The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-09-19

British Front in France, Sept. IS, via London. Sept. 19-The most ara matic and picturesque battle of the British army in all it's two years Tn France was fought on Sept. 15. Here is the story of how all kinds Of men took part in this mighty conflict: Canadians, New Zealanders Eng fish, Scotch, Irish, New Foundland- CTS and Americans are among the men of many countries who took part in the now historic battle and Watf them there went into action those armored motor cars, called Tanks,
 which are to the credit of quiet of- f1cer of engineers.
 Today, when, the Associated Press correspondent was calling on Can adian brigadier, it was a tank call- ed "The Gordon Rouge," looking like a prehistoric monster in skin or mod ern armor and with engines inside which took him across the field or shellcraters. weaving its way with py- thonic adaptability, by all irregular ties up to the door of the brigadler' dugout.
 The skipper of ''The Gordon Rouge" alighted and with phlegmatlc
 drawl announced that he reported TOT further orders, The rbrigadier laugh- ingly bade him not to start the ma chine down the stairs of the dugout
 but move it to one side and walt. So the tank" ambled with the bulky leisure of a hippopotamus over some
 more shell craters to a place where it would be out Of the way until IL was needed.
 Then the correspondent went over the ground which the Canadians had takn, up to the village of Courcelette.
 Later they stormed the village. He met Canadians who came from Mon- treal, Toronto, Winnipeg and Van- couver But when he asked some Of them what part of Canada they hail. ed from they replied: "The same country as you do-the United States"
 Where were men with the accents of Missouri and New England and others who, on the soil of France, hailed one another in the French tongue of Quebec. We got into a
 Dig show all right" said the Ameri- cans "and that is what we came here for" These men who had rushed to the attack of the ridges of the Somme against machine gun fire andj shells carried themselves by all accounts h a manner worthy of the traditions
 the civil war. It was the Cana aians, first offensive on any big scale. They had stood the shock of attack 9. the second battle, of Ypres, at St.
 Eloi, Orell Hill and San C1uary Wood and it hads been their fortune up to the present to stand under blows rather than give them. They want ed their chance on the Somme to
 make good, as they said. and they had it.
 The night before the battle the staff officer in charge of that branch of the front showed the correspondent the Canadian objective. No home run was expected from them but only, a sacri- flee fly, to use baseball language, but they made home run and brought in all the men on the bases. They gained their first objective in an un- terrupted dash, absolutely on time.
 There was the trench which the "Bing Boys" held on the morning of the 18th as the correspondent saw it today. Behind it and ahead of it shell craters were so thick that you could step from one to another. Hav- ing taken their objective their part was finished but General Byng decid- ed, despite the complicated timetable methods of a modern offensive, that he could go further. The command CTS of British corps of all kinds, from cockneys to the clerks, stockholders and farmhands of the new army, tcio TI,nx vxynr ed in conjunction as everything in these moves must be cooperation and team play.
 "Confound cost and everything else," said the Canadians, their nerves strained to the breaking point in their determination to make good on their first offensive. When the word was given they started for Courcelette, which they were ordered to take. Courcelette had had less hammering by preparatory shellfire so as to clean out it's strong points, nests of machine guns and so forth. Through these streets to their new objective, marked on their maps, went these figures of the new world.
 When no word came back for some time, the staff, sitting in the center of the web of telephone and telegraph wires over which was flashing the news of the progress of the great bat tie, began to wonder if the Canadians were in trouble.l But presently they got word that the charge had swept beyond the village and that the Cana dians had been so busy by going on they had not time to send the news. It was explained that they thought that it would be taken for granted that they had got there.
 Among those who made good" say those who are supposed to know the facts, was a battalion of French Cana dians, the kind of men you see in times of peace working their farms in Quebec or bending over the benches of a factory in New England.
 we had luck with us and we forced it, one of the Canadians said. "It was up to us to do so and that's all."
 At one place in the village the at- tackers were held up for a time by strongly fortified post which bristled with machine guns.
 "Well,' as one officer said, i've did not have to tell the men what to. do. They stalked that strong point, man to mar moving around it, and got it."
 But the exploit of the Canadians is only one of the many chapters which may be told now of what the soldiers humorously called the tank" offen- sive, having reference to the new armored motor cars. There was a London division, comprising represen- tatives of all classes of the great city