New Britain herald., 1916-09-16
GASOLINE MONSTER
 CLEARS TRENCHES
Grotesque Invention of British
 Proves to Be Great Aid

British Front In France, Sept. 16, via London, 3:15 D. m.-!The work
 of the new armored cars in Go-opera- ton with the British infantry in their cEa1seS in yesterdays successful a,- tack is the one theme oc the talk throughout the army tolay.
 ''Tnc idea was so good w len ;, was offere d. said a staff officer. that we had some built, and the way they have gone over the German trenches and have enfiladed them With machine gun fire is some return for the sur prise the Germans gave up with their Sas sl.acks in the first |.Lle of Y2:' s.''
 r. liicntly the British WorC ahle to keep the building of theSo Cars en- t:rcly secret, and the nrst that the G5, no~ns knew of their ekls,e4lce Was morning they came trundliug across shell craters and over tree stumps cutting down many small trees on their way toward the German ttenCh- es, on to the second line and 0. CT to the third line. The return to earth of ichthyoA-E ITS or dinosaurs spCutlng bullets f'o s-> their nostrils could not have been a>.re amazing.
 '"Tank,' ' IL, slang word thar the army st en hep a piled to these strausc creations O. machinery, but they look less Ii e, t. ks than anything else in tke world It is hard to say what thoy look like. They have been com- pAIe1 both to armadillos and meas uring worms and to many other weird creeping or crawling objects of natu- ral history. A man. of-War's turret crossing fields, in an out of gulles's and through fences, would present 'a spectacle resembling their progress.
 During the days preceding the at- tack, as they moved up to the front and the soldiers gazed at them. the operating with the infantry according All sorts of questions were pro- nounced. Would the thing stand when it was hitched ?-and what was it fed? Which was it's tail and which it's head? At all events it was a steel-jointed in carnation of military secrecy. Spec tators laughed at it, but with the true British sporting instinct hoped that 1t would at least have a sporting chance.
 Last night, wounded men back from the line forgot their pain and what part their battalion played during the battle in telling what the tanks did Notes were compared between the ac- tions of "our' and your" tank. Co., operation with the infantry according to prearrangement, the grotesque creatures played the part set for them under the control of their invisible crews, which were their brain centers Some soldiers said their battalions had nothing more to do than harvesters who gather sheaves, following a reap CT and binder rakcd by fire.
 British army reports never had stranger passage than one saying that 100 Germans had surrendered to a "tank," unless it was the one report ing that the "tanl1'' had been seen from an aerop1ane making it's way the main streets of the Vil- lage of Flers followed by cheering British soldiers. A staff officer spoke of one having stopped to "browse" at the edge of wood before continuing to advance.
 It is small wonder that anybody who saw in action one of these armored motor cars-if car be an allowable name-should hold up his hands. They have brought a new element into the grim monotonous business of war, trenches, shells and bombs. It was the 'tank's' day and the tank" made good.
 According to reports, trenchfuls of dead were left in it's wake when the ] occupants of trenches tried to hold l ground and did not surrender or fly from it's approach. Yet destructive as the fire of the tanks was, many l German prisoners began laughing | when recalling the first glimpse of 1 them, while the British, as result of | the fact that these grotesque com l rades went into the charge, are laugh l ing and rejoicing over the days vic- | tory. The tanks have added an | clement of humor which put the army, l