced back at the men in the rear of the tank. They, of
+course, had been unable to see out, and had no idea of what they had
+escaped. Now that 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. Then the feeling passed, he
+signalled, "Neutral left," the gearsman locked his left track, and the
+tank swung over, passing safely by the perilous spot.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span>They settled down now to a snail's pace, shutting off their engine, as
+the Germans could not be more than one hundred and fifty or two
+hundred yards away. Running at full speed, the engine would have been
+heard by them. In a few moments, they arrived at their appointed
+station. McKnutt glanced at his watch. They had only a few moments to
+wait. The engine was shut off and they stopped.</p>
+
+<p>The heat inside the tank was oppressive. McKnutt and James opened the
+top, and crawled out, the men following. They looked around. The first
+streaks of light were beginning to show in the sky. A heavy silence
+hung over everything&mdash;the silence that always precedes a bombardment.
+Presumably, only the attacking 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 their
+significance. One seems to have become all <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span>ears&mdash;to have no sense of
+sight or touch or taste or smell. All seem to have become merged in
+the sense of hearing. The very air itself seems tense with listening.
+Only the occasional rattle of a machine gun breaks the stillness. Even
+this passes unnoticed.</p>
+
+<p>Slowly the minute-hand crept round to the half-hour, and the men
+slipped back into their steel home. Doors were bolted and portholes
+shut, save for the tiny slits in front of officer and driver, through
+which they peered. The engine was ready to start. The petrol was on
+and flooding. They waited quietly. Their heavy breathing was the only
+sound. The minute-hand reached the half-hour.</p>
+
+<p>With the crash and swish of thousands of shells, the guns smashed the
+stillness. Instantly, the flash of their explosion lit up the opposite
+trenches. For a fraction of a second the thought came to McKnutt how
+wonderful it was that man could produce a sound to which Nature had no
+equal, either in violence or intensity. But the time was for action
+and not for reflection.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span>"Start her up!" yelled out McKnutt.</p>
+
+<p>But the engine would not fire.</p>
+
+<p>"What the devil's the matter?" cried James.</p>
+
+<p>A bit of tinkering with the carburetor, and the engine purred softly.
+Its noise was drowned in the pandemonium raging around them. James let
+in the clutch, and the monster moved forward on her errand of
+destruction.</p>
+
+<p>Although it was not light enough to distinguish forms, the flashes of
+the shell-fire and the bursts from the shrapnel lit up that part of
+the 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. Bombs were exploding on both sides. McKnutt slammed down
+the shutters of the portholes in front of him and his driver.
+"Bullets," he said shortly.</p>
+
+<p>"One came through, I think, sir," James replied. With the portholes
+shut, there was no chance for bullets to enter now through the little
+pin-points directly above the slits in the shutters. In order to see
+through these, it is necessary to place one's eye directly against
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span>the cold metal. They are safe, for if a bullet does hit them, it
+cannot come through, although it may stop up the hole.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly a dull explosion was heard on the roof of the tank.</p>
+
+<p>"They're bombing us, sir!" cried one of the gunners. McKnutt signalled
+to him, and he opened fire from his sponson. They plunged along, amid
+a hail of bullets, while bombs exploded all around them.</p>
+
+<p>McKnutt and James, with that instinctive sense of direction which
+comes to men who control these machines, felt that they were hovering
+on the edge of the German trench. Then a sudden flash from the
+explosion of a huge shell lit up the ground around them, 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 crash in the bottom. For a moment she
+lay there without moving. The Germans thought she was stuck. They
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span>came running along thinking to grapple with her. But they never
+reached her, for at once the guns from both sides opened fire and the
+Germans disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>The huge machine dragged herself up the steep ten-foot side of the
+trench. As she neared the top, it seemed as if the engine would not
+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 jerk, the tank
+pulled herself right on to the point of balance, and tipped slowly
+over what had been the parapet of the German position.</p>
+
+<p>Now she was in the wire which lay in front of the trench. McKnutt
+signalled back, "Swing round to the left," parallel to the lay of the
+line. A moment's pause, and she moved forward relentlessly, crushing
+everything in her path, and sending out a stream of bullets from every
+turret to any of the enemy who dared to show themselves above the top
+of the trench.</p>
+
+<p>At the same time our own troops, who had waited behind the barricade
+to bomb their way <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span>down, from traverse to traverse, rushed over the
+heap of sandbags, tangled wire, wood, and dead 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, unaware of the infantry's action, as none of our
+own men could be seen. The only indication of the fact was the
+bursting of the bombs which gradually moved from fire bay to fire bay.</p>
+
+<p>The Corporal touched McKnutt on the arm.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't believe our people are keeping up with us, sir," he said.
+"They seem to have been stopped about thirty yards back."</p>
+
+<p>"All right," McKnutt answered. "We'll turn round."</p>
+
+<p>McKnutt and James opened their portholes to obtain a clearer view.
+Five yards along to the left, a group of Germans were holding up the
+advancing British. They had evidently prepared a barricade in case of
+a possible bombing attack on our part, and this obstacle, together
+with a fusillade of bombs which met them, prevented our troops from
+pushing on. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span>McKnutt seized his gun and pushed it through the
+mounting, but found that he could not swing round far enough to get an
+aim on the enemy. But James was in a better position. He picked the
+gray figures off, one by one, until the bombing ceased and our own men
+jumped over the barricade and came down among the dead and wounded
+Germans.</p>
+
+<p>Then a sudden and unexplainable sense of disaster caused McKnutt to
+look round. One of his gunners lay quite still on the floor of the
+tank, his back against the engine, and a stream of blood trickling
+down his face. 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 along the barrel of his gun. There he lay,
+along one side of the tank between the engine and the sponson. The
+Corporal tried to get in position to carry on firing with his own gun,
+but the dead body impeded his movements.</p>
+
+<p>There was only one thing to do. The Corporal looked questioningly at
+McKnutt and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span>pointed to the body. The officer nodded quickly, and the
+left gearsman and the Corporal dragged the body and propped it up
+against the door. Immediately the door flew open. The back of the
+corpse fell down 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 dead man upside down, shoved the body
+out and slammed the door shut. They were just in time. A bomb exploded
+directly beneath the sponson, where the dead body had fallen. To every
+man in the tank came a feeling of swift gratitude that the bombs had
+caught the dead man and not themselves.</p>
+
+<p>They ploughed across another trench without dropping into the bottom,
+for it was only six feet wide. Daylight had come by now and the enemy
+was beginning to find that his brave efforts were of no avail against
+these monsters of steel.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span>All this time the German guns had not been silent. McKnutt's tank
+crunched across the ground amid a furious storm of flying earth and
+splinters. The strain was beginning to be felt. Although one is
+protected from machine-gun fire in a tank, the sense of confinement
+is, at times, terrible. One does not know what 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 cooped up. One is entirely at the mercy of the
+big shells. If a shell hits a tank near the petrol tank, the men may
+perish by fire, as did Gould, without a chance of escape. Going down
+with your ship seems pleasant compared to burning up with your tank.
+In fighting in the open, one has, at least, air and space.</p>
+
+<p>McKnutt, however, was lucky. They could now see the sunken road before
+them which was their objective. Five-nines were dropping <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span>around them
+now. It was only a matter of moments, it seemed, when they would be
+struck.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think we shall make it?" McKnutt asked James.</p>
+
+<p>"We may get there, but shall we get back? That's the question, sir."</p>
+
+<p>McKnutt did not answer. They had both had over two years' experience
+of the accuracy of the German artillery. And they did not believe in
+miracles. But they had their orders. They must simply do their duty
+and trust to luck.</p>
+
+<p>They reached the sunken road. The tank was swung around. Their orders
+were to reach their objective and remain there until the bombers
+arrived. McKnutt peered out. No British were in sight, and he snapped
+his porthole shut. Grimly they settled down to wait.</p>
+
+<p>The moments passed. Each one seemed as if it would be their last.
+Would the infantry never come? Would there be any sense in just
+sitting there until a German shell annihilated them if the infantry
+never arrived? Had they been pushed back by a German rush? Should <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span>he
+take it upon himself to turn back? McKnutt's brain whirled.</p>
+
+<p>Then, after hours, it seemed, of waiting, around the corner of a
+traverse, he saw one of the British tin hats. Nothing in the world
+could have been a happier sight. A great wave of relief swept over
+him. Three or four more appeared. Realizing that they, too, had
+reached their objective, they stopped and began to throw up a rough
+form of barricade. More men poured in. The position was consolidated,
+and there was nothing more for the tank to do.</p>
+
+<p>They swung round and started back. Two shells dropped about twenty
+yards in front of them. For a moment McKnutt wondered whether it would
+be well to change their direction. "No, we'll keep right on and 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 see the top of the
+machine blown off. But nothing had happened inside, and no one was
+injured. Although shells continued to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span>fall around them and a German
+machine gun raged at them, they got back safely.</p>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep112" id="imagep112"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep112.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep112.jpg" width="85%" alt="Bringing in a Captured German Gun" /></a><br />
+<p class="right" style="margin-top: .2em; font-size: 90%;"><i>Copyright by Underwood &amp; Underwood, N.Y.</i></p>
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">A TANK BRINGING IN A CAPTURED GERMAN GUN UNDER PROTECTION OF CAMOUFLAGE<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Brigade Headquarters, where McKnutt reported, was full of expectancy.
+Messages were pouring in over the wires. The men at the telephones
+were dead beat, but cool and collected.</p>
+
+<p>"Any news of the other 'busses?" McKnutt asked eagerly. The Buzzers
+shook their heads wearily. He rushed up to a couple of men who were
+being carried to a dressing-station.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you fellows know how the tanks made out?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>One of them had seen two of the machines on the other side of the
+German line, he said. In answer to the questions which were fired at
+him he could only say that the tanks had pushed on beyond the German
+front line.</p>
+
+<p>Then on the top of the hill, against the sky-line, they saw a little
+group of three or four men. James recognized them.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, there's Sergeant Browning and Mr. Borwick, sir," he said.
+"What's happened to their tank, I wonder?" He and McKnutt hurried over
+to meet them.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span>Borwick smiled coolly.</p>
+
+<p>"Hullo!" he said in his casual manner.</p>
+
+<p>"What's happened to your 'bus?" "What did you do?" was fired at him.</p>
+
+<p>"We got stuck in the German wire, and the infantry got ahead of us,"
+he said. "We pushed on, and fell into a nest of three machine guns.
+They couldn't hurt us, of course, 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 circles. What
+do you think had happened? A trench mortar had got us full in one of
+our tracks, and the beastly thing broke. So we all tumbled out and
+left her there."</p>
+
+<p>"Didn't you go on with the infantry?" asked McKnutt.</p>
+
+<p>"No. They'd reached their objective by that time," Borwick replied,
+"so we saved the tank guns, and I pinched the clock. Then we strolled
+back, and here we are," he concluded.</p>
+
+<p>Talbot joined the group as he finished.</p>
+
+<p>"But where's the rest of your crew?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>Borwick said quietly: "Jameson and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span>Corporal Fiske got knocked out
+coming back." He lit a cigarette and puffed at it.</p>
+
+<p>There was silence for a moment.</p>
+
+<p>Then Talbot said, "Bad luck; have you got their pay-books?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, I forgot them," Borwick answered.</p>
+
+<p>But his Sergeant handed over the little brown books which were the
+only tangible remains of two men who had gone into action that
+morning. The pay-books contained two or three pages on which were
+jotted down their pay, 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 killed, but he never failed to be
+affected when he discovered the letters and little trifles which had
+meant so much to the men who had carried them, and which now would
+mean so much to those whom they had left behind.</p>
+
+<p>In silence they went back to McKnutt's tank and sat down, waiting for
+news. Scraps of information were beginning to trickle in.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span>"Have gained our objective in X Wood. Have not been counter-attacked."</p>
+
+<p>"Cannot push on owing to heavy machine-gun fire from C&mdash;&mdash;."</p>
+
+<p>"Holding out with twenty men in trench running north from Derelict
+Wood. Can I have reinforcements?"</p>
+
+<p>These were the messages pouring in from different points on the lines
+of attack. Sometimes the messages came in twos and threes. Sometimes
+there were minutes when only a wild buzzing could be heard and the men
+at the telephones tried to make the buzzing intelligible.</p>
+
+<p>The situation cleared up finally, however. Our troops had, apparently,
+gained their objectives along the entire line to the right. On the
+left the next Brigade had been hung up by devastating machine-gun
+fire. As McKnutt and Talbot waited around for news and fresh orders,
+one of their men hurried down and saluted.</p>
+
+<p>He brought the news that the other three tanks had returned, having
+reached their <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span>objectives. Two had but little opposition and the
+infantry had found no difficulty in gaining their points of attack.
+The third tank, however, had had three men wounded at a "pill-box."
+These pill-boxes are little concrete forts which the German had
+planted 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, escorting
+ten Germans, filed out. The Germans had their hands above their heads,
+and when ordered to the rear they went with the greatest alacrity. One
+of the three Englishmen was badly wounded; the other two were only
+slightly injured, but they wandered down to the dressing-station, with
+the hope that "Blighty" would soon welcome them.</p>
+
+<p>Although Talbot had his orders to hold the tanks in readiness in case
+they were needed, no necessity arose, and after a few hours' waiting,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span>the Major 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&mdash;&mdash; in the motor lorries, just as they had been
+after the first battle. Water, comparative quiet, blankets,&mdash;these
+were the luxuries that lay before them.</p>
+
+<p>As he sat crowded into the swaying motor lorry that lurched back along
+the shell-torn road to B&mdash;&mdash;, Talbot slipped his hand into his pocket.
+He touched a cheque-book, a 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 them, but one
+never could tell, one might be taken prisoner. One needed no such
+material preparations against the possibility of death, but a
+prisoner&mdash;that was different.</p>
+
+<p>The cheque-book had been for use in a possible gray prison camp in the
+land of his enemies. Cheques would some time or other reach his
+English bank and his people would know that he was, at least, alive.
+The cigarettes were <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span>to keep up his courage in the face of whatever
+disaster might befall him.</p>
+
+<p>And the razor? Most important of all.</p>
+
+<p>The razor was to keep, bright and untarnished, the traditions and
+prestige of the British Army!</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="VIII" id="VIII"></a><hr />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span><br />
+
+<h2>VIII</h2>
+
+<h3>REST AND DISCIPLINE<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>We stayed in that region of the Front for a few more weeks, preparing
+for any other task that might be demanded of us. One day the Battalion
+received its orders to pack up, to load the tanks that were left over,
+and to be ready for its return to the district in which we had spent
+the winter.</p>
+
+<p>We entrained on a Saturday evening at A&mdash;&mdash;, and arrived at St.-P&mdash;&mdash;
+at about ten o'clock on Sunday night. From there a twelve-mile march
+lay before us to our old billets in B&mdash;&mdash;. As may well be imagined,
+the men, though tired, were in high spirits. We simply ate up the
+distance, and the troops disguised their fatigue by singing songs.
+There were two which appeared to be favorites on this occasion.</p>
+
+<p>One, to the tune of "The Church's One Foundation," ran as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"We are Fred Karno's<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> Army,<br /></span><span class='pn'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span>
+<span class="i0">The ragtime A.S.C.,<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">We cannot work, we do not fight,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">So what ruddy use are we?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And when we get to Berlin,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The Kaiser he will say,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Hoch, hoch, mein Gott!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">What a ruddy rotten lot,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Is the ragtime A.S.C."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The other was a refrain to the tune of a Salvation Army hymn, "When
+the Roll is called up Yonder":&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"When you wash us in the water,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That you washed your dirty daughter,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Oh! then we will be much whiter!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">We'll be whiter than the whitewash on the wall."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Eventually the companies arrived in the village at all hours of the
+morning. No one was up. We saw that the men received their meals,
+which had been prepared by the cooks who had gone ahead in motor
+lorries. They did not spend much time over the food, for in less than
+half an hour "K" billets&mdash;the same Hospice de Ste. Berthe&mdash;were
+perfectly quiet. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span>We then wandered away with our servants, to be met
+at each of our houses by hastily clad landladies, with sleep in their
+eyes and smoking lamps or guttering candles in their hands.</p>
+
+<p>The next morning the Company paraded at half-past nine, and the day
+was spent in reforming sections, in issuing new kits to the men, and
+in working the rosters for the various courses. On Tuesday, just as
+breakfast was starting, an orderly brought a couple of memorandums
+from Battalion Orderly Room for McKnutt and Borwick.</p>
+
+<p>No one watched them read the chits, but Talbot, glancing up from his
+plate, saw a look on Borwick's face. It was a look of the purest joy.</p>
+
+<p>"What is it?" he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Leave, my God!" replied Borwick; "and McKnutt's got it too."</p>
+
+<p>"When are you going? To-day?" shouted the Old Bird.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; there's a car to take us to the station in a quarter of an
+hour."</p>
+
+<p>They both left their unfinished breakfasts <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span>and tore off to their
+billets. There it was but a matter of moments to throw a few things
+into their packs. No one ever takes any luggage when going on leave.
+They tore back to the mess to leave instructions for their servants,
+and we strolled out <i>en masse</i> to see the lucky fellows off.</p>
+
+<p>The box-body drew away from where we were standing. We watched it grow
+smaller and smaller down the long white road, and turned back with
+regrets and pleasure in our hearts. With regrets, that we ourselves
+were not the lucky ones, and knowing that for some of us leave would
+never come; with pleasure, because one is always glad that a few of
+the deserving reap a small share of their reward.</p>
+
+<p>Then, strolling over to the Parade Ground, we heard the "Five Minutes"
+sounding. Some dashed off to get their Sam Brownes, others called for
+their servants to wipe a few flecks of dust from their boots and
+puttees.</p>
+
+<p>When the "Fall In" began, the entire Company was standing "At Ease" on
+the Parade Ground. As the last note of the call sounded, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span>the whole
+parade sprang to "Attention," and the Major, who had been standing on
+the edge of the field, walked forward to inspect.</p>
+
+<p>Every morning was spent in this manner, except for those who had
+special courses to follow. We devoted all our time and attention to
+"Forming Fours" in as perfect a manner as possible; to saluting with
+the greatest accuracy and fierceness; and to unwearying repetition of
+every movement and detail, until machinelike precision was attained.</p>
+
+<p>All that we were doing then is the very foundation and essence of good
+discipline. Discipline is the state to which a man is trained, in
+order that under all circumstances he shall carry out without
+secondary reasoning any order that may be given him by a superior.
+There is nothing of a servile nature in this form of obedience. Each
+man realizes that it is for the good of the whole. By placing his
+implicit confidence in the commands of one of a higher rank than his
+own, he gives an earnest of his ability to himself command at some
+future time. It is but another proof of the old adage, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span>that the man
+who obeys least is the least fitted to command.</p>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep124" id="imagep124"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep124.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep124.jpg" width="85%" alt="Liberty Loan Parade in New York" /></a><br />
+<p class="right" style="margin-top: .2em; font-size: 90%;"><i>Copyright by Underwood &amp; Underwood, N.Y.</i></p>
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">A BRITISH TANK IN THE LIBERTY LOAN PARADE IN NEW YORK<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>When this war started, certain large formations, with the sheer lust
+for fighting in their blood, did not, while being formed, realize the
+absolute necessity of unending drill and inspection. Their first cry
+was, "Give us a rifle, a bayonet, and a bomb, show us how to use them,
+and we will do the rest." Acting upon this idea, they flung themselves
+into battle, disregarding the iron rules of a preliminary training. At
+first their very impetus and courage carried them over incredible
+obstacles. But after a time, and as their best were killed off, the
+original blaze died down, and the steady flame of ingrained discipline
+was not there to take the place of burning enthusiasm. The terrible
+waste and useless sacrifice that ensued showed only too plainly that
+even the greatest individual bravery is not enough.</p>
+
+<p>In this modern warfare there are many trials and experiences
+unimagined before, which wear down the actual will-power of the men
+who undergo them. When troops are forced <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span>to sit in a trench under the
+most terrific shell-fire, the nerve-racking noise, the sight of their
+comrades and their defences being blown to atoms, and the constant
+fear that they themselves will be the next to go, all deprive the
+ordinary mind of vital initiative. Having lost the active mental
+powers that a human being possesses, they are reduced to the level of
+machines. The officers and non-commissioned officers, on whom the
+responsibility of leadership rests, have that spur to maintain their
+equilibrium, but the private soldiers, who have themselves only to
+think of, are the most open to this devastating influence. If these
+machines are to be controlled, as they must be, by an exterior
+intelligence, they must obey automatically, and if in the past
+automatic obedience has not been implanted, there is nothing to take
+its place.</p>
+
+<p>The only means by which to obtain inherent response to a given order
+is so to train a man in minute details, by constant, inflexible
+insistence on perfection, that it becomes part of his being to obey
+without thinking.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span>It must not be presumed that, in obtaining this almost inhuman
+reaction, all independent qualities are obliterated. For, though a
+man's mind is adjusted to carrying out, without questioning, any task
+that is demanded of him, yet in the execution of this duty he is
+allowed the full scope of his invention and initiative.</p>
+
+<p>Thus, by this dull and unending routine, we laid the foundation of
+that inevitable success toward which we were slowly working.</p>
+
+<p>When the Company dismissed, the Major, Talbot, and the Old Bird walked
+over to lunch together.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it's a great war, isn't it?" said the Major, turning to the
+other two.</p>
+
+<p>"It's very nice to have got through a couple of shows, sir," replied
+Talbot. "What do you think about it, Old Bird?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, of course, war is all very well for those who like it. But give
+me the Base every time," answered the Old Bird, true to his
+reputation. Then, turning to the Major with his most ingratiating
+smile, he said, "By the way, sir, what about a few days in Boulogne?"</p>
+
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+
+<h4>FOOTNOTES:</h4>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> A late, third-rate English pantomime producer.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Stands for Army Service Corps, and its equivalent in the
+American Army is the Quartermaster's Corps.</p></div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="IX" id="IX"></a><hr />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span><br />
+
+<h2>IX</h2>
+
+<h3>A PHILOSOPHY OF WAR<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>It has often been observed that if this war is to end war for all
+time, and if all the sacrifices and misery and suffering will help to
+prevent any recurrence of them, then it is well worth while.</p>
+
+<p>In these days of immediate demands and quick results, this question is
+too vague and too far-reaching to bring instant consolation. Apart
+from that, too, it cannot decide whether any war, however great, can
+ever abolish the natural and primitive fighting instinct in man.</p>
+
+<p>The source from which we must draw the justification for our optimism
+lies much nearer to hand. We must regard the effect that warring life
+has already produced upon each individual member of the nations who
+are and who are not engaged in it.</p>
+
+<p>At the very heart of it is the effect on the man who is actually
+fighting. Take the case <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span>of him who before the war was either working
+in a factory, who was a clerk in a business house, or who was nothing
+at all beyond the veriest loafer and bar-lounger. To begin with, he
+was perhaps purely selfish. The foundation of his normal life was
+self-protection. Whether worthless or worthy, whether hating or
+respecting his superiors, the private gain and comfort for himself and
+his was the object of his existence. He becomes a soldier, and that
+act alone is a conversion. His wife and children are cared for, it is
+true; but he himself, for a shilling a day, sells to his country his
+life, his health, his pleasures, and his hopes for the future. To make
+good measure he throws in cheerfulness, devotion, philosophy, humour,
+and an unfailing kindness. One man, for instance, sells up three
+grocery businesses in the heart of Lancashire, an ambition which it
+has taken him ten years to accomplish. Without a trace of bitterness
+he divorces himself from the routine of a lifetime, and goes out to
+France to begin life again at the very bottom of a new ladder. He who
+for years had many men under <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span>him is now under all, and receives,
+unquestioningly, orders which in a different sphere he had been
+accustomed to give. Apart from the mere letter of obedience and
+discipline he gains a spirit of devotion and self-sacrifice, which
+turns the bare military instrument into a divine virtue. He may, for
+instance, take up the duties of an officer's servant. Immediately he
+throws himself whole-heartedly into a new form of selfless generosity,
+which leads him to a thousand ways of care and forethought, that even
+the tenderest woman could hardly conceive. The man who receives this
+unwavering devotion can only accept it with the knowledge that no one
+can deserve it, and that it is greater gain to him who gives than to
+him who takes.</p>
+
+<p>What life of peace is there that produces this god-like fibre in the
+plainest of men? Why, indeed, is it produced in the life of war? It is
+because in war sordidness and petty worries are eliminated; because
+the one great and ever-present fear, the fear of death, reduces all
+other considerations to their proper values. The actual fear of death
+is always present, but this <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span>fear itself cannot be sordid when men can
+meet it of their own free will and with the most total absence of
+cringing or of cowardice.</p>
+
+<p>In commercial rivalry a man will sacrifice the friend of years to gain
+a given sum, which will insure him increased material comforts. In war
+a man will deliberately sacrifice the life for which he wanted those
+comforts, to save perhaps a couple of men who have no claim on him
+whatsoever. He who before feared any household calamity now throws
+himself upon a live bomb, which, even though he might escape himself,
+will without his action kill other men who are near it. This deed
+loses none of its value because of the general belief among soldiers
+that life is cheap. Other men's lives are cheap. One's own life is
+always very dear.</p>
+
+<p>One of the most precious results has been the resurrection of the
+quality of admiration. The man who before the war said, "Why is he my
+master?" is now only too glad to accept a leader who is a leader
+indeed. He has learned that as his leader cannot do without him, so he
+cannot do without his leader, and although <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span>each is of equal
+importance in the scheme of affairs, their positions in the scheme are
+different. He has learned that there is a higher equality than the
+equality of class: it is the equality of spirit.</p>
+
+<p>This same feeling is reflected, more especially among the leaders of
+the men, in the complete disappearance of snobbishness. No such
+artificial imposition can survive in a life where inherent value
+automatically finds its level; where a disguise which in peace-time
+passed as superiority, now disintegrates when in contact with this
+life of essentials. For war is, above all, a reduction to essentials.
+It is the touchstone which proves the qualities of our youth's
+training. All those pleasures that formed the gamut of a young man's
+life either fall away completely or find their proper place. Sport,
+games, the open-air life, have taught him that high cheerfulness,
+through failure or success, which makes endurance possible. But the
+complicated, artificial pleasures of ordinary times have receded into
+a dim, unspoken background. The wholesomeness of the existence that
+he <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span>now leads has taught him to delight in the most simple and natural
+of things. This throwing aside of the perversions and fripperies of an
+over-civilization has forced him to regard them with a disgust that
+can never allow him to be tempted again by their inducements of
+delight and dissipation. The natural, healthy desires which a man is
+sometimes inclined to indulge in are no longer veiled under a mask of
+hypocrisy. They are treated in a perfectly outspoken fashion as the
+necessary accompaniments to a hard, open-air life, where a man's
+vitality is at its best. In consequence of this, and as the result of
+the deepening of man's character which war inevitably produces, the
+sense of adventure and mystery which accompanied the fulfilment of
+these desires has disappeared, and with it to a great extent the
+desires themselves have assumed a far less importance.</p>
+
+<p>In peace, and especially in war, the young man's creed is casualness.
+Not the casualness of carelessness, but that which comes from the
+knowledge that up to each given point he has <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span>done his best. It is
+this fundamental peace of mind which comes to a soldier that forms the
+beauty of his life. The order received must be obeyed in its exact
+degree, neither more nor less; and the responsibility, though great,
+is clearly defined. Each man must use his individual intelligence
+within the scope of the part assigned to him. The responsibility
+differs in kind, but not in degree, and the last link of the chain is
+as important as the first. There can be no shirking or shifting, and,
+knowing this, each task is finished, rounded out, and put away. One
+might think that this made thought mechanical: but it is mechanical
+only in so far as each man's intelligence is concentrated on his own
+particular duty, and each part working in perfect order contributes to
+the unison through which the whole machine develops its power. Thus
+the military life induces in men a clearer and more accurate habit of
+thought, and teaches each one to do his work well and above all to do
+his own work only.</p>
+
+<p>From this very simplicity of life, which brings out a calmness of mind
+and that equable <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span>temperament that minor worries can no longer shake,
+springs the mental leisure which gives time for other and unaccustomed
+ideas. Men who wittingly, time and again, have faced but escaped
+death, will inevitably begin to think what death may mean. As the
+first lessons of obedience teach each man that he needs a leader to
+pass through a certain crisis, so the crisis of death, where man must
+pass alone, demands a still higher Leader. With the admission that no
+man is self-sufficient, that sin of pride, which is the strongest
+barrier between a man and his God, falls away. He is forced, if only
+in self-defence, to recognize that faith in some all-sufficient Power
+is the only thing that will carry him through. If he could cut away
+the thousand sins of thought, man would automatically find himself at
+faith. It is the central but often hidden point of our intelligence;
+and although there are a hundred roads that lead to it, they may be
+completely blocked. The clean flame of the disciplined life burns away
+the rubbish that chokes these roads, and faith becomes a nearer and
+more constant thing.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span>The sadness of war lies in the loss of actual personalities, but it is
+only by means of these losses that this surrender can be attained.</p>
+
+<p>It must not be thought that faith comes overnight as a free gift. It
+is a long and slow process of many difficult steps. There may be first
+the actual literal crumbling, unknown in peace-time, of one's solid
+surroundings, to be repeated perhaps again and again until the old
+habit of reliance upon them is uprooted. Then comes the realization
+that this life at the front has but two possible endings. The first is
+to be so disabled that a man's fighting days are over. The other is
+death. Instant death rather than a slow death from wounds. Every man
+hopes for a wound which will send him home to England. That, however,
+is only a respite, as his return to France follows upon his
+convalescence. The other most important step is the loss of one's
+friends. It is not the fact of actually seeing them killed, for in the
+chaos and tumult of a battle the mind hardly registers such
+impressions. One's only feeling is the purely primitive one of relief,
+that it is another and not one's self. It <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span>is only afterwards, when
+the excitement is over, and a man realizes that again there is a space
+of life, for him, but not for his friend, that the loneliness and the
+loss are felt. He then says to himself, "Why am I spared when many
+better men have gone?" At first resentment swallows up all other
+emotions. In time, when this bitterness begins to pass, the belief
+that somehow this loss is of some avail, carries him a little farther
+on the road to faith. This all comes to the man who before the war
+believed that the world was made for his pleasure, and who treated
+life from that standpoint. All that he wanted he took without asking.
+Now, all that he has he gives without being asked.</p>
+
+<p>Woman, too, gives more than herself. She gives her men, her peace of
+mind and all that makes her life worth living. The man after all may
+have little hope, but while he is alive he has the daily pleasures of
+health, vitality, excitement, and a thousand interests. A woman has
+but a choice of sorrows: the sorrow of unbearable suspense or the
+acceptance of the end.</p>
+
+<p>Yet it needed this war to show again to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span>women what they could best do
+in life: to love their men, bear their children, care for the sick and
+suffering, and learn to endure. It has taught them also to accept from
+man what he is able or willing to give, and to admit a higher claim
+than their own. They have been forced to put aside the demands and
+exactions which they felt before were their right, and to accept
+loneliness and loss without murmur or question.</p>
+
+<p>A woman who loses her son loses the supreme reason of her existence;
+and yet the day after the news has come, she goes back to her work for
+the sons of other women. If she has more sons to give she gives them,
+and faces again the eternal suspense that she has lived through
+before. The younger women, who in times of peace would have looked
+forward to an advantageous and comfortable marriage, will now marry
+men whom they may never see again after the ten days' honeymoon is
+over, and will unselfishly face the very real possibility of widowhood
+and lonely motherhood. They have had to learn the old lesson that work
+for others is the only cure for sorrow, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span>they have learned too
+that it is the only cure for all those petty worries and boredoms
+which assailed them in times of peace. If they have learned this, then
+again one may say that war is worth while.</p>
+
+<p>What effect has the war had upon those countries who in the beginning
+were not engaged in it? The United States, for instance, has for three
+years been an onlooker. The people of that country have had every
+opportunity to view, in their proper perspectives, the feelings and
+changes brought about among the men and women of the combatant
+countries. At first, the enormous casualties, the sufferings and the
+sorrow, led them to believe that nothing was worth the price they
+would have to pay, were they to enter into the lists. For in the
+beginning, before that wonderful philosophy of spirit and cheerfulness
+of outlook arose, and before the far-reaching effects of the sacrifice
+of loved ones could be perceived, there seemed to be little reason or
+right for such a train of desolation. They were perfectly justified,
+too, in thinking this, when insufficient time had elapsed <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span>to enable
+them to judge of the immense, sweeping, beneficial effects that this
+struggle has produced in the moral fibre and stamina of the nations
+engaged.</p>
+
+<p>It must be remembered that the horrors of the imagination are far
+worse than the realities. The men who fight and the women who tend
+their wounds suffer mentally far less than those who paint the
+pictures in their minds, from data which so very often are grossly
+exaggerated. One must realize that the hardships of war are merely
+transient. Men suffer untold discomforts, and yet, when these
+sufferings are over and mind and body are at ease for a while, they
+are completely forgotten. The only mark they leave is the
+disinclination to undergo them again. But on those who do not realize
+them in their actuality, they cause a far more terrifying effect.</p>
+
+<p>Now, others, as well, have discovered that war's advantages outweigh
+so much its losses. They who with their own eyes had seen the
+wonderful fortitude with which men stand pain, and the amazing
+submission with which <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span>women bear sorrow, returned full of zeal and
+enthusiasm, to carry the torch of this uplifting flame to their own
+countrymen.</p>
+
+<p>Others will realize, too, that although one may lose one's best, yet
+one's worst is made better. The women will find that the characters of
+their men will become softened. The clear-cut essentials of a life of
+war must make the mind of man direct. It may be brutal in its
+simplicity, but it is clear and frank. Yet to counteract this, the
+continual sight of suffering bravely borne, the deep love and humility
+that the devotion of others unconsciously produces, bring about this
+charity of feeling, this desire to forgive and this moderation in
+criticism, which is so marked in those who have passed through the
+strenuous, searing realities of war. Since the thirty pieces of
+silver, no minted coin in the world has bought so much as has the
+King's shilling of to-day.</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<h4>THE END</h4>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<h5>The Riverside Press<br />
+CAMBRIDGE &middot; MASSACHUSETTS<br />
+U&middot;S&middot;A</h5>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Life in a Tank, by Richard Haigh
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Life in a Tank, by Richard Haigh
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Life in a Tank
+
+Author: Richard Haigh
+
+Release Date: March 13, 2009 [EBook #28319]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE IN A TANK ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jeannie Howse and Friend, and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+LIFE IN A TANK
+
+   [Illustration: A TANK ON ITS WAY INTO ACTION]
+
+
+
+
+LIFE IN A TANK
+
+_By_
+RICHARD HAIGH, M.C.
+CAPTAIN IN THE TANK CORPS
+
+_With Illustrations_
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+BOSTON AND NEW YORK
+HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
+The Riverside Press Cambridge
+
+
+
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY RICHARD HAIGH
+
+ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
+
+_Published June 1918_
+
+
+
+
+Contents
+
+
+I. The Meaning of the Tank Corps                                1
+
+II. First Days of Training                                     11
+
+III. Later Days of Training                                    37
+
+IV. Moving up the Line                                         49
+
+V. Preparations for the Show                                   61
+
+VI. The First Battle                                           76
+
+VII. The Second Battle                                         90
+
+VIII. Rest and Discipline                                     120
+
+IX. A Philosophy of War                                       128
+
+
+
+
+Illustrations
+
+
+A Tank on its Way into Action                      _Frontispiece_
+  British Official Photograph
+
+King George and Queen Mary inspecting a Tank on the British
+  Front in France                                               8
+  British Official Photograph
+
+A British Tank and its Crew in New York                        20
+  Photograph by Underwood & Underwood
+
+A Tank moving to the Attack down what was once a Main Street   56
+  British Official Photograph
+
+A Tank going over a Trench on its Way into Action              72
+  British Official Photograph
+
+A Tank halfway over the Top and awaiting the Order to
+  Advance in the Battle of Menin Road                          80
+  Photograph by Underwood & Underwood
+
+A Tank bringing in a Captured German Gun under Protection
+  of Camouflage                                               112
+  Photograph by Underwood & Underwood
+
+A British Tank in the Liberty Loan Parade in New York         124
+  Photograph by Underwood & Underwood
+
+
+
+
+LIFE IN A TANK
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+THE MEANING OF THE TANK CORPS
+
+
+TANKS!
+
+To the uninitiated--as were we in those days when we returned to the
+Somme, too late to see the tanks make their first dramatic
+entrance--the name conjures up a picture of an iron monster, breathing
+fire and exhaling bullets and shells, hurling itself against the
+enemy, unassailable by man and impervious to the most deadly engines
+of war; sublime, indeed, in its expression of indomitable power and
+resolution.
+
+This picture was one of the two factors which attracted us toward the
+Heavy Branch Machine-Gun Corps--as the Tank Corps was known in the
+first year of its being. On the Somme we had seen a derelict tank,
+wrecked, despoiled of her guns, and forsaken in No Man's Land. We had
+swarmed around and over her, wild with curiosity, much as the
+Lilliputians must have swarmed around the prostrate Gulliver. Our
+imagination was fired.
+
+The second factor was, frankly, that we were tired of going over the
+top as infantrymen. The first time that a man goes into an attack, he
+as a rule enjoys it. He has no conception of its horrors,--no, not
+horrors, for war possesses no horrors,--but, rather, he has no
+knowledge of the sudden realization of the sweetness of life that
+comes to a man when he is "up against it." The first time, it is a
+splendid, ennobling novelty. And as for the "show" itself, in actual
+practice it is more like a dream which only clarifies several days
+later, after it is all over. But to do the same thing a second and
+third and fourth time, is to bring a man face to face with Death in
+its fullest and most realistic uncertainty. In soldier jargon he "gets
+most awful wind up." It is five minutes before "Zero Hour." All
+preparations are complete. You are waiting for the signal to hop over
+the parapet. Very probably the Boche knows that you are coming, and
+is already skimming the sandbags with his machine guns and knocking
+little pieces of earth and stone into your face. Extraordinary, how
+maddening is the sting of these harmless little pebbles and bits of
+dirt! The bullets ricochet away with a peculiar singing hiss, or crack
+overhead when they go too high. The shells which burst on the other
+side of the parapet shake the ground with a dull thud and crash. There
+are two minutes to wait before going over. Then is the time when a man
+feels a sinking sensation in his stomach; when his hands tremble ever
+so slightly, and when he offers up a pathetic little prayer to God
+that if he's a bit of a sportsman he may be spared from death, should
+his getting through not violate the divine and fatalistic plans. He
+has that unpleasant lack of knowledge of what comes beyond. For after
+all, with the most intense belief in the world, it is hard to
+reconcile the comforting feeling of what one knows with that terrible
+dread of the unknown.
+
+A man has no great and glorious ideas that nothing matters because he
+is ready to die for his country. He is, of course, ready to die for
+her. But he does not think about it. He lights a cigarette and tries
+to be nonchalant, for he knows that his men are watching him, and it
+is his duty to keep up a front for their sake. Probably, at the same
+time, they are keeping up a front for him. Then the Sergeant Major
+comes along, cool and smiling, as if he were out for a stroll at home.
+Suddenly he is an immense comfort. One forgets that sinking feeling in
+the stomach and thinks, "How easy and jolly he is! What a splendid
+fellow!" Immediately, one begins unconsciously to imitate him. Then
+another thinks the same thing about one, and begins to imitate too. So
+it passes on, down the line. But there is nothing heroic or exalting
+in going over the top.
+
+This, then, was our possible second reason for preferring to attack
+inside bullet-proof steel; not that death is less likely in a tank,
+but there seems to be a more sporting chance with a shell than with a
+bullet. The enemy infantryman looks along his sight and he has you for
+a certainty, but the gunner cannot be so accurate and twenty yards
+may mean a world of difference. Above all, the new monster had our
+imaginations in thrall. Here were novelty and wonderful developments.
+
+In the end of 1916, therefore, a certain number of officers and men
+received their orders to join the H.B.M.G.C., and proceeded
+sorrowfully and joyfully away from the trenches. Sorrowfully, because
+it is a poor thing to leave your men and your friends in danger, and
+get out of it yourself into something new and fresh; joyfully, because
+one is, after all, but human.
+
+About thirty miles behind the line some villages were set aside for
+the housing and training of the new units. Each unit had a nucleus of
+men who had already served in tanks, with the new arrivals spread
+around to make up to strength.
+
+The new arrivals came from all branches of the Service; Infantry,
+Sappers, Gunners, Cavalry, and the Army Service Corps. Each man was
+very proud of his own Branch; and a wonderfully healthy rivalry and
+affection sprang up between them. The gunner twitted the sapper, the
+cavalryman made jokes at the A.S.C., and the infantryman groused at
+the whole lot. But all knew at the bottom of their hearts, how each is
+essential to the other.
+
+It was to be expected when all these varied men came together, that
+the inculcating of a proper _esprit de corps_--the training of each
+individual in an entirely new science for the benefit of the
+whole--would prove a very difficult and painstaking task. But the
+wonderful development, however, in a few months, of a large,
+heterogeneous collection of men into a solid, keen, self-sacrificing
+unit, was but another instance of the way in which war improves the
+character and temperament of man.
+
+It was entirely new for men who were formerly in a regiment, full of
+traditions, to find themselves in the Tank Corps. Here was a Corps,
+the functions of which resulted from an idea born of the exigencies of
+this science-demanding war. Unlike every other branch of the Service,
+it has no regimental history to direct it, no traditions upon which to
+build, and still more important from a practical point of view, no
+experience from which to draw for guidance, either in training or in
+action. In the Infantry, the attack has resulted from a steady
+development in ideas and tactics, with past wars to give a foundation
+and this present one to suggest changes and to bring about remedies
+for the defects which crop up daily. With this new weapon, which was
+launched on the Somme on September 15, 1916, the tactics had to be
+decided upon with no realistic experimentation as ground work; and,
+moreover, with the very difficult task of working in concert with
+other arms of the Service that had had two years of fighting, from
+which to learn wisdom.
+
+With regard to discipline, too,--of all things the most important, for
+the success of a battle has depended, does, and always will depend,
+upon the state of discipline of the troops engaged,--all old regiments
+have their staff of regular instructors to drill and teach recruits.
+In them has grown up that certain feeling and loyalty which time and
+past deeds have done so much to foster and cherish. Here were we,
+lacking traditions, history, and experience of any kind.
+
+It is easy to realize the responsibility that lay not only upon the
+Chief of this new Corps, but upon each individual and lowest member
+thereof. It was for us all to produce _esprit de corps_, and to
+produce it quickly. It was necessary for us to develop a love of the
+work, not because we felt it was worth while, but because we knew that
+success or failure depended on each man's individual efforts.
+
+But, naturally, the real impetus came from the top, and no admiration
+or praise can be worthy of that small number of men in whose hands the
+real destinies of this new formation lay; who were continually
+devising new schemes and ideas for binding the whole together, and for
+turning that whole into a highly efficient, up-to-date machine.
+
+    [Illustration: KING GEORGE AND QUEEN MARY INSPECTING A TANK ON
+    THE BRITISH FRONT IN FRANCE]
+
+"How did the tank happen to be invented?" is a common question. The
+answer is that in past wars experience has made it an axiom that the
+defenders suffer more casualties than the attacking forces. From the
+first days of 1914, however, this condition was reversed, and whole
+waves of attacking troops were mown down by two or three machine guns,
+each manned, possibly, by not more than three men. There may be in a
+certain sector, before an attack, an enormous preliminary bombardment
+which is destined to knock out guns, observation posts, dumps, men,
+and above all, machine-gun emplacements. Nevertheless, it has been
+found in actual practice that despite the most careful observation and
+equally careful study of aeroplane photographs, there are, as a rule,
+just one or two machine guns which, either through bad luck or through
+precautions on the part of the enemy, have escaped destruction. These
+are the guns which inflict the damage when the infantrymen go over and
+which may hold up a whole attack.
+
+It was thought, therefore, that a machine might be devised which would
+cross shell-craters, wire and trenches, and be at the same time
+impervious to bullets, and which would contain a certain number of
+guns to be used for knocking out such machine guns as were still in
+use, or to lay low the enemy infantry. With this idea, a group of men,
+in the end of 1915, devised the present type of heavy armoured car. In
+order to keep the whole plan as secret as possible, about twenty-five
+square miles of ground in Great Britain were set aside and surrounded
+with armed guards. There, through all the spring and early summer of
+1916, the work was carried on, without the slightest hint of its
+existence reaching the outside world. Then, one night, the tanks were
+loaded up and shipped over to France, to make that first sensational
+appearance on the Somme, with the success which warranted their
+further production on a larger and more ambitious scale.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+FIRST DAYS OF TRAINING
+
+
+We were at a rest camp on the Somme when the chit first came round
+regarding the joining of the H.B.M.G.C. The Colonel came up to us one
+day with some papers in his hand.
+
+"Does anybody want to join this?" he asked.
+
+We all crowded around to find out what "this" might be.
+
+"Tanks!" some one cried. Some were facetious; others indifferent; a
+few mildly interested. But no one seemed very keen about it,
+especially as the tanks in those days had a reputation for rather
+heavy casualties. Only Talbot, remembering the derelict and the
+interest she had inspired, said, with a laugh,--
+
+"I rather think I'll put my name down, sir. Nothing will come of it,
+but one might just as well try." And taking one of the papers he
+filled it in, while the others stood around making all the remarks
+appropriate to such an occasion.
+
+Two or three weeks went by and Talbot had forgotten all about it, in
+the more absorbing events which crowded months into days on the Somme.
+
+One day the Adjutant came up to him and, smiling, put out his hand.
+
+"Well, good-bye, Talbot. Good luck."
+
+When a man puts out his hand and says "Good-bye," you naturally take
+the proffered hand and say "Good-bye," too. Talbot found himself
+saying "Good-bye" before he realized what he was doing. Then he
+laughed.
+
+"Now that I've said 'Good-bye,' where am I going?" he asked.
+
+"To the Tanks," the Adjutant replied.
+
+So he was really to go; really to leave behind his battalion, his
+friends, his men, and his servant. For a moment the Somme and the camp
+seemed the most desirable places on earth. He thought he must have
+been a fool the day he signed that paper signifying his desire to join
+another Corps. But it was done now. There were his orders in the
+Colonel's hand.
+
+"When do I start, sir? And where do I go?" he asked.
+
+"You're to leave immediately for B----, wherever that is. Take your
+horse as far as the railhead and get a train for B----, where the Tank
+Headquarters are. Good-bye, Talbot; I'm sorry to lose you." A silent
+handshake, and they parted.
+
+Talbot's kit was packed and sent off on the transport. A few minutes
+later he was shaking hands all round. His spirits were rising at the
+thought of this new adventure, but it was a wrench, leaving his
+regiment. It was, in a way, he thought, as if he were turning his back
+on an old friend. The face of Dobbin, his groom, as he brought the
+horses round was not conducive to cheer. He must get the business over
+and be off. So he mounted and rode off through a gray, murky drizzle,
+to the railhead about eight miles away. There came the parting with
+Dobbin and with his pony. Horses mean as much as men sometimes, and
+his had worked so nobly with him through the mud on the Somme. He
+wondered if there would be any one in the new place who would be so
+faithful to him as Polly. Finally, there was Dobbin riding away, back
+to M----, with the horse, and its empty saddle, trotting along beside
+him. It was simply rotten leaving them all!
+
+One has, however, little time for introspection in the Army, and
+especially when one engages in a tilt with an R.T.O. The R.T.O. has
+been glorified by an imaginative soul with the title of "Royal
+Transportation Officer." As a matter of fact, the "R" does not stand
+for "royal," but for "railway," and the "T" is "transport," nothing so
+grandiose as "transportation." Now an R.T.O.'s job, though it may be a
+safe one, is not enviable. He is forced to combine the qualities of
+booking-clerk, station-master, goods-agent, information clerk, and day
+and night watchman all into one. In consequence of this it is
+necessary for the traveller's speech and attitude to be strictly
+soothing and complimentary. Talbot's obsession at this moment was as
+to whether B---- was near or far back from the line.
+
+If he supposed that B---- was "near" the line, the R.T.O. might tell
+him--just to prove how kind Fate is--that it was a good many miles in
+the rear. But no such luck. The R.T.O. coldly informed Talbot that he
+hadn't the slightest idea where B---- was. He only knew that trains
+went there. And, by the way, the trains didn't go there direct. It
+would be necessary for him to change at Boulogne. Talbot noticed these
+signs of thawing with delight. And to change at Boulogne! Life was
+brighter.
+
+Travelling in France in the northern area, at the present time, would
+seem to be a refutation of the truth that a straight line is the
+shortest distance between two points. For in order to arrive at one's
+destination, it is usually necessary to go about sixty miles out of
+one's way,--hence the necessity for Talbot's going to Boulogne in
+order to get a train running north.
+
+He arrived at Boulogne only to find that the train for B---- left in
+an hour.
+
+He strolled out into the streets. Boulogne had then become the Mecca
+for all those in search of gaiety. Here were civilized people once
+again. And a restaurant with linen and silver and shining glass, and
+the best dinner he had ever eaten.
+
+When he had paid his bill and gone out, he stopped at the corner of
+the street just to look at the people passing by. A large part of the
+monotony of this war is occasioned, of course, by the fact that the
+soldier sees nothing but the everlasting drab of uniforms. When a man
+is in the front line, or just behind, for weeks at a time he sees
+nothing but soldiers, soldiers, soldiers! Each man has the same
+coloured uniform; each has the same pattern tunic, the same puttees.
+Each is covered with the same mud for days at a time. It is the
+occasion for a thrill when a "Brass Hat" arrives, for he at least has
+the little brilliant red tabs on his tunic! A man sometimes finds
+himself envying the soldiers of the old days who could have occasional
+glimpses of the dashing uniforms of their officers, and although a red
+coat makes a target of a man, the colour is at least more cheerful
+than the eternal khaki. The old-time soldier had his red coat and his
+bands, blaring encouragingly. The soldier of to-day has his drab and
+no music at all, unless he sings. And every man in an army is not
+gifted with a voice.
+
+So Talbot looked with joy on the charming dresses and still more
+charming faces of the women and girls who passed him. Even the men in
+their civilian clothes were good to look upon.
+
+Riding on French trains is very soothing unless one is in a hurry. But
+unlike a man in civil life, the soldier has no interest in the speed
+of trains. The civilian takes it as a personal affront if his train is
+a few minutes late, or if it does not go as fast as he thinks it
+should. But the soldier can afford to let the Government look after
+such minor details. The train moved along at a leisurely pace through
+the lovely French countryside, making frequent friendly stops at
+wayside stations. On the platform at Etaples station was posted a
+rhyme which read:--
+
+    "A wise old owl lived in an oak,
+    The more he saw, the less he spoke;
+    The less he spoke, the more he heard;
+    Soldiers should imitate that old bird."
+
+It was the first time that Talbot had seen this warlike ditty. Its
+intention was to guard soldiers from saying too much in front of
+strangers. Talbot vowed, however, to apply its moral to himself at all
+times and under all conditions.
+
+From nine in the morning until half-past two in the afternoon they
+rolled along, and had covered by this time the extraordinary distance
+of about forty miles! Here at last was the station of Saint-P----.
+
+Talbot looked about him. Standing near was an officer with the
+Machine-Gun Corps Badge, whom he hailed, and questioned about the
+Headquarters of the Tank Corps.
+
+"About ten miles from here. Are you going there?" the fellow asked.
+
+Talbot explained that he hoped to, and being saturated with Infantry
+ideas, he wondered if a passing motor lorry might give him a lift.
+
+The man laughed. "Why don't you telephone Headquarters and ask them to
+send a car over for you?" he asked.
+
+Talbot did not quite know whether the fellow were ragging him or not.
+He decided that he was, for who had ever heard of "telephoning for a
+car"?
+
+"Oh, I don't believe I'll do that--thanks very much for the hint, all
+the same," he said. "Just tell me which road to take and I'll be quite
+all right."
+
+The officer smiled.
+
+"I'm quite serious about it," he said. "We all telephone for cars when
+we need them. There's really no point in your walking--in fact,
+they'll be surprised if you stroll in upon them. Try telephoning and
+you'll find they won't die of shock."
+
+Partly to see whether they would or not, and partly because he found
+the prospect of a motor car more agreeable than a ten-mile walk,
+Talbot telephoned. Here he experienced another pleasant surprise, for
+he was put through to Headquarters with no difficulty at all. A
+cheerful voice answered and he stated his case.
+
+"Cheero," the voice replied. "We'll have a car there for you in an
+hour--haven't one now, but there will be one ready shortly."
+
+Saint-P---- was a typical French town, and Talbot strolled around.
+There were soldiers everywhere, but the town had never seen the
+Germans, and it was a pleasant place. There was, too, a refreshing
+lack of thick mud--at least it was not a foot deep.
+
+Although Talbot could not quite believe that the car would
+materialize, it proved to be a substantial fact in the form of a
+box-body, and in about an hour he was speeding toward Headquarters. It
+was dark when they reached the village, and as they entered, he
+experienced that curious feeling of apprehensive expectancy with which
+one approaches the spot where one is to live and work for some time to
+come. The car slowed up to pass some carts on the road, and started
+forward with such a jerk that Talbot was precipitated from the back of
+the machine into the road. He picked himself up, covered with mud. The
+solemn face of the driver did not lessen his discomfiture. Here was a
+strange village, strange men, and he was covered with mud!
+
+    [Illustration: _Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N.Y._
+    A BRITISH TANK AND ITS CREW IN NEW YORK]
+
+Making himself as presentable as possible, Talbot reported to
+Headquarters, and was posted to "J" Company, 4th Battalion. That night
+he had dinner with them. New men were arriving every few minutes, and
+the next day, after he had been transferred to "K" Company, they
+continued to arrive. The nucleus of this company were officers of the
+original tanks, three or four of them perhaps, and the rest was made
+up with the newcomers.
+
+Men continued to arrive in driblets, from the beginning of December to
+the first of January. When a new man joins an old regiment there is a
+reserve about the others which is rather chilling. They wait to see
+whether he is going to fit in, before they make any attempts to fit
+him in. In a way, this very aloofness makes for comfort on the part of
+the newcomer. At mess, he is left alone until he is absorbed
+naturally. It gives him a chance to find his level.
+
+All this was different with the Tank Corps. With the exception of the
+very few officers who were "old men," we were all painfully new, so
+that we regarded one another without criticism and came to know each
+other without having to break through the wall of reserve and
+instinctive mistrust which is characteristically British. A happy bond
+of good-fellowship was formed immediately.
+
+The first few days were spent in finding billets for the men. They
+were finally quartered at a hospice in the village. This was a private
+almshouse, in charge of a group of French nuns, where lived a number
+of old men and women, most of them in the last stages of consumption.
+The Hospice consisted of the old Abbey of Ste. Berthe, built in the
+twelfth century, and several outbuildings around a courtyard. In these
+barns lived the men, and one large room was reserved for the officers'
+mess. The Company Orderly Room and Quartermaster's Stores were also
+kept in the Hospice, and four or five officers were quartered above
+the Refectory. The buildings were clean and comfortable, and the only
+drawback lay in the fact that one sometimes found it objectionable to
+have to look at these poor old creatures, dragging themselves around.
+They had nothing to do, it seemed, but to wait and die. One old man
+was a gruesome sight. He was about ninety years old and spent his days
+walking about the courtyard, wearing a cigarette tin hung around his
+neck, into which he used to cough with such terrible effort that it
+seemed as if he would die every time the spasm shook him. As a matter
+of fact, he and many others did die before we left the village: the
+extreme cold was too much for them; or perhaps it was the fact that
+their quiet had been invaded by the "mad English."
+
+It was during this time that Talbot developed a positive genius for
+disappearing whenever a gray habit came into sight. The nuns were
+splendid women: kind and hospitable and eager for our comfort, but
+they did not like to be imposed upon, however slightly. The first
+thing that Frenchwomen do--and these nuns were no exception--when
+soldiers are billeted with them, is to learn who is the officer in
+charge, in order that they may lose no time in bringing their
+complaints to him. The Mother Superior of the Hospice selected Talbot
+with unerring zeal. His days were made miserable, until in
+self-defence he thought of formulating a new calendar of "crimes" for
+his men, in which would be included all the terrible offences which
+the Mother Superior told off to him.
+
+Did the Colonel send for Captain Talbot, and did Talbot hurry off to
+obey the command, just so surely would the Mother Superior select that
+moment to bar his path.
+
+"Ah, mon Capitaine!" she would exclaim, with a beaming smile. "J'ai
+quelque chose a vous dire. Un soldat--"
+
+Talbot would break in politely, just as she had settled down for a
+good long chat, and explain that the Colonel wished to see him. As
+well try to move the Rock. It was either stand and listen, or go into
+the presence of his superior officer with an excited nun following him
+with tales of the "crimes" his men had committed. Needless to say, the
+Mother Superior conquered. Talbot would have visions of some fairly
+serious offence, and would hear the tale of a soldier who had borrowed
+a bucket an hour ago, promising, on his honour as a soldier of the
+King, to return it in fifty minutes at the most.
+
+"And it is now a full sixty minutes by the clock on the kitchen
+mantel, M'sieu le Capitaine," she would say, her colour mounting, "and
+your soldier has not returned my bucket. If he does not bring it back,
+when can we get another bucket?"
+
+And so on, until Talbot would pacify her, promising her that the
+bucket would be returned. Then he would go on to the Colonel,
+breathless and perturbed, his mind so full of buckets that there was
+hardly room for the business of the Tank Corps. Small wonder that the
+sight of a gray habit was enough to unnerve the man.
+
+He, himself, was billeted with a French family, just around the corner
+from the Hospice. The head of the family had been, in the halcyon days
+before the war, the village butcher. There was now Madame, the little
+Marie, a sturdy boy about twelve, and the old Grand'mere. The husband
+was away, of course,--"dans les tranchees," explained Madame with
+copious tears.
+
+Talbot was moved to sympathy, and made a few tactful inquiries as to
+where the husband was now, and how he had fared.
+
+"Il est maintenant a Paris," said Madame with a sigh.
+
+"In Paris! What rank has he?--a General, maybe?"
+
+"Ah, M'sieu s'amuse," said Madame, brightening up. No, her husband was
+a chef at an officers' mess in Paris, she explained proudly. He had
+been there since the war broke out. He would soon come home, the
+Saints be praised. Then the Captain would hear him tell his tales of
+life in the Army!
+
+The hero came home one day, and great was the rejoicing. Thrilling
+evenings the family spent around the stove while they listened to
+stories of great deeds. On the day when his _permission_ was finished,
+and he set out for his hazardous post once more, great was the
+lamenting. Madame wept. All the brave man's relatives poured in to
+kiss him good-bye. The departing soldier wept, himself. Even
+Grand'mere desisted for that day from cracking jokes, which she was
+always doing in a patois that to Talbot was unintelligible.
+
+But they were very kind to Talbot, and very courageous through the
+hard winter. When he lay ill with fever in his little low room, where
+the frost whitened the plaster and icicles hung from the ceiling,
+Madame and all the others were most solicitous for his comfort. His
+appreciation and thanks were sincere.
+
+By the middle of December the Battalion had finally settled down and
+we began our training. Our first course of study was in the mechanism
+of the tanks. We marched down, early one morning, to an engine hangar
+that was both cold and draughty. We did not look in the least like
+embryo heroes. Over our khaki we wore ill-fitting blue garments which
+men on the railways, who wear them, call "boilers." The effect of
+wearing them was to cause us to slouch along, and suddenly Talbot
+burst out laughing at the spectacle. Then he remembered having heard
+that some of the original "Tankers" had, during the Somme battles,
+been mistaken for Germans in their blue dungarees. They had been fired
+on from some distance away, by their own infantry; though nothing
+fatal ensued. In consequence, before the next "show" chocolate ones
+were issued.
+
+In the shadows of the engine shed, a gray armour-plated hulk loomed
+up.
+
+"There it is!" cried Gould, and started forward for a better look at
+the "Willie."
+
+Across the face of Rigden, the instructor, flashed a look of scorn and
+pain. Just such a look you may have seen on the face of a young mother
+when you refer to her baby as "it."
+
+"Don't call a tank 'it,' Gould," he said with admirable patience. "A
+tank is either 'he' or 'she'; there is no 'it.'"
+
+"In Heaven's name, what's the difference?" asked Gould, completely
+mystified. The rest of us were all ears.
+
+"The female tank carries machine guns only," Rigden explained. "The
+male tank carries light field guns as well as machine guns. Don't ever
+make the mistake again, any of you fellows."
+
+Having firmly fixed in our minds the fact that we were to begin on a
+female "Willie," the instruction proceeded rapidly. Rigden opened a
+little door in the side of the tank. It was about as big as the door
+to a large, old-fashioned brick oven built into the chimney beside the
+fireplace. His head disappeared and his body followed after. He was
+swallowed up, save for a hand that waved to us and a muffled voice
+which said, "Come on in, you fellows."
+
+Gould went first. He scrambled in, was lost to sight, and then we
+heard his voice.
+
+McKnutt's infectious laugh rose above the sound of our mirth. But not
+for long.
+
+"Hurry up!" called Rigden. "You next, McKnutt."
+
+McKnutt disappeared. Then to our further astonishment his rich Irish
+voice could be heard upraised in picturesque malediction. What was
+Rigden doing to them inside the tank to provoke such profanity from
+them both? The rest of us scrambled to find out. We soon learned.
+
+When you enter a tank, you go in head first, entering by the side
+doors. (There is an emergency exit--a hole in the roof which is used
+by the wise ones.) You wiggle your body in with more or less grace,
+and then you stand up. Then, if it is the first time, you are usually
+profane. For you have banged your head most unmercifully against the
+steel roof and you learn, once and for all, that it is impossible to
+stand upright in a tank. Each one of us received our baptism in this
+way. Seven of us, crouched in uncomfortable positions, ruefully rubbed
+our heads, to Rigden's intense enjoyment. Our life in a tank had
+begun!
+
+We looked around the little chamber with eager curiosity. Our first
+thought was that seven men and an officer could never do any work in
+such a little place. Eight of us were, at present, jammed in here, but
+we were standing still. When it came to going into action and moving
+around inside the tank, it would be impossible,--there was no room to
+pass one another. So we thought. In front are two stiff seats, one for
+the officer and one for the driver. Two narrow slits serve as
+portholes through which to look ahead. In front of the officer is a
+map board, and gun mounting. Behind the engine, one on each side, are
+the secondary gears. Down the middle of the tank is the powerful
+petrol engine, part of it covered with a hood, and along either side a
+narrow passage through which a man can slide from the officer's and
+driver's seat back and forth to the mechanism at the rear. There are
+four gun turrets, two on each side. There is also a place for a gun in
+the rear, but this is rarely used, for "Willies" do not often turn
+tail and flee!
+
+Along the steel walls are numberless ingenious little cupboards for
+stores, and ammunition cases are stacked high. Every bit of space is
+utilized. Electric bulbs light the interior. Beside the driver are the
+engine levers. Behind the engine are the secondary gears, by which the
+machine is turned in any direction. All action inside is directed by
+signals, for when the tank moves the noise is such as to drown a man's
+voice.
+
+All that first day and for many days after, we struggled with the
+intricacies of the mechanism. Sometimes, Rigden despaired of us. We
+might just as well go back to our regiments, unless they were so glad
+to be rid of us that they would refuse. On other days, he beamed with
+pride, even when Darwin and the Old Bird distinguished themselves by
+asking foolish questions. "Darwin" is, of course, not his right name.
+Because he came from South Africa and looked like a baboon, we called
+him "Baboon." So let evolution evolve the name of "Darwin" for him in
+these pages. As for the Old Bird, no other name could have suited him
+so well. He was the craftiest old bird at successfully avoiding work
+we had ever known, and yet he was one of the best liked men in the
+Company. He was one of those men who are absolutely essential to a
+mess because of his never-failing cheer and gaiety. He never did a
+stroke of work that he could possibly "wangle" out of. A Scotchman by
+birth, he was about thirty-eight years old and had lived all over the
+world. He had a special fondness for China. Until he left "K" Company,
+he was never known by any other name than that of "Old Bird."
+
+There was one man, from another Company, who gave us the greatest
+amusement during our Tank-mechanism Course. He was pathetically in
+earnest, but appeared to have no brains at all. Sometimes, while
+asking each other catch questions, we would put the most senseless
+ones to him.
+
+Darwin would say, "Look here, how is the radiator connected with the
+differential?"
+
+The poor fellow would ponder for a minute or two and then reply, "Oh!
+through the magneto."
+
+He naturally failed again and again to pass his tests, and was
+returned to his old Corps.
+
+Somehow we learned not to attempt to stand upright in our steel
+prison. Before long, McKnutt had ceased his remarks about sardines in
+a tin and announced, "Sure! there is plenty of room and to spare for a
+dozen others here." The Old Bird no longer compared the atmosphere,
+when we were all shut in tight, with the Black Hole of Calcutta. In a
+word, we had succumbed to the "Willies," and would permit no man to
+utter a word of criticism against them.
+
+It is necessary here, perhaps, to explain why we always call our
+machines "Willies." When the tanks were first being experimented
+upon, they evolved two, a big and a little one. Standing together they
+looked so ludicrous, that they were nicknamed "Big" and "Little
+Willie." The name stuck; and now, no one in the Corps refers to his
+machine in any other way.
+
+A few days before Christmas, our tank course was finished, and the Old
+Bird suggested a celebration. McKnutt led the cheering. Talbot had an
+idea.
+
+"Let's get a box-body and go over to Amiens and do our Christmas
+shopping," he said.
+
+A chorus of "Jove, that's great!" arose. Every one made himself useful
+excepting the Old Bird, who made up by contributing more than any one
+else to the gaiety of the occasion. The car was secured, and we all
+piled in, making early morning hideous with our songs.
+
+We sped along over the snowy roads. War seemed very far away. We were
+extraordinarily light-hearted. After about twenty miles the cold
+sobered us down a little. Suddenly, the car seemed to slip from under
+us and we found ourselves piled up in the soft snow of the road. A
+rear wheel had shot off, and it went rolling along on its own.
+Fortunately we had been going rather slowly since we were entering a
+town, and no one was hurt. Borwick, the musician of the Company,
+looked like a snow image; Darwin and the Old Bird were locked in each
+other's arms, and had an impromptu and friendly wrestling match in a
+snowdrift. McKnutt was invoking the aid of the Saints in his
+endeavours to prevent the snow from trickling down his back. Talbot
+and Gould, who had got off lightly, supplied the laughter. The wheel
+was finally rescued and restored to its proper place, and we crawled
+along at an ignominious pace until the spires of Amiens welcomed us.
+
+We shopped in the afternoon, buying all sorts of ridiculous things,
+and collecting enough stores to see us through a siege. After a
+hilarious dinner at the Hotel de l'Univers (never had the Old Bird
+been so witty and gay), we started back about eleven o'clock, and
+forgetting our injured wheel, raced out of the town toward home. A
+short distance down the main boulevard, the wheel again came off, and
+this time the damage could not be repaired. There was nothing for it
+but to wait until morning, and it was a disconsolate group that
+wandered about. All the hotels were full up. Finally, a Y.M.C.A. hut
+made some of us welcome. We sat about, reading and talking, until we
+dozed off in our chairs. The next morning we got a new wheel and ran
+gingerly the sixty-odd miles back, to regale the others with enviable
+tales of our pre-Christmas festivities.
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+LATER DAYS OF TRAINING
+
+
+"Well, thank Heaven, that sweat's over," said the Old Bird the night
+after we finished our tank course, and had our celebration. He
+stretched luxuriously.
+
+"Yes, but you're starting off again on the gun to-morrow morning,"
+said the Major, cheerfully.
+
+The Old Bird protested.
+
+"But I can have a few days' rest, sir, can't I?" he said sorrowfully.
+
+The Major laughed.
+
+"No, you can't. You're down, so you'll have to go through with it."
+
+So for three days we sat in the open, in the driving sleet, from
+half-past eight in the morning until half-past four in the afternoon,
+learning the gun. On the fourth day we finished off our course with
+firing on the range. Surprising as it may seem, after two or three
+rounds we could hit the very smallest object at a distance of four or
+five hundred yards.
+
+"How many more courses must we go through?" asked the Old Bird of
+Rigden, as they strolled back one evening from the range. The Old Bird
+was always interested in how much--or, rather, how little--work he had
+before him.
+
+"There's the machine gun; the signalling course,--you'll have to work
+hard on that, but I know you don't object,--and also revolver
+practice. Aren't you thrilled?"
+
+"No, I'm not," grumbled the Old Bird. "Life isn't worth living with
+all this work to do. I wish we could get into action."
+
+"So do I," said Talbot, joining them. "But while we're waiting,
+wouldn't you rather be back here with good warm billets and a
+comfortable bed and plenty to eat, instead of sitting in a wet trench
+with the Infantry?" He remembered an old man in his regiment who had
+been with the Salvation Army at home. He would stump along on his flat
+feet, trudging miles with his pack on his back, and Talbot had never
+heard him complain. He was bad at drill. He could never get the orders
+or formations through his head. Talbot had often lost patience with
+him, but the old fellow was always cheerful. One morning, in front of
+Bapaume, after a night of terrible cold, the old man could not move.
+Talbot tried to cheer him up and to help him, but he said feebly: "I
+think I'm done for--I don't believe I shall ever get warm. But never
+mind, sir." And in a few minutes he died, as uncomplainingly as he had
+lived.
+
+"You're right, of course, Talbot," the Old Bird said. "We're very well
+off here. But, I say, how I should like to be down in Boulogne for a
+few days!" And until they reached the Mess, the Old Bird dilated on
+the charm of Boulogne and all the luxuries he would indulge in the
+next time he visited the city.
+
+The rest of that week found us each day parading at eight o'clock in
+the courtyard of the Hospice, and after instruction the various
+parties marched off to their several duties. Some of us went to the
+tankdrome; some of us to the hills overlooking historic Agincourt,
+and others to the barn by the railroad where we practised with the
+guns. Another party accompanied Borwick to a secluded spot where he
+drilled them in machine-gun practice. Borwick was as skilful with a
+machine gun as with a piano. This was the highest praise one could
+give him.
+
+That night at mess, Gould said suddenly:--
+
+"To-morrow's a half day, isn't it?"
+
+"Of course. Wake up, you idiot," said Talbot. "We're playing 'J'
+Company at soccer, and on Sunday we're playing 'L' at rugger. Two
+strenuous days before us. Are you feeling fit?"
+
+Gould was feeling most awfully fit. In fact, he assured the mess that
+he, alone, was a match for "J" Company.
+
+Our soccer team was made up almost entirely of men who had been
+professional players. We had great pride in them, so that on the
+following afternoon, an eager crowd streamed out of the village to our
+football field, which we had selected with great care. It was as flat
+as a cricket pitch. A year ago it had been ploughed as part of the
+French farmland, and now here were the English playing football!
+
+Before the game began there was a good deal of cheerful chaffing on
+the respective merits of the "J" and "K" Company teams. And when the
+play was in progress and savage yells rent the air, the French
+villagers looked on in wonder and pity. They had always believed the
+English to be mad. Now they were convinced of it.
+
+From the outset, however, "J" Company was hopelessly outclassed, and
+wishing to be generous to a failing foe, we ceased our wild cheering.
+"J" Company, on the other hand, wishing to exhort their team to
+greater efforts, made up for our moderation, with the result that our
+allies were firmly convinced that "J" Company had won the game! If
+not, why should they dance up and down and wave their hats and shriek?
+And even the score, five to one in favor of "K" Company, failed to
+convince them entirely. But "K" went home to an hilarious tea, with a
+sense of work well done.
+
+And what of the rugger game the next day? Let us draw a veil over it.
+Suffice it to say that the French congratulated "K" Company over the
+outcome of that, although the score was twelve to three in favor of
+"J"!
+
+We awoke on Monday morning with a delightful feeling that something
+pleasant was going to happen, for all the world the same sensation we
+used to experience on waking on our birthday and suddenly remembering
+that gifts were sure to appear and that there would be something
+rather special for tea! By the time full consciousness returned, we
+remembered that this was the day when, for the first time, the tank
+was to be set in motion. Even the Old Bird was eager.
+
+We hurry off to the tankdrome. One after another we slide in through
+the little door and are swallowed up. The door is bolted behind the
+last to enter. Officer and driver slip into their respective seats.
+The steel shutters of the portholes click as they are opened. The
+gunners take their positions. The driver opens the throttle a little
+and tickles the carburetor, and the engine is started up. The driver
+races the engine a moment, to warm her up. The officer reaches out a
+hand and signals for first speed on each gear; the driver throws his
+lever into first; he opens the throttle: the tank--our "Willie"--moves!
+
+Supposing you were locked in a steel box, with neither portholes to
+look through nor airholes to breathe from. Supposing you felt the
+steel box begin to move, and, of course, were unable to see where you
+were going. Can you imagine the sensation? Then you can guess the
+feelings of the men in a tank,--excepting the officer and driver, who
+can see ahead through their portholes,--when the monster gets under
+way. There are times, of course, with the bullets flying thick and
+fast, when all portholes, for officer, driver, and gunners, must be
+closed. Then we plunge ahead, taking an occasional glimpse through the
+special pin-point holes.
+
+Thirty tons of steel rolls along with its human freight. Suddenly,
+the driver rings a bell. He presses another button, and signals the
+driver of the right-hand track into "neutral." This disconnects the
+track from the engine. The tank swings around to the right. The
+right-hand driver gets the signal "First speed," and we are off again,
+at a right angle to our former direction.
+
+Now we are headed for a gentle slope across the field, and as we
+approach it, the tank digs her nose into the base of the hill. She
+crawls up. The men in the rear tip back and enjoy it hugely. If the
+hill is steep enough they may even find themselves lying flat on their
+backs or standing on their heads! But no such luck. Presently they are
+standing as nearly upright as it is ever possible to stand, and the
+tank is balancing on the top of the slope. The driver is not expert as
+yet, and we go over with an awful jolt and tumble forward. This is
+rare fun!
+
+But the instructor is not pleased. We must try it all over again. So
+back again to attack the hill a second time. The top is reached once
+more and we balance there. The driver throws out his clutch, we slip
+over very gently, and carefully he lets the clutch in again and down
+we go. The "Willie" flounders around for the fraction of a second.
+Then, nothing daunted, she starts off once more. We have visions of
+her sweeping all before her some day far behind the German lines.
+
+Three or four weeks of this sort of thing, and we are hardened to it.
+
+Our reward came at last, however. After mess one morning, when the
+conversation had consisted mainly of the question, "When are we going
+into a show?" with no answer to the question, we were called into the
+Major's room, where he told us, in strictest secrecy, that in about
+three weeks a big attack was to come off. We should go in at last!
+
+For the next two or three weeks we studied maps and aeroplane
+photographs, marking out our routes, starting-points, rear
+ammunition-dumps, forward dumps, and lines of supply. At last, then,
+our goal loomed up and these months of training, for the most part
+interesting, but at times terribly boring, would bear fruit. Two
+direct results were noticeable now on looking back to the time when we
+joined. First, each man in the Battalion knew how to run a tank, how
+to effect slight repairs, how to work the guns, and how to obtain the
+best results from the machine. Second, and very important, was the
+fact that the men and officers had got together. The crews and
+officers of each section knew and trusted each other. The strangeness
+of feeling that was apparent in the first days had now entirely
+disappeared, and that cohesion of units which is so essential in
+warfare had been accomplished. Each of us knew the other's faults and
+the mistakes he was prone to make. More important still, we knew our
+own faults and weaknesses and had the courage to carry on and overcome
+them.
+
+A few nights before we moved up the line, we gave a grand concert.
+Borwick and the Old Bird planned it. On an occasion of this sort, the
+Old Bird never grumbled at the amount of work he was obliged to do.
+Some weeks before we had bought a piano from one of the inhabitants of
+the village, and the piano was naturally the _piece de resistance_ of
+the concert. The Old Bird went around for days at a time, humming
+scraps of music with unintelligible words which it afterwards
+developed at the concert were awfully good songs of his own composing.
+The Battalion tailor was called in to make up rough Pierrot costumes.
+The Old Bird drilled us until we begged for mercy, while Borwick
+strummed untiringly at the piano. At last the great night arrived.
+
+A stage had been built at one end of a hangar, and curtains hung up.
+
+The whole of the Staff and H.Q. had been invited, and the _maire_, the
+_cure_, the _medecin_ of the village, and their families were also to
+attend.
+
+Promptly at eight o'clock, the concert began, with Borwick at the
+piano. Everything went off without a hitch. Although "K" Company
+provided most of the talent, the Battalion shared the honours of the
+entertainment. Each song had a chorus, and so appreciative was our
+audience that the choruses were repeated again and again. The one
+"lady" of the Troupe looked charming, and "she" arranged for "her"
+voice to be entirely in keeping with "her" dress and paint. The French
+spectators enjoyed it hugely. They were a great encouragement, for
+they laughed at everything uproariously, though it could not have been
+due to their understanding of the jokes.
+
+At ten o'clock we finished off with "God Save the King," and went back
+to our billets feeling that our stay in the village had been
+splendidly rounded off.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+MOVING UP THE LINE
+
+
+Two or three days before we were due to leave, we had received orders
+to pack our surplus kit, and have it at the Quartermaster's Stores at
+a certain time. We drew a long breath. This meant that the actual
+date, which up to the present had been somewhat indefinite, was close
+at hand. We were given orders to draw our tanks and the whole Company
+was marched over to work sheds about two miles away at E----, where
+tanks and stores were issued.
+
+The variety and number of little things which it is necessary to draw
+when fitting out a tank for action is inconceivable. Tools, small
+spares, Pyrenes, electric lamps, clocks, binoculars, telescopes,
+petrol and oil funnels, oil squirts, grease guns, machine guns,
+headlights, tail lamps, steel hawsers, crowbars, shovels, picks,
+inspection lamps, and last, but not least, ammunition. The field-gun
+ammunition has to be taken out of its boxes and placed in the shell
+racks inside the tank. The S.A.A. (small arms ammunition) must be
+removed from its boxes and stacked away. At the same time every single
+round, before being put into the drum, must be gauged. All this has to
+be done in the last two or three days, and everything must be checked
+and countersigned. There is always a great deal of fun for Tank
+Commanders in drawing their stores. It is a temptation, when in the
+midst of all these thousands of articles, to seize the opportunity,
+when no one is looking, to pocket a few extra spares and dainty little
+tools, not, of course, for one's own personal benefit, but simply
+because such things are always being lost or stolen, and it is
+exasperating, to say the least, to find one's self, at a critical
+moment, without some article which it is impossible to duplicate at
+the time.
+
+During these last few days it was a continual march for the men from
+B---- to E----. Very often they were called back when their day's work
+was over to draw some new article or make some alteration which had
+been forgotten at the time they were in the workshops.
+
+At last, however,--on the third day following the grand concert,--the
+kits were packed, loaded on to the lorries, and sent off to E----. The
+troops said "Good-bye" to the village which had been such a happy home
+and school during that winter of 1916, and the officers made their
+fond adieus to the mothers and daughters of the houses in which they
+had been billeted.
+
+The companies formed up and marched along to the workshops. Every one
+was in high spirits, and there was a friendly race to see which
+Company of the Battalion could load up their tanks in the shortest
+time on to the specially constructed steel trucks.
+
+A few days before all these activities commenced, Talbot and another
+Tank Commander had gone on to the tanks' ultimate destination, A----,
+a village which had been evacuated a few days before by the Germans on
+their now famous retirement to the Hindenburg Line. It was a most
+extraordinary sight to ride along the road from Albert to Bapaume,
+which during the summer and winter of the preceding year had witnessed
+such heavy fighting. The whole country on each side of the road was a
+desolate vista of shell-holes as far as the eye could see. Where
+villages had been, there was now no trace left of any sort of
+habitation. One might think that, however heavy a bombardment, some
+trace would be left of the village which had suffered. There was
+literally nothing left of the village through which had run the road
+they were now travelling. Over this scarred stretch of country were
+dotted camps and groups of huts, with duck-boards crossing the old
+shell-holes, some of which were still full of water.
+
+On approaching B---- they saw traces everywhere of the methodical and
+organized methods by which the Germans had retired. The first sign was
+a huge shell-crater in the middle of the road, about forty feet deep,
+which the Boche had arranged to prevent armoured cars from following
+him up. If they did succeed, the transports would be delayed in
+reaching them, at all events. These holes were rather a nuisance, for
+the road itself was a mass of lesser shell-craters and the soft ground
+on each side was impassable. The road was crowded with engineers and
+labor battalions, filling in the shell-holes, and laying railways into
+the outskirts of A----.
+
+In A---- the old German notices were still standing as they had been
+left. Strung across the road on a wire was a notice which read:
+"Fuhrweg nach Behagnies." Every house in the town had been pulled
+down. The wily Boche had not even blown them up. Instead he had saved
+explosives by attaching steel hawsers to the houses and by means of
+tractors had pulled them down, so that the roof and sides fell in on
+the foundation. Every pump handle in the village had been broken off
+short, and not a single piece of furniture was left behind. Later, we
+found the furniture from this and other villages in the Hindenburg
+Line.
+
+Saddest of all, however, was the destruction of the beautiful poplar
+trees which once bordered the long French roads built by Napoleon.
+These had been sawn off at their base and allowed to fall on the side
+of the road, not across it, as one might suppose. If they had been
+allowed to fall across the road, the Boche, himself, would have been
+hindered in his last preparations for his retreat. Everything was done
+with military ends in view. The villages were left in such a condition
+as to make them uninhabitable, the more to add to our discomfort and
+to make our hardships severer. The trees were cut down only on those
+parts of the road which were screened from observation from his
+balloons and present trenches. In some places where the road dipped
+into a valley the trees had been left untouched.
+
+At the place where our tanks were scheduled to arrive, and which had
+lately been a railhead of the Boche, all the metals had been torn up,
+and in order to destroy the station itself, he had smashed the
+cast-iron pillars which supported the roof, and in consequence the
+whole building had fallen in. But nothing daunted, the British
+engineers were even now working at top speed laying down new lines.
+Some of the metals, which a few short weeks before had been lying in
+countless stacks down on the quays at the Bases, now unrolled
+themselves at the rate of about two and a quarter miles a day. One
+interesting feature of this rapid track-laying was that when the tank
+train left E----, on its two and a half days' journey down to the
+railhead at A----, the track on which the train was to run was not
+completed into A----. But, nevertheless, the track arrived ahead of
+the train, which was the main point!
+
+As they rode into the ruined village of A---- Talbot and his companion
+came across still further evidence of the steps which the German will
+take to inconvenience his enemy. In order to battle against the hordes
+of rats which are so prevalent in the old parts of the line in France,
+the Boche breeds cats in enormous numbers. Yet, in order to carry out
+to the limit his idea that nothing of value should fall into our
+hands, he had killed every cat in the village. In every house three or
+four of these poor little creatures lay around with their heads
+chopped off. Tabby cats, black cats, white cats, and little kittens,
+all dead. Farther on, over a well at the corner of the main square was
+posted a sign which read: "This well is poisoned. Do not touch. By
+order. R.E."
+
+Here and there a house had been left intact, with its furniture
+untouched. It was not until later that it struck us as peculiar that
+these houses had been spared from the general destruction. Two or
+three days later, however, after we had moved in, and headquarters had
+been established, we discovered that under many of these houses, and
+at certain crossroads which had not been blown up in the usual manner,
+the Boche had left mines, timed to go off at any time up to
+twenty-eight days. One could never be sure that the ground underneath
+one's feet would not blow up at any moment. These mines were small
+boxes of high explosive, inside of which was a little metal tube with
+trigger and detonator attached. Inside the tube was a powerful acid,
+which, when it had eaten its way through, set free the trigger and
+exploded the charge. The length of time it took for the mine to
+explode was gauged by the strength or weakness of the acid in the
+tube.
+
+    [Illustration: A TANK MOVING TO THE ATTACK DOWN WHAT WAS ONCE
+    A MAIN STREET]
+
+We were also impressed with the mechanical genius of the German. The
+Boche had made a veritable mechanical toy out of nearly every house in
+the village which he had spared. Delightful little surprises had been
+prepared for us everywhere. Kick a harmless piece of wood, and in a
+few seconds a bomb exploded. Pick up a bit of string from the floor
+and another bomb went off. Soon we learned to be wary of the most
+innocent objects. Before touching anything we made elaborate
+preparations for our safety.
+
+One of the men was greatly annoyed by a wire which hung over his head
+when he was asleep, but he did not wish to remove it. He had decided
+that it was connected with some devilish device which would do him no
+good. Finally, one morning, he could endure this sword of Damocles no
+longer. With two boon companions, he carefully attached a string about
+fifteen yards long to the wire. They tiptoed gently out of the house
+to a discreet distance, and with a yell of triumph, the hero pulled
+the string,--and nothing happened!
+
+But there was another side to all this. McKnutt some time afterwards
+came in with an interesting story. Some Sappers, he said, had been
+digging under a house in the village, presumably for the mysterious
+reasons that always drive the Engineers to dig in unlikely places. One
+of them pushed his shovel into what had been the cellar of the house,
+but as the roof had fallen in on the entrance, they did not know of
+its existence. When they finally forced their way in, they found two
+German officers and two Frenchwomen in a terribly emaciated condition.
+One of the Boches and one of the women lay dead, locked in each
+other's arms. The other two still breathed, but when they were brought
+up into the open they expired within a few hours without either of
+them giving an explanation. The only reason we could find for their
+terrible plight was that the women had been forced down there by the
+officers to undergo a last farewell, while the Germans were destroying
+the village, and that the house had fallen in on top of them. Later,
+probably no one knew where they had disappeared, and they were unable
+to get out of the ruins or to make themselves heard. The village of
+A---- gained a romantic reputation after that, and it was curious to
+realize that we had been living there for days while this silent
+tragedy was being enacted.
+
+In addition to the destruction in the towns, the beautiful orchards
+which are so numerous in France were ruined. Apple, pear, and plum
+trees lay uprooted on the ground, and here again the military mind of
+the German had been at work. He did not wish the fruit that the trees
+would bear in future to fall into our hands.
+
+But although the village was a pretty poor place in which to stay, the
+near presence of a B.E.F. Canteen was a comfort. It is always amazing
+to visit one of these places. Within perhaps four or five miles of the
+firing line we have stores selling everything from a silver cigarette
+case to a pair of boots, and everything, too, at nearly cost price.
+The Canteen provides almost every variety of smoking materials, and
+eatables, and their only disadvantage is that they make packages from
+home seem so useless. As the tobaccos come straight out of bond, it is
+far cheaper to buy them at the Canteen, than to have them forwarded
+from home. These Canteens are managed by the Army, and are dotted all
+over the country inhabited by the British troops. Since they have
+sprung into existence life at the front has been far more comfortable
+and satisfactory in France, and people at home are discovering that
+money is the best thing to send out to their men.
+
+Finally, one cold, sunny morning, about half-past five, the tank train
+steamed slowly into A----, and drew up on a siding. It was not
+possible to begin the work of unloading the tanks until night fell. So
+the tired crews turned into the roofless houses which had been
+prepared for them, and slept until dusk. When darkness fell, as if by
+magic, the town sprang to activity.
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+PREPARATIONS FOR THE SHOW
+
+
+That night the engines were started up, and one by one the tanks
+crawled off the train. Although the day had begun with brilliant
+sunshine, at dusk the snow had begun to fall, and by the time the
+tanks came off, the snow was a foot thick on the ground. The tanks
+moved down to the temporary tankdrome which had been decided upon near
+the railway, and the sponson trucks were towed there. The night was
+spent in fitting on the sponsons to the sides of the machines. It was
+bitterly cold. The sleet drove in upon us all night, stinging our
+hands and faces. Everything seemed to go wrong. We had the utmost
+difficulty in making the bolt-holes fit, and as each sponson weighs
+about three tons they were not easy to move and adjust. We drove ahead
+with the work, knowing that it must be done while the darkness
+lasted.
+
+Finally, about two hours before dawn broke, the last bolt was
+fastened, and the tanks were ready to move. The night was blacker than
+ever as they lumbered out of the tankdrome, and were led across the
+snow to a halfway house about four miles from the railhead, and an
+equal distance from the front-line trenches. We had not quite reached
+our destination when the darkness began to lift in the east, and with
+feverish energy we pushed ahead, through the driving snow.
+
+Late that afternoon, Talbot was again sent ahead with five or six
+troopers and orderlies to a village in the front line. It was
+necessary for us to spend three or four days there before the attack
+commenced, in order to study out the vulnerable points in the German
+line. We were to decide also the best routes for the tanks to take in
+coming up to the line, and those to be taken later in crossing No
+Man's Land when the "show" was on. We rode along across fields denuded
+of all their trees. The country here was utterly unlike that to which
+we had been accustomed in "peace-time trench warfare." This last
+expression sounds like an anomaly, but actually it means the life
+which is led in trenches where one may go along for two or three
+months without attacking. In comparison with our existence when we are
+making an offensive, the former seems like life in peace times. Hence,
+the expression. But from this it must not be supposed that "peace-time
+trench warfare" is all beer and skittles. Quite the contrary. As a
+matter of fact, during four or five days in the trenches there may be
+as many casualties as during an attack, but taking it on an average,
+naturally the losses and dangers are greater when troops go over the
+top. Curiously enough, too, after one has been in an attack the
+front-line trench seems a haven of refuge. Gould, who was wounded in
+the leg during a battle on the Somme, crawled into a shell-hole. It
+was a blessed relief to be lying there, even though the bullets were
+whistling overhead. At first he felt no pain, and he wished, vaguely,
+that he had brought a magazine along to read! All through the burning
+summer day he stayed there, waiting for the night. As soon as it was
+dark he wriggled back to our trenches, tumbled over the parapet of the
+front-line trench, and narrowly escaped falling on the point of a
+bayonet. But he never forgets the feeling of perfect safety and peace
+at being back, even in an exposed trench, with friends.
+
+The fields across which we rode had been ploughed the preceding autumn
+by the French civilians. Later, when the snow had disappeared, we
+could see where the ground had been torn up by the horses of a German
+riding-school of ten days before. On some of the roads the ruts and
+heavy marks of the retreating German transports could still be seen.
+It was a new and exciting experience to ride along a road which only
+two or three days before had been traversed by the Germans in a
+retreat, even though they called it a "retirement." The thought was
+very pleasant to men who, for the last two years, had been sitting _in
+front_ of the Boche month after month, and who, even in an attack, had
+been unable to find traces of foot, hoof, or wheel mark because of
+the all-effacing shell-fire. Here and there were places where the
+Boche had had his watering-troughs, and also the traces of scattered
+huts and tents on the ground where the grass, of a yellowish green,
+still showed. The front line of defence here was really no front line
+at all, but was merely held as in open warfare by outposts, sentry
+groups, and patrols.
+
+At night it was the easiest thing in the world to lose one's self
+close up to the line and wander into the German trenches. In fact,
+over the whole of this country, where every landmark had been
+destroyed and where owing to the weather the roads were little
+different from the soil on each side, a man could lose himself and
+find no person or any sign to give him his direction. The usual guide
+which one might derive from the Verey lights going up between the
+lines was here non-existent, as both sides kept extremely quiet. Even
+the guns were comparatively noiseless in these days, and were a man to
+find himself at night alone upon this ground, which lay between two
+and three miles behind our own lines, the only thing he could do
+would be to lie down and wait for the dawn to show him the direction.
+
+As we rode toward O---- our only guide was a few white houses two or
+three miles away on the edge of the village. The German had not
+evacuated O---- of his own free will, but a certain "Fighting
+Division" had taken the village two days before and driven the German
+out, when he retired three or four hundred yards farther to his rear
+Hindenburg Line. The probable reason why he hung on to this village,
+which was really in front of his line of advance, was because at the
+time he decided to retire on the Somme, the Hindenburg Line was
+incomplete. In fact, the Boche could still be seen working on his wire
+and trenches.
+
+We arrived in O---- at nightfall. Some batteries were behind the
+village, and the Germans were giving the village and the guns a rather
+nasty time. Unhappily for us, the Boche artillery were dropping
+five-nine's on the road which led into the village, and as they seemed
+unlikely to desist, we decided to make a dash for it. The horses were
+a bit nervous, but behaving very well under the trying circumstances.
+(With us were some limbers bringing up ammunition.) Shells were
+exploding all around us. It would never do to stand still.
+
+The dash up that hundred yards of road was an unpleasant experience.
+As we made the rush, the gunners tearing along "hell for leather" and
+the others galloping ahead on their plunging horses, we heard the dull
+whistle and the nearer roar of two shells approaching. Instinctively
+we leaned forward. We held our breath. When a shell drops near, there
+is always the feeling that it is going to fall on one's head. We
+flattened ourselves out and urged our horses to greater speed. The
+shells exploded about thirty yards behind us, killing two gunners and
+their mules, while the rest of us scrambled into the village and under
+cover.
+
+In the darkness, we found what had once been the shop of the village
+blacksmith, and in the forge we tied up our horses. It was bitterly
+cold. It was either make a fire and trust to luck that it would not be
+observed, or freeze. We decided on the fire, and in its grateful
+warmth we lay down to snatch the first hours of sleep we had had in
+nearly three days. But the German gunners were most inconsiderate, and
+a short time afterward they dropped a small barrage down the road. The
+front of our forge was open, and we were obliged to flatten ourselves
+on the ground to prevent the flying splinters from hitting us. When
+this diversion was over, we stirred up our fire, and made some tea,
+just in time to offer some to a gunner sergeant who came riding up. He
+hitched his horse to one of the posts, and sat down with us by the
+fire. The shell-fire had quieted down, and we dozed off, glad of the
+interlude. Suddenly a shell burst close beside us. The poor beast,
+waiting patiently for his rider, was hit in the neck by the shrapnel,
+but hardly a sound escaped him. In war, especially, one cannot help
+admiring the stoicism of horses, as compared with other animals. One
+sees examples of it on all sides. Tread, for instance, on a dog's
+foot, and he runs away, squealing. A horse is struck by a large lump
+of shrapnel just under its withers, and the poor brute trembles, but
+makes no sound. Almost the only time that horses scream--and the sound
+is horrible--is when they are dying. Then they shriek from sheer pain
+and fear. Strange as it may seem, one is often more affected by seeing
+horses struck than when men are killed. Somehow they seem so
+particularly helpless.
+
+It was during these days at O---- that Talbot discovered Johnson.
+Johnson was one of his orderlies. Although it did not lie in the path
+of his duty, he took the greatest delight in doing all sorts of little
+odd jobs for Talbot. So unobtrusive he was about it all, that for some
+time Talbot hardly noticed that some one was trying to make him
+comfortable. When he did, by mutual agreement Johnson became his
+servant and faithful follower through everything. The man was
+perfectly casual and apparently unaffected by the heaviest shell-fire.
+It is absurd to say that a man "doesn't mind shell-fire." Every one
+dislikes it, and gets nervous under it. The man who "doesn't mind it"
+is the man who fights his nervousness and gets such control of
+himself that he is able to _appear_ as if he were unaffected. Between
+"not minding it" and "appearing not to mind it" lie hard-won moral
+battles, increased strength of character, and victory over fear.
+Johnson had accomplished this. He preserved an attitude of careless
+calm, and could walk down a road with shells bursting all around him
+with a sublime indifference that was inspiring. Between him and his
+officer sprang up an extraordinary and lasting affection.
+
+The wretched night in the forge at last came to an end, and the next
+morning we looked around for more comfortable billets. We selected the
+cellar of a house in fairly good condition and prepared to move in,
+when we discovered that we were not the first to whom it had appealed.
+Two dead Germans still occupied the premises, and when we had disposed
+of the bodies, we took up our residence. Here we stayed, going out
+each day to find the best points from which to view No Man's Land,
+which lay in front of the village. With the aid of maps, we planned
+the best routes for the tanks to take when the battle should have
+begun. Not a detail was neglected.
+
+Then something happened to break the monotony of life. Just back of
+the village one of our batteries was concealed in such a fashion that
+it was impossible to find it from an aeroplane. Yet every day,
+regularly, the battery was shelled. Every night under cover of the
+darkness, the position was changed, and the battery concealed as
+cleverly as before, but to no avail. The only solution was that some
+one behind our lines was in communication with the Germans, _every
+day_. Secrecy was increased. Guards were doubled to see that no one
+slipped through the lines. Signals were watched. The whole affair was
+baffling, and yet we could find no clue.
+
+Just in front of the wood where the battery was concealed, stood an
+old farmhouse where a genial Frenchwoman lived and dispensed good
+cheer to us. She had none of the men of her own family nor any
+farmhands to help her, but kept up the farmwork all alone. Every day,
+usually in the middle of the morning, she went out to the fields
+behind her house and ploughed, with an old white horse drawing the
+plough. For some reason she never ploughed more than one or two
+furrows at a time, and when this was done, she drove the white horse
+back to the barn. One day, an officer noticed that a German plane
+hovered over the field while the woman was ploughing, and that when
+she went back to the house, the plane shot away. The next day the same
+thing happened. Later in the day, the battery received its daily
+reminder from the Boche gunners, as unerringly accurate as ever.
+
+Here was a clue. The solution of the problem followed. The woman knew
+the position of the battery, and every day when she went out to
+plough, she drove the white horse up and down, making a furrow
+directly in front of the battery. When the men in the German plane saw
+the white horse, they flew overhead, took a photograph of the newly
+turned furrow, and turned the photograph over to their gunners. The
+rest was easy.
+
+    [Illustration: A TANK GOING OVER A TRENCH ON ITS WAY INTO
+    ACTION]
+
+The next day we missed three events which had become part of our daily
+life. The German plane no longer hovered in the air. Our battery, for
+the first time in weeks, spent a peaceful day. And in the field behind
+her house, a woman with an old white horse no longer made the earth
+ready for the sowing.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+For three days now we had received no rations, and were obliged to
+subsist on the food which the Boche had left behind him when he fled.
+Finally, when all our plans were complete, we were notified that the
+point of attack had been shifted to N----, a village about four miles
+away. This practical joke we thought in extremely bad taste, but there
+was nothing for it but to pack up and move as quickly as possible. We
+learned that our troops at N---- had tried twice to break through the
+German lines by bombing. A third attempt was to be made, and the tanks
+were depended upon to open the way. Hence the change in our plans.
+
+Early the next morning we left O----, and dashed along a road which
+lay parallel with our line, and was under direct observation from the
+German trenches. Owing to the fact, probably, that he was not properly
+settled in his new line, the Boche did not bother us much, excepting
+at one place, where we were obliged to make a run for it. We arrived
+at N---- just after the tanks had been brought up. They were hurriedly
+concealed close up to houses, in cuttings, and under trees.
+
+The show was scheduled to come off the next morning at 4.30. That
+night we gathered at Brigade Headquarters and made the final plans.
+Each tank had its objective allotted to it, and marked out on the Tank
+Commander's course. Each tank was to go just so far and no farther.
+Talbot and Darwin were detailed to go forward as far as possible on
+foot when the battle was in progress, and send back messages as to how
+the show was progressing. Talbot also was given the task of going out
+that night to make the marks in No Man's Land which would guide the
+tanks in the morning.
+
+At eleven o'clock, in the bright moonlight, Talbot, with Johnson and a
+couple of orderlies, started out. They climbed over the front line,
+which was at present a railway embankment, crawled into No Man's Land,
+and set to work. Immediately the Boche snipers spotted them and
+bullets began to whistle over their heads. Luckily, no one was hit,
+but a couple of "whizz bangs" dropped uncomfortably close. The men
+dropped for cover. Only Johnson stood still, his figure black against
+the white snow gleaming in the moonlight.
+
+The shells continued to fall about them as they wriggled back when the
+work was done. As they reached N---- the tanks were being led up
+toward the line, so that later, under cover of the darkness, they
+might be taken farther forward to their starting-points.
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+THE FIRST BATTLE
+
+
+At dawn the next morning, the tanks were already lined up, sullen and
+menacing in the cold half-light. The men shivered in the biting air.
+One by one the crews entered the machines, and one by one the little
+steel doors closed behind them. The engines throbbed, and they moved
+off sluggishly.
+
+Darwin and Talbot, with their orderlies, waited impatiently. The
+moments just before an attack are always the hardest. A few batteries
+were keeping up a desultory fire. They glanced at their watches.
+
+"Only a minute to go," said Darwin. "I bet the show's put off or
+something. Isn't this snow damnably cold, though!"
+
+Suddenly a sixty-pounder in our rear crashed out. Then from all sides
+a deafening roar burst forth and the barrage began. As we became
+accustomed to the intensity and ear-splittingness 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 flashes, large and small, each one showing, for a second, trenches
+or trees or houses, and during this tornado we knew that the "Willies"
+must have started forward on their errand.
+
+As the barrage lifted and the noise died down a little, the first
+streaks of light began to show in the sky, although we could
+distinguish nothing. No sign of the infantry or of the tanks could be
+seen. But the ominous sound of machine guns and heavy rifle-fire told
+us that the Boche was prepared.
+
+We could stand this inactivity no longer. We trudged forward through
+the snow, taking the broad bands left by the tracks of the busses as
+our guide, the officers leading the way and the orderlies behind in
+single file.
+
+"The blighter's starting, himself, now," said Talbot, as a four-two
+landed a hundred yards away, and pieces of earth came showering down
+on our heads. Then another and another fell, each closer than the one
+before, and instinctively we quickened our steps, for it is difficult
+to walk slowly through shell-fire.
+
+The embankment loomed before us, and big splotches of black and yellow
+leaped from its surface. The deafening crashes gave us that peculiar
+feeling in the stomach which danger alone can produce. 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 ordinary tap of ones and twos had
+developed into a sharp crackle of tens and twenties. By listening
+carefully one could feel, rather than hear, the more intermittent
+bursts from the rifles.
+
+"There's one, sir," shouted one of the orderlies.
+
+"Where?"
+
+"Half-right and about five hundred yards ahead."
+
+By dint of straining, we discovered a little animal--or so it
+looked--crawling forward on the far side of the Hindenburg Line.
+Already it was doing a left incline in accordance with its
+instructions, 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 air. But the
+little animal seemed to bear a charmed life. No harm came to her, and
+she went calmly on her way, for all the world like a giant tortoise at
+which one vainly throws clods of earth.
+
+As it grows lighter, we can now see others in the distance. One is not
+moving--is it out of action? The only motion on the whole landscape is
+that of the bursting shells, and the tanks. Over the white snow in
+front of the German wire, are dotted little 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 bayonets. This is quite erroneous. To an observer in a post
+or in a balloon, no concerted action is visible at all. Here and there
+a line or two of men dash forward and disappear. A single man or a
+small group of men wriggle across the ground. That is all.
+
+"Well, they haven't got it in the neck as I supposed," said Darwin.
+"Remarkably few lying about. Let's push on."
+
+"All right," Talbot assented. "If you like."
+
+We crawled over the top of the embankment and continued down the side.
+About two hundred yards to the left, we saw one of the tanks, with her
+nose in the air. A little group of three or four men were digging
+around her, frantically. We rushed over to them, and found that the
+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
+there about ten minutes when the German gunners had bracketed on her,
+and were dropping five-nines, all of them within a radius of seventy
+yards of the tank, and yet no one was hurt. Finally, by dint of
+strenuous digging, she started up and pulled herself wearily out of
+the pit.
+
+    [Illustration: _Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N.Y._
+    A TANK HALFWAY OVER THE TOP AND AWAITING THE ORDER TO ADVANCE
+    IN THE BATTLE OF MENIN ROAD]
+
+Suddenly, Darwin shouted:--
+
+"Look here, you fellows! What are these Boches doing?"
+
+Looking up, we saw about forty or fifty Germans stumbling over their
+own wire, and running toward us as hard as they could go. For a moment
+we thought it was the preliminary step of a counter-attack, but
+suddenly we discovered that they carried no arms and were attempting
+to run with 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 it. One simply doesn't have time to pay any attention to
+it all. But the sad part was that the German machine gunners, seeing
+their men surrendering, opened a furious fire on them. There they
+were, caught from behind, and many of them dropped from the bullets of
+their own comrades.
+
+Twenty or thirty of them came straight on, rushed up to the pit where
+the tank had come to grief, and tumbled down into this refuge.
+Evidently, they knew of the British passion for souvenirs, for when
+our men surrounded them, the Germans plucked wildly at their own
+shoulder straps as if to entreat their captors to take the shoulder
+straps instead of anything else!
+
+We gave two or three of the wounded Germans some cigarettes and a
+drink of water. They were then told to find their quickest way to the
+rear. Like other German prisoners we had seen, they went willingly
+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
+started on the right road, the prisoner will plod along, their
+N.C.O.'s saluting the English officers, and inquiring the way to the
+concentration camp. When they find it, they usually appear well
+pleased.
+
+The Old Bird's tank moved on.
+
+"I suppose everything's going all right," said Talbot. "Suppose we
+move on and see if we can get some information."
+
+"Yes, or some souvenirs," Darwin replied with a laugh.
+
+We pushed on slowly. Three tanks which had completed their job were
+coming back and passed us. A little later we met some fellows who were
+slightly wounded and asked them how the battle was going. Every story
+was different. The wounded are rarely able to give a correct version
+of any engagement, and we saw that no accurate information was to be
+gleaned from these men.
+
+We had been out now for an hour and a half and still had no news to
+send back to Headquarters. We knew how hard it was for the officers
+behind the lines, who had planned the whole show, to sit hour after
+hour waiting for news of their troops. The minutes are like hours.
+
+"My God, Darwin, look!" Talbot cried. "Something's happened to her.
+She's on fire!"
+
+In the distance we saw one of our tanks stuck in the German wire,
+which at that point was about a hundred yards thick. Smoke was
+belching from every porthole. A shell had registered a direct hit,
+exploding the petrol, and the tank was on fire. We dashed forward
+toward her.
+
+A German machine gun rattled viciously. They had seen us. An instant
+later, the bullets were spattering around us, and we dropped flat. One
+man slumped 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 slid into a shell-hole for protection. Then, after a
+moment's breathing space, we popped out and tried to rush again.
+Another man stopped a bullet.
+
+It was suicide to go farther. Into another shell-hole we fell, and
+thought things over. We decided to send a message, giving roughly 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 steps,
+dropped flat, wriggled along across the snow, sprang to his feet, ran
+another few steps, and so on until we lost sight of him.
+
+A moment or two later we started across the snow in a direction
+parallel with the lines. Behind an embankment we came across a little
+group of Australians at an impromptu dressing-station. Some of them
+were wounded and the others were binding up their wounds. We watched
+them for a while and started on again. We had gone about fifty yards
+when a shell screeched 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 been hit below
+the knee and his leg was nearly severed. We tied him up and managed to
+get him back to the Australian aid-post. Two of the original four
+stretcher-bearers had been blown up a few minutes before. But the
+remaining two were carrying on with their work as though nothing had
+happened. Here he was bandaged and started on his way for the
+dressing-station.
+
+Far across the snow, we saw three more tanks plodding back toward the
+rear. Little by little, we gained ground until we reached a more
+sheltered area where we could make greater speed. We 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 were being supported by others less
+seriously wounded. They could tell us nothing. They had been with the
+infantry and only knew that two tanks were right on the other side of
+the village.
+
+A moment or two later, Talbot started running toward two men, one of
+whom was supporting the other. The wounded man proved to be the
+Sergeant of the tank we had seen on fire. We hurried up to him. He was
+hurt in the leg. So, instead of firing questions at him, we kept quiet
+and accompanied him back to the dressing-station.
+
+Later we heard the tragic news that it was Gould's tank that had
+burned up. None of us talked much about it. It did not seem real.
+They had got stuck in the German wire. A crump had hit them 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 they must all have lost
+consciousness quickly from the fumes of the petrol before they
+suffered from fire. But it was small consolation. Every one had liked
+Gould and every one would miss him.
+
+We waited at Brigade Headquarters for the others to return. A Tank
+Commander from another Company was brought in, badly wounded and
+looking ghastly, but joking 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 had been the last to leave the
+tank, and as he had stepped out to the ground, a shell exploded
+directly beneath him, taking off both of his legs below the knee.
+
+The last of the tanks waddled wearily in and the work of checking-up
+began. All were accounted for but two. Their fate still remains a
+secret. Our theory was that they had gone too far ahead and had
+entered the village in back of the German lines; that the infantry had
+not been able to keep up with them, 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 took,
+we found several photographs of these identical tanks. Then one day,
+when we had stopped wondering about them, a Sergeant in our Company
+received a letter from one of the crew of the missing machines, saying
+that he was a prisoner in Germany. But of the officers we have never
+heard to this day.
+
+We sat around wearily, waiting for the motor lorries which were to
+take some of us back to B----. Years seemed to have been crowded into
+the hours that had elapsed. Talbot 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 happen in the hours
+between dawn and early morning and who discovers that the day has but
+just begun. He had thought it must be three o'clock in the afternoon,
+at least.
+
+The lorries arrived eventually, and took those who had no tanks, back
+to B----. The others brought the "Willies" in by the evening.
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+THE SECOND BATTLE
+
+
+Ten days had now elapsed since that day when we had gone back to B----
+with the officers and men who had survived. We had enjoyed every
+minute of our rest and once more were feeling fit. The remainder of
+the Company had been divided up into crews. The "Willies" themselves
+had had the best of care and attention.
+
+Most important of all, to the childish minds of that part of the
+British Army which we represented, we had given another concert which
+had been an even greater success than the first. The Old Bird and
+Borwick had excelled themselves. We were convinced that something was
+wrong with a Government that would send two such artists to the front!
+They should be at home, writing "words and music" that would live
+forever.
+
+Toward the end of the week, plans for another attack were arranged.
+This time it was to take place at C----, about five miles north of
+N----. We were told that this was to be a "big show" at last. Part of
+the Hindenburg Line had been taken, and part was still in the hands of
+the enemy. It had been decided, 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 close as we
+could get to the Boche, to see what the ground was like, and to decide
+if possible on the routes for the tanks. In the line were innumerable
+souvenirs. We found the furniture that the Germans had taken out of
+the villages on their retirement, and had used to make their line more
+comfortable.
+
+We found, too, an extraordinary piece of engineering. A tunnel about
+ten miles long ran underneath the whole of the Hindenburg Line. It was
+about thirty or forty feet down, and had been dug, we heard, by
+Russian prisoners. The tunnel was 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 under
+the circumstances. He could not resist its charm, so he started
+lugging it back the six miles to camp. It was very heavy and its charm
+had decreased greatly by the time he reached camp and found that no
+one could make any use of it.
+
+The day of the attack was still undecided, and in order to be quite
+ready when it should come off, we left B---- with the tanks one
+evening and took them up to Saint-L----, 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 blown up. This was the same embankment, as a matter of fact,
+behind which, four or five miles away, the Australian dressing-station
+had been established in the last battle.
+
+Here we spent two or three days tuning up the machines, and many of
+our leisure moments in watching a howitzer battery which was just
+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 black
+mass shoot its seven or eight thousand yards until it becomes a small
+speck and finally vanishes just before it hits the ground.
+
+We also made an interesting collection of German and English
+shell-cases. These cases are made of brass, and the four-fives,
+especially, in the opinion of some 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 at times,
+when we gave an impromptu concert, by putting several of these
+shell-cases on a log of wood and playing elaborate tunes on them with
+a bit of stone.
+
+All this merry-making came to an end, though. One day we received word
+that the attack was to come off the next morning. Then began the
+preparations in 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 scheduled to start moving up at ten o'clock.
+Talbot and the Old Bird, with several men, set out at about eight, and
+arranged for marks to guide the machines.
+
+We had just reached a part of the Hindenburg Line which was now in our
+possession, and were near an ammunition dump, when shells began to
+fall around us. They were not near enough to do us any harm, and we
+continued our work, when one dropped into the ammunition 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 steely splinters. The noise was
+deafening. Cursing our luck, we waited until it died down into a red,
+smouldering mass, and then edged up cautiously to continue our work.
+By this time, Borwick's tank came up, and he emerged, with a broad
+smile on his face.
+
+"Having a good time?" he asked genially.
+
+There was a frozen silence, excepting for his inane laughter. He made
+a few more irritating remarks which he seemed to think were very
+funny, and then he disappeared inside his tank and prepared to follow
+us. We had gone ahead a couple of hundred yards when we heard bombs
+exploding, 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. They had run over a box of bombs, the only thing that
+had survived the fire in the ammunition dump, and one of the tracks
+was damaged. To repair it meant several hours' hard work in the cold
+in unpleasant proximity to the still smouldering dump. Over Talbot's
+face spread a broad smile.
+
+"Having a good time?" he asked pleasantly of Borwick.
+
+Infuriated growls were his only answer. He moved on with his men,
+while Borwick and his crew settled down to work.
+
+The night was fortunately dark. They went slowly forward and brought
+the route almost up to within calling distance of the Germans. The
+Verey lights, shattering the darkness over No Man's Land, did not
+disclose them to the enemy. Suddenly, a Boche machine gun mechanically
+turned its attentions toward the place where they were working. With a
+tightening of every muscle, Talbot heard the slow whisper of the gun.
+As it turned to sweep the intervening space between the lines, the
+whisper rose to a shirring hiss. The 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 viciously a few inches above his head. Then as it passed, it
+dropped into a patter once more and finally dropped away in a whisper.
+Talbot suddenly realized that his throat was aching, but that he was
+untouched by the storm. The men slowly got to their feet and continued
+their work in silence. Although the machine gun continued to spatter
+bullets near them all through the hours they were working, not once
+again did the men drop when they heard the whisper begin. The job was
+finally done and they filed wearily back.
+
+The attack was timed to come off at dawn. An hour before, while it was
+still as black as pitch, the tanks moved again for their final
+starting-point. McKnutt's machine was the first to go.
+
+"Cheero, McKnutt," we said as he clambered in. "Good luck!"
+
+The men followed, some through the top and some through the side. The
+doors and portholes were closed, and in a moment the exhaust began to
+puff merrily. The tank crawled forward and soon disappeared into the
+blackness.
+
+She had about fifteen hundred yards to go, parallel with the
+Hindenburg Line, and several trenches to cross before coming up with
+the enemy. We had planned that the tanks would take about three
+quarters of an hour to reach their starting-point, and that soon after
+they arrived there, the show would begin.
+
+Since it was still dark and the attack had not commenced, McKnutt and
+his first driver opened the windows in front of them. They looked out
+into impenetrable gloom. It was necessary 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 and mine-craters at the exhilarating speed of about
+four miles an hour, and then arrived at the first trench to be
+crossed. It was about ten feet wide with high banks on each side.
+
+"One up!" signals the driver. The gears-men get into first gear, and
+the tank tilts back as it goes up one side of the trench. Suddenly she
+starts tipping over, and the driver takes out his clutch and puts 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 other side and
+pulls herself up slowly, while her tail dips down into the bottom of
+the trench. Then comes the great strain as she pulls herself bodily
+out of the trench until she balances on the far side.
+
+It was now no longer safe to run with lights. They were snapped off.
+Once more the darkness closed around them, blacker than ever. They
+could no longer find their route, 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 his
+intense relief, the moon shone out with a feeble light. It was just
+enough to illumine faintly the ground before them and McKnutt
+reentered the tank, and started on.
+
+Their route ran close to the sides of an old quarry and they edged
+along cautiously. McKnutt, with his eyes glued to the front, decided
+that they must 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 action. The moon had again disappeared behind
+the clouds, but he did not consider it worth while to get out again.
+The journey would be over in a few minutes.
+
+Suddenly, his heart took a great dive and he seemed to stop breathing.
+He felt the tank balance ever so slightly. Staring with aching 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 them. The
+black depth seemed bottomless. The tank was slipping over. When she
+shot down they would all be killed from concussion alone.
+
+His heart was pounding so that he could hardly speak. But the driver,
+too, had seen the danger.
+
+"For God's sake, take out your clutch and put your brake on!" McKnutt
+yelled, his voice almost drowned by the rattle and roar inside the
+tank. The man kept his head. As the tail of the tank started tipping
+up, he managed somehow with the brakes to hold her on the edge. For a
+second 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. Slowly he put his gears in reverse, keeping the brake on
+hard until the engine had taken up the strain. Slowly she moved back
+until her tail bumped on the ground, and she settled down. Neither
+McKnutt nor his driver spoke. They pushed back their tin hats and
+wiped their foreheads.
+
+McKnutt glanced back at the men in the rear of the tank. They, of
+course, had been unable to see out, and had no idea of what they had
+escaped. Now that 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. Then the feeling passed, he
+signalled, "Neutral left," the gearsman locked his left track, and the
+tank swung over, passing safely by the perilous spot.
+
+They settled down now to a snail's pace, shutting off their engine, as
+the Germans could not be more than one hundred and fifty or two
+hundred yards away. Running at full speed, the engine would have been
+heard by them. In a few moments, they arrived at their appointed
+station. McKnutt glanced at his watch. They had only a few moments to
+wait. The engine was shut off and they stopped.
+
+The heat inside the tank was oppressive. McKnutt and James opened the
+top, and crawled out, the men following. They looked around. The first
+streaks of light were beginning to show in the sky. A heavy silence
+hung over everything--the silence that always precedes a bombardment.
+Presumably, only the attacking 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 their
+significance. One seems to have become all ears--to have no sense of
+sight or touch or taste or smell. All seem to have become merged in
+the sense of hearing. The very air itself seems tense with listening.
+Only the occasional rattle of a machine gun breaks the stillness. Even
+this passes unnoticed.
+
+Slowly the minute-hand crept round to the half-hour, and the men
+slipped back into their steel home. Doors were bolted and portholes
+shut, save for the tiny slits in front of officer and driver, through
+which they peered. The engine was ready to start. The petrol was on
+and flooding. They waited quietly. Their heavy breathing was the only
+sound. The minute-hand reached the half-hour.
+
+With the crash and swish of thousands of shells, the guns smashed the
+stillness. Instantly, the flash of their explosion lit up the opposite
+trenches. For a fraction of a second the thought came to McKnutt how
+wonderful it was that man could produce a sound to which Nature had no
+equal, either in violence or intensity. But the time was for action
+and not for reflection.
+
+"Start her up!" yelled out McKnutt.
+
+But the engine would not fire.
+
+"What the devil's the matter?" cried James.
+
+A bit of tinkering with the carburetor, and the engine purred softly.
+Its noise was drowned in the pandemonium raging around them. James let
+in the clutch, and the monster moved forward on her errand of
+destruction.
+
+Although it was not light enough to distinguish forms, the flashes of
+the shell-fire and the bursts from the shrapnel lit up that part of
+the 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. Bombs were exploding on both sides. McKnutt slammed down
+the shutters of the portholes in front of him and his driver.
+"Bullets," he said shortly.
+
+"One came through, I think, sir," James replied. With the portholes
+shut, there was no chance for bullets to enter now through the little
+pin-points directly above the slits in the shutters. In order to see
+through these, it is necessary to place one's eye directly against
+the cold metal. They are safe, for if a bullet does hit them, it
+cannot come through, although it may stop up the hole.
+
+Suddenly a dull explosion was heard on the roof of the tank.
+
+"They're bombing us, sir!" cried one of the gunners. McKnutt signalled
+to him, and he opened fire from his sponson. They plunged along, amid
+a hail of bullets, while bombs exploded all around them.
+
+McKnutt and James, with that instinctive sense of direction which
+comes to men who control these machines, felt that they were hovering
+on the edge of the German trench. Then a sudden flash from the
+explosion of a huge shell lit up the ground around them, 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 crash in the bottom. For a moment she
+lay there without moving. The Germans thought she was stuck. They
+came running along thinking to grapple with her. But they never
+reached her, for at once the guns from both sides opened fire and the
+Germans disappeared.
+
+The huge machine dragged herself up the steep ten-foot side of the
+trench. As she neared the top, it seemed as if the engine would not
+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 jerk, the tank
+pulled herself right on to the point of balance, and tipped slowly
+over what had been the parapet of the German position.
+
+Now she was in the wire which lay in front of the trench. McKnutt
+signalled back, "Swing round to the left," parallel to the lay of the
+line. A moment's pause, and she moved forward relentlessly, crushing
+everything in her path, and sending out a stream of bullets from every
+turret to any of the enemy who dared to show themselves above the top
+of the trench.
+
+At the same time our own troops, who had waited behind the barricade
+to bomb their way down, from traverse to traverse, rushed over the
+heap of sandbags, tangled wire, wood, and dead 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, unaware of the infantry's action, as none of our
+own men could be seen. The only indication of the fact was the
+bursting of the bombs which gradually moved from fire bay to fire bay.
+
+The Corporal touched McKnutt on the arm.
+
+"I don't believe our people are keeping up with us, sir," he said.
+"They seem to have been stopped about thirty yards back."
+
+"All right," McKnutt answered. "We'll turn round."
+
+McKnutt and James opened their portholes to obtain a clearer view.
+Five yards along to the left, a group of Germans were holding up the
+advancing British. They had evidently prepared a barricade in case of
+a possible bombing attack 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 enough to get an
+aim on the enemy. But James was in a better position. He picked the
+gray figures off, one by one, until the bombing ceased and our own men
+jumped over the barricade and came down among the dead and wounded
+Germans.
+
+Then a sudden and unexplainable sense of disaster caused McKnutt to
+look round. One of his gunners lay quite still on the floor of the
+tank, his back against the engine, and a stream of blood trickling
+down his face. 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 along the barrel of his gun. There he lay,
+along one side of the tank between the engine and the sponson. The
+Corporal tried to get in position to carry on firing with his own gun,
+but the dead body impeded his movements.
+
+There was only one thing to do. The Corporal looked questioningly at
+McKnutt and pointed to the body. The officer nodded quickly, and the
+left gearsman and the Corporal dragged the body and propped it up
+against the door. Immediately the door flew open. The back of the
+corpse fell down 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 dead man upside down, shoved the body
+out and slammed the door shut. They were just in time. A bomb exploded
+directly beneath the sponson, where the dead body had fallen. To every
+man in the tank came a feeling of swift gratitude that the bombs had
+caught the dead man and not themselves.
+
+They ploughed across another trench without dropping into the bottom,
+for it was only six feet wide. Daylight had come by now and the enemy
+was beginning to find that his brave efforts were of no avail against
+these monsters of steel.
+
+All this time the German guns had not been silent. McKnutt's tank
+crunched across the ground amid a furious storm of flying earth and
+splinters. The strain was beginning to be felt. Although one is
+protected from machine-gun fire in a tank, the sense of confinement
+is, at times, terrible. One does not know what 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 cooped up. One is entirely at the mercy of the
+big shells. If a shell hits a tank near the petrol tank, the men may
+perish by fire, as did Gould, without a chance of escape. Going down
+with your ship seems pleasant compared to burning up with your tank.
+In fighting in the open, one has, at least, air and space.
+
+McKnutt, however, was lucky. They could now see the sunken road before
+them which was their objective. Five-nines were dropping around them
+now. It was only a matter of moments, it seemed, when they would be
+struck.
+
+"Do you think we shall make it?" McKnutt asked James.
+
+"We may get there, but shall we get back? That's the question, sir."
+
+McKnutt did not answer. They had both had over two years' experience
+of the accuracy of the German artillery. And they did not believe in
+miracles. But they had their orders. They must simply do their duty
+and trust to luck.
+
+They reached the sunken road. The tank was swung around. Their orders
+were to reach their objective and remain there until the bombers
+arrived. McKnutt peered out. No British were in sight, and he snapped
+his porthole shut. Grimly they settled down to wait.
+
+The moments passed. Each one seemed as if it would be their last.
+Would the infantry never come? Would there be any sense in just
+sitting there until a German shell annihilated them if the infantry
+never arrived? Had they been pushed back by a German rush? Should he
+take it upon himself to turn back? McKnutt's brain whirled.
+
+Then, after hours, it seemed, of waiting, around the corner of a
+traverse, he saw one of the British tin hats. Nothing in the world
+could have been a happier sight. A great wave of relief swept over
+him. Three or four more appeared. Realizing that they, too, had
+reached their objective, they stopped and began to throw up a rough
+form of barricade. More men poured in. The position was consolidated,
+and there was nothing more for the tank to do.
+
+They swung round and started back. Two shells dropped about twenty
+yards in front of them. For a moment McKnutt wondered whether it would
+be well to change their direction. "No, we'll keep right on and 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 see the top of the
+machine blown off. But nothing had happened inside, and no one was
+injured. Although shells continued to fall around them and a German
+machine gun raged at them, they got back safely.
+
+    [Illustration: _Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N.Y._
+    A TANK BRINGING IN A CAPTURED GERMAN GUN UNDER PROTECTION OF
+    CAMOUFLAGE]
+
+Brigade Headquarters, where McKnutt reported, was full of expectancy.
+Messages were pouring in over the wires. The men at the telephones
+were dead beat, but cool and collected.
+
+"Any news of the other 'busses?" McKnutt asked eagerly. The Buzzers
+shook their heads wearily. He rushed up to a couple of men who were
+being carried to a dressing-station.
+
+"Do you fellows know how the tanks made out?" he asked.
+
+One of them had seen two of the machines on the other side of the
+German line, he said. In answer to the questions which were fired at
+him he could only say that the tanks had pushed on beyond the German
+front line.
+
+Then on the top of the hill, against the sky-line, they saw a little
+group of three or four men. James recognized them.
+
+"Why, there's Sergeant Browning and Mr. Borwick, sir," he said.
+"What's happened to their tank, I wonder?" He and McKnutt hurried over
+to meet them.
+
+Borwick smiled coolly.
+
+"Hullo!" he said in his casual manner.
+
+"What's happened to your 'bus?" "What did you do?" was fired at him.
+
+"We got stuck in the German wire, and the infantry got ahead of us,"
+he said. "We pushed on, and fell into a nest of three machine guns.
+They couldn't hurt us, of course, 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 circles. What
+do you think had happened? A trench mortar had got us full in one of
+our tracks, and the beastly thing broke. So we all tumbled out and
+left her there."
+
+"Didn't you go on with the infantry?" asked McKnutt.
+
+"No. They'd reached their objective by that time," Borwick replied,
+"so we saved the tank guns, and I pinched the clock. Then we strolled
+back, and here we are," he concluded.
+
+Talbot joined the group as he finished.
+
+"But where's the rest of your crew?" he asked.
+
+Borwick said quietly: "Jameson and Corporal Fiske got knocked out
+coming back." He lit a cigarette and puffed at it.
+
+There was silence for a moment.
+
+Then Talbot said, "Bad luck; have you got their pay-books?"
+
+"No, I forgot them," Borwick answered.
+
+But his Sergeant handed over the little brown books which were the
+only tangible remains of two men who had gone into action that
+morning. The pay-books contained two or three pages on which were
+jotted down their pay, 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 killed, but he never failed to be
+affected when he discovered the letters and little trifles which had
+meant so much to the men who had carried them, and which now would
+mean so much to those whom they had left behind.
+
+In silence they went back to McKnutt's tank and sat down, waiting for
+news. Scraps of information were beginning to trickle in.
+
+"Have gained our objective in X Wood. Have not been counter-attacked."
+
+"Cannot push on owing to heavy machine-gun fire from C----."
+
+"Holding out with twenty men in trench running north from Derelict
+Wood. Can I have reinforcements?"
+
+These were the messages pouring in from different points on the lines
+of attack. Sometimes the messages came in twos and threes. Sometimes
+there were minutes when only a wild buzzing could be heard and the men
+at the telephones tried to make the buzzing intelligible.
+
+The situation cleared up finally, however. Our troops had, apparently,
+gained their objectives along the entire line to the right. On the
+left the next Brigade had been hung up by devastating machine-gun
+fire. As McKnutt and Talbot waited around for news and fresh orders,
+one of their men hurried down and saluted.
+
+He brought the news that the other three tanks had returned, having
+reached their objectives. Two had but little opposition and the
+infantry had found no difficulty in gaining their points of attack.
+The third tank, however, had had three men wounded at a "pill-box."
+These pill-boxes are little concrete forts which the German had
+planted 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, escorting
+ten Germans, filed out. The Germans had their hands above their heads,
+and when ordered to the rear they went with the greatest alacrity. One
+of the three Englishmen was badly wounded; the other two were only
+slightly injured, but they wandered down to the dressing-station, with
+the hope that "Blighty" would soon welcome them.
+
+Although Talbot had his orders to hold the tanks in readiness in case
+they were needed, no necessity arose, and after a few hours' waiting,
+the Major 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---- in the motor lorries, just as they had been
+after the first battle. Water, comparative quiet, blankets,--these
+were the luxuries that lay before them.
+
+As he sat crowded into the swaying motor lorry that lurched back along
+the shell-torn road to B----, Talbot slipped his hand into his pocket.
+He touched a cheque-book, a 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 them, but one
+never could tell, one might be taken prisoner. One needed no such
+material preparations against the possibility of death, but a
+prisoner--that was different.
+
+The cheque-book had been for use in a possible gray prison camp in the
+land of his enemies. Cheques would some time or other reach his
+English bank and his people would know that he was, at least, alive.
+The cigarettes were to keep up his courage in the face of whatever
+disaster might befall him.
+
+And the razor? Most important of all.
+
+The razor was to keep, bright and untarnished, the traditions and
+prestige of the British Army!
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+REST AND DISCIPLINE
+
+
+We stayed in that region of the Front for a few more weeks, preparing
+for any other task that might be demanded of us. One day the Battalion
+received its orders to pack up, to load the tanks that were left over,
+and to be ready for its return to the district in which we had spent
+the winter.
+
+We entrained on a Saturday evening at A----, and arrived at St.-P----
+at about ten o'clock on Sunday night. From there a twelve-mile march
+lay before us to our old billets in B----. As may well be imagined,
+the men, though tired, were in high spirits. We simply ate up the
+distance, and the troops disguised their fatigue by singing songs.
+There were two which appeared to be favorites on this occasion.
+
+One, to the tune of "The Church's One Foundation," ran as follows:--
+
+    "We are Fred Karno's[1] Army,
+    The ragtime A.S.C.,[2]
+    We cannot work, we do not fight,
+    So what ruddy use are we?
+    And when we get to Berlin,
+    The Kaiser he will say,
+    Hoch, hoch, mein Gott!
+    What a ruddy rotten lot,
+    Is the ragtime A.S.C."
+
+The other was a refrain to the tune of a Salvation Army hymn, "When
+the Roll is called up Yonder":--
+
+    "When you wash us in the water,
+    That you washed your dirty daughter,
+    Oh! then we will be much whiter!
+    We'll be whiter than the whitewash on the wall."
+
+Eventually the companies arrived in the village at all hours of the
+morning. No one was up. We saw that the men received their meals,
+which had been prepared by the cooks who had gone ahead in motor
+lorries. They did not spend much time over the food, for in less than
+half an hour "K" billets--the same Hospice de Ste. Berthe--were
+perfectly quiet. We then wandered away with our servants, to be met
+at each of our houses by hastily clad landladies, with sleep in their
+eyes and smoking lamps or guttering candles in their hands.
+
+The next morning the Company paraded at half-past nine, and the day
+was spent in reforming sections, in issuing new kits to the men, and
+in working the rosters for the various courses. On Tuesday, just as
+breakfast was starting, an orderly brought a couple of memorandums
+from Battalion Orderly Room for McKnutt and Borwick.
+
+No one watched them read the chits, but Talbot, glancing up from his
+plate, saw a look on Borwick's face. It was a look of the purest joy.
+
+"What is it?" he said.
+
+"Leave, my God!" replied Borwick; "and McKnutt's got it too."
+
+"When are you going? To-day?" shouted the Old Bird.
+
+"Yes; there's a car to take us to the station in a quarter of an
+hour."
+
+They both left their unfinished breakfasts and tore off to their
+billets. There it was but a matter of moments to throw a few things
+into their packs. No one ever takes any luggage when going on leave.
+They tore back to the mess to leave instructions for their servants,
+and we strolled out _en masse_ to see the lucky fellows off.
+
+The box-body drew away from where we were standing. We watched it grow
+smaller and smaller down the long white road, and turned back with
+regrets and pleasure in our hearts. With regrets, that we ourselves
+were not the lucky ones, and knowing that for some of us leave would
+never come; with pleasure, because one is always glad that a few of
+the deserving reap a small share of their reward.
+
+Then, strolling over to the Parade Ground, we heard the "Five Minutes"
+sounding. Some dashed off to get their Sam Brownes, others called for
+their servants to wipe a few flecks of dust from their boots and
+puttees.
+
+When the "Fall In" began, the entire Company was standing "At Ease" on
+the Parade Ground. As the last note of the call sounded, the whole
+parade sprang to "Attention," and the Major, who had been standing on
+the edge of the field, walked forward to inspect.
+
+Every morning was spent in this manner, except for those who had
+special courses to follow. We devoted all our time and attention to
+"Forming Fours" in as perfect a manner as possible; to saluting with
+the greatest accuracy and fierceness; and to unwearying repetition of
+every movement and detail, until machinelike precision was attained.
+
+All that we were doing then is the very foundation and essence of good
+discipline. Discipline is the state to which a man is trained, in
+order that under all circumstances he shall carry out without
+secondary reasoning any order that may be given him by a superior.
+There is nothing of a servile nature in this form of obedience. Each
+man realizes that it is for the good of the whole. By placing his
+implicit confidence in the commands of one of a higher rank than his
+own, he gives an earnest of his ability to himself command at some
+future time. It is but another proof of the old adage, that the man
+who obeys least is the least fitted to command.
+
+    [Illustration: _Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N.Y._
+    A BRITISH TANK IN THE LIBERTY LOAN PARADE IN NEW YORK]
+
+When this war started, certain large formations, with the sheer lust
+for fighting in their blood, did not, while being formed, realize the
+absolute necessity of unending drill and inspection. Their first cry
+was, "Give us a rifle, a bayonet, and a bomb, show us how to use them,
+and we will do the rest." Acting upon this idea, they flung themselves
+into battle, disregarding the iron rules of a preliminary training. At
+first their very impetus and courage carried them over incredible
+obstacles. But after a time, and as their best were killed off, the
+original blaze died down, and the steady flame of ingrained discipline
+was not there to take the place of burning enthusiasm. The terrible
+waste and useless sacrifice that ensued showed only too plainly that
+even the greatest individual bravery is not enough.
+
+In this modern warfare there are many trials and experiences
+unimagined before, which wear down the actual will-power of the men
+who undergo them. When troops are forced to sit in a trench under the
+most terrific shell-fire, the nerve-racking noise, the sight of their
+comrades and their defences being blown to atoms, and the constant
+fear that they themselves will be the next to go, all deprive the
+ordinary mind of vital initiative. Having lost the active mental
+powers that a human being possesses, they are reduced to the level of
+machines. The officers and non-commissioned officers, on whom the
+responsibility of leadership rests, have that spur to maintain their
+equilibrium, but the private soldiers, who have themselves only to
+think of, are the most open to this devastating influence. If these
+machines are to be controlled, as they must be, by an exterior
+intelligence, they must obey automatically, and if in the past
+automatic obedience has not been implanted, there is nothing to take
+its place.
+
+The only means by which to obtain inherent response to a given order
+is so to train a man in minute details, by constant, inflexible
+insistence on perfection, that it becomes part of his being to obey
+without thinking.
+
+It must not be presumed that, in obtaining this almost inhuman
+reaction, all independent qualities are obliterated. For, though a
+man's mind is adjusted to carrying out, without questioning, any task
+that is demanded of him, yet in the execution of this duty he is
+allowed the full scope of his invention and initiative.
+
+Thus, by this dull and unending routine, we laid the foundation of
+that inevitable success toward which we were slowly working.
+
+When the Company dismissed, the Major, Talbot, and the Old Bird walked
+over to lunch together.
+
+"Well, it's a great war, isn't it?" said the Major, turning to the
+other two.
+
+"It's very nice to have got through a couple of shows, sir," replied
+Talbot. "What do you think about it, Old Bird?"
+
+"Well, of course, war is all very well for those who like it. But give
+me the Base every time," answered the Old Bird, true to his
+reputation. Then, turning to the Major with his most ingratiating
+smile, he said, "By the way, sir, what about a few days in Boulogne?"
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] A late, third-rate English pantomime producer.
+
+[2] Stands for Army Service Corps, and its equivalent in the American
+Army is the Quartermaster's Corps.
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+A PHILOSOPHY OF WAR
+
+
+It has often been observed that if this war is to end war for all
+time, and if all the sacrifices and misery and suffering will help to
+prevent any recurrence of them, then it is well worth while.
+
+In these days of immediate demands and quick results, this question is
+too vague and too far-reaching to bring instant consolation. Apart
+from that, too, it cannot decide whether any war, however great, can
+ever abolish the natural and primitive fighting instinct in man.
+
+The source from which we must draw the justification for our optimism
+lies much nearer to hand. We must regard the effect that warring life
+has already produced upon each individual member of the nations who
+are and who are not engaged in it.
+
+At the very heart of it is the effect on the man who is actually
+fighting. Take the case of him who before the war was either working
+in a factory, who was a clerk in a business house, or who was nothing
+at all beyond the veriest loafer and bar-lounger. To begin with, he
+was perhaps purely selfish. The foundation of his normal life was
+self-protection. Whether worthless or worthy, whether hating or
+respecting his superiors, the private gain and comfort for himself and
+his was the object of his existence. He becomes a soldier, and that
+act alone is a conversion. His wife and children are cared for, it is
+true; but he himself, for a shilling a day, sells to his country his
+life, his health, his pleasures, and his hopes for the future. To make
+good measure he throws in cheerfulness, devotion, philosophy, humour,
+and an unfailing kindness. One man, for instance, sells up three
+grocery businesses in the heart of Lancashire, an ambition which it
+has taken him ten years to accomplish. Without a trace of bitterness
+he divorces himself from the routine of a lifetime, and goes out to
+France to begin life again at the very bottom of a new ladder. He who
+for years had many men under him is now under all, and receives,
+unquestioningly, orders which in a different sphere he had been
+accustomed to give. Apart from the mere letter of obedience and
+discipline he gains a spirit of devotion and self-sacrifice, which
+turns the bare military instrument into a divine virtue. He may, for
+instance, take up the duties of an officer's servant. Immediately he
+throws himself whole-heartedly into a new form of selfless generosity,
+which leads him to a thousand ways of care and forethought, that even
+the tenderest woman could hardly conceive. The man who receives this
+unwavering devotion can only accept it with the knowledge that no one
+can deserve it, and that it is greater gain to him who gives than to
+him who takes.
+
+What life of peace is there that produces this god-like fibre in the
+plainest of men? Why, indeed, is it produced in the life of war? It is
+because in war sordidness and petty worries are eliminated; because
+the one great and ever-present fear, the fear of death, reduces all
+other considerations to their proper values. The actual fear of death
+is always present, but this fear itself cannot be sordid when men can
+meet it of their own free will and with the most total absence of
+cringing or of cowardice.
+
+In commercial rivalry a man will sacrifice the friend of years to gain
+a given sum, which will insure him increased material comforts. In war
+a man will deliberately sacrifice the life for which he wanted those
+comforts, to save perhaps a couple of men who have no claim on him
+whatsoever. He who before feared any household calamity now throws
+himself upon a live bomb, which, even though he might escape himself,
+will without his action kill other men who are near it. This deed
+loses none of its value because of the general belief among soldiers
+that life is cheap. Other men's lives are cheap. One's own life is
+always very dear.
+
+One of the most precious results has been the resurrection of the
+quality of admiration. The man who before the war said, "Why is he my
+master?" is now only too glad to accept a leader who is a leader
+indeed. He has learned that as his leader cannot do without him, so he
+cannot do without his leader, and although each is of equal
+importance in the scheme of affairs, their positions in the scheme are
+different. He has learned that there is a higher equality than the
+equality of class: it is the equality of spirit.
+
+This same feeling is reflected, more especially among the leaders of
+the men, in the complete disappearance of snobbishness. No such
+artificial imposition can survive in a life where inherent value
+automatically finds its level; where a disguise which in peace-time
+passed as superiority, now disintegrates when in contact with this
+life of essentials. For war is, above all, a reduction to essentials.
+It is the touchstone which proves the qualities of our youth's
+training. All those pleasures that formed the gamut of a young man's
+life either fall away completely or find their proper place. Sport,
+games, the open-air life, have taught him that high cheerfulness,
+through failure or success, which makes endurance possible. But the
+complicated, artificial pleasures of ordinary times have receded into
+a dim, unspoken background. The wholesomeness of the existence that
+he now leads has taught him to delight in the most simple and natural
+of things. This throwing aside of the perversions and fripperies of an
+over-civilization has forced him to regard them with a disgust that
+can never allow him to be tempted again by their inducements of
+delight and dissipation. The natural, healthy desires which a man is
+sometimes inclined to indulge in are no longer veiled under a mask of
+hypocrisy. They are treated in a perfectly outspoken fashion as the
+necessary accompaniments to a hard, open-air life, where a man's
+vitality is at its best. In consequence of this, and as the result of
+the deepening of man's character which war inevitably produces, the
+sense of adventure and mystery which accompanied the fulfilment of
+these desires has disappeared, and with it to a great extent the
+desires themselves have assumed a far less importance.
+
+In peace, and especially in war, the young man's creed is casualness.
+Not the casualness of carelessness, but that which comes from the
+knowledge that up to each given point he has done his best. It is
+this fundamental peace of mind which comes to a soldier that forms the
+beauty of his life. The order received must be obeyed in its exact
+degree, neither more nor less; and the responsibility, though great,
+is clearly defined. Each man must use his individual intelligence
+within the scope of the part assigned to him. The responsibility
+differs in kind, but not in degree, and the last link of the chain is
+as important as the first. There can be no shirking or shifting, and,
+knowing this, each task is finished, rounded out, and put away. One
+might think that this made thought mechanical: but it is mechanical
+only in so far as each man's intelligence is concentrated on his own
+particular duty, and each part working in perfect order contributes to
+the unison through which the whole machine develops its power. Thus
+the military life induces in men a clearer and more accurate habit of
+thought, and teaches each one to do his work well and above all to do
+his own work only.
+
+From this very simplicity of life, which brings out a calmness of mind
+and that equable temperament that minor worries can no longer shake,
+springs the mental leisure which gives time for other and unaccustomed
+ideas. Men who wittingly, time and again, have faced but escaped
+death, will inevitably begin to think what death may mean. As the
+first lessons of obedience teach each man that he needs a leader to
+pass through a certain crisis, so the crisis of death, where man must
+pass alone, demands a still higher Leader. With the admission that no
+man is self-sufficient, that sin of pride, which is the strongest
+barrier between a man and his God, falls away. He is forced, if only
+in self-defence, to recognize that faith in some all-sufficient Power
+is the only thing that will carry him through. If he could cut away
+the thousand sins of thought, man would automatically find himself at
+faith. It is the central but often hidden point of our intelligence;
+and although there are a hundred roads that lead to it, they may be
+completely blocked. The clean flame of the disciplined life burns away
+the rubbish that chokes these roads, and faith becomes a nearer and
+more constant thing.
+
+The sadness of war lies in the loss of actual personalities, but it is
+only by means of these losses that this surrender can be attained.
+
+It must not be thought that faith comes overnight as a free gift. It
+is a long and slow process of many difficult steps. There may be first
+the actual literal crumbling, unknown in peace-time, of one's solid
+surroundings, to be repeated perhaps again and again until the old
+habit of reliance upon them is uprooted. Then comes the realization
+that this life at the front has but two possible endings. The first is
+to be so disabled that a man's fighting days are over. The other is
+death. Instant death rather than a slow death from wounds. Every man
+hopes for a wound which will send him home to England. That, however,
+is only a respite, as his return to France follows upon his
+convalescence. The other most important step is the loss of one's
+friends. It is not the fact of actually seeing them killed, for in the
+chaos and tumult of a battle the mind hardly registers such
+impressions. One's only feeling is the purely primitive one of relief,
+that it is another and not one's self. It is only afterwards, when
+the excitement is over, and a man realizes that again there is a space
+of life, for him, but not for his friend, that the loneliness and the
+loss are felt. He then says to himself, "Why am I spared when many
+better men have gone?" At first resentment swallows up all other
+emotions. In time, when this bitterness begins to pass, the belief
+that somehow this loss is of some avail, carries him a little farther
+on the road to faith. This all comes to the man who before the war
+believed that the world was made for his pleasure, and who treated
+life from that standpoint. All that he wanted he took without asking.
+Now, all that he has he gives without being asked.
+
+Woman, too, gives more than herself. She gives her men, her peace of
+mind and all that makes her life worth living. The man after all may
+have little hope, but while he is alive he has the daily pleasures of
+health, vitality, excitement, and a thousand interests. A woman has
+but a choice of sorrows: the sorrow of unbearable suspense or the
+acceptance of the end.
+
+Yet it needed this war to show again to women what they could best do
+in life: to love their men, bear their children, care for the sick and
+suffering, and learn to endure. It has taught them also to accept from
+man what he is able or willing to give, and to admit a higher claim
+than their own. They have been forced to put aside the demands and
+exactions which they felt before were their right, and to accept
+loneliness and loss without murmur or question.
+
+A woman who loses her son loses the supreme reason of her existence;
+and yet the day after the news has come, she goes back to her work for
+the sons of other women. If she has more sons to give she gives them,
+and faces again the eternal suspense that she has lived through
+before. The younger women, who in times of peace would have looked
+forward to an advantageous and comfortable marriage, will now marry
+men whom they may never see again after the ten days' honeymoon is
+over, and will unselfishly face the very real possibility of widowhood
+and lonely motherhood. They have had to learn the old lesson that work
+for others is the only cure for sorrow, and they have learned too
+that it is the only cure for all those petty worries and boredoms
+which assailed them in times of peace. If they have learned this, then
+again one may say that war is worth while.
+
+What effect has the war had upon those countries who in the beginning
+were not engaged in it? The United States, for instance, has for three
+years been an onlooker. The people of that country have had every
+opportunity to view, in their proper perspectives, the feelings and
+changes brought about among the men and women of the combatant
+countries. At first, the enormous casualties, the sufferings and the
+sorrow, led them to believe that nothing was worth the price they
+would have to pay, were they to enter into the lists. For in the
+beginning, before that wonderful philosophy of spirit and cheerfulness
+of outlook arose, and before the far-reaching effects of the sacrifice
+of loved ones could be perceived, there seemed to be little reason or
+right for such a train of desolation. They were perfectly justified,
+too, in thinking this, when insufficient time had elapsed to enable
+them to judge of the immense, sweeping, beneficial effects that this
+struggle has produced in the moral fibre and stamina of the nations
+engaged.
+
+It must be remembered that the horrors of the imagination are far
+worse than the realities. The men who fight and the women who tend
+their wounds suffer mentally far less than those who paint the
+pictures in their minds, from data which so very often are grossly
+exaggerated. One must realize that the hardships of war are merely
+transient. Men suffer untold discomforts, and yet, when these
+sufferings are over and mind and body are at ease for a while, they
+are completely forgotten. The only mark they leave is the
+disinclination to undergo them again. But on those who do not realize
+them in their actuality, they cause a far more terrifying effect.
+
+Now, others, as well, have discovered that war's advantages outweigh
+so much its losses. They who with their own eyes had seen the
+wonderful fortitude with which men stand pain, and the amazing
+submission with which women bear sorrow, returned full of zeal and
+enthusiasm, to carry the torch of this uplifting flame to their own
+countrymen.
+
+Others will realize, too, that although one may lose one's best, yet
+one's worst is made better. The women will find that the characters of
+their men will become softened. The clear-cut essentials of a life of
+war must make the mind of man direct. It may be brutal in its
+simplicity, but it is clear and frank. Yet to counteract this, the
+continual sight of suffering bravely borne, the deep love and humility
+that the devotion of others unconsciously produces, bring about this
+charity of feeling, this desire to forgive and this moderation in
+criticism, which is so marked in those who have passed through the
+strenuous, searing realities of war. Since the thirty pieces of
+silver, no minted coin in the world has bought so much as has the
+King's shilling of to-day.
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+The Riverside Press
+CAMBRIDGE . MASSACHUSETTS
+U.S.A
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Life in a Tank, by Richard Haigh
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