The sun., 1916-11-12
one WEEKS WORK IN
A FIGHTING TANK
How One of the New War Ma
chimes Ambled Over
Battlefields.
HER CREW GOT TANK SICK
Lights and Shadows Of u Week
Of Unique Fighting on
the 6omme.
HER CREW GOT TANK SICK

~ -
LONDON. Oct. 21.-The Manchester
Guardian prints the following diary Of
a weeks work with a "tank'' written by
a young Australian soldier who wat
wounded while serving with one Of these
new armored cars. His story IL not
dated. and the scenes OF the cars ex-
plo'ts are also left 20 the Imagination:
MONDAY. :
Out for hrst time. Strange sensation.
Worse than being In a submarine. At
irst unable to see anything. but imag-
inod a lot. Bullets beean to rain like
hailstones on a galvanized roof at first.
then like q series Of hammer blows. We
passed through II all unscathed. sud
denly we gave a terrible kirch. I Thought
we were booked through. Lookout said
We were astride an enemy trench. give
them hell" was the order. We gave
them y. our guns raked and swept
trenches right and left.
Got n peep at frightened Huns. II was
grlmly humorous. They .ried TO holt like
scared rabbits. but were hot down In
punches before getting to their burrows.
Machine uns brought forward, Started
vicious rattle on our hide" Not the
least impression was made. Shells be-
gan to burst. We moved on and over
took some more frightened Huns, Cut
their ranks TO ribbons with our nrc
TUESDAY.
on for another cruise. Peppertng be-
gun a, once. Thought old thing was
going to lc drowned In shower OF bull
lets. Things quieted down quickly. silly
b'ighters thought they could rush the
tank like they would a fort. Dashed ~,
frS'n all sides. We fred at them point
blank. Devillsh piucky chaps some o:
f1.,a f"r oil th.fr a,Aln.GH rkA StV-
vivors hid another try. We spst a.
them ~yenomous.y. More OF them went
down. The blessed old tub gave "A sud-
len jerk. God in heaven. thought |. ~
sood-by - earth hut II wasn't. Only
some Hun dead and wounded We had
skidded into. The rain of bullets re-
suncd. II was like az II hundreds Of
rivets were being hammered into the
hide ~ the tank. We rushed through.
Soon the music had charms, and w got
To Ike the regular rhythm OF II.
Suddenly a jolt. and our hearts Jolted
IN our mouths In sympathy. Nothing
ioing In the mishap line. Only some
unwonted obstacle. Heavier "strum-
ming" on our keyboard outside. and
more regular. Machine guns ut II now
Straddlcd on ~ though we liked il. A
tremendous thud. The whole outfit
seemed done for. Nearly jumped out Of
my skin. Looked at each other. and
wondered what IL was, san n roof over
our heads. thank God. Though We had
got On the rocky road 10 Dublin. but II
was only another Hun trench. cur
",p!ttng dcvi,s' opened fire and swept
the trench clear OF the enemy right and
left. Some Huns tried tn, rushing dodge.
Their rushing days are over.
WEDNESDAY
Early star, Roughest voyage yet.
Waves OF Are seemed TO hreak over us.
Tremendous crash. Then another, and
several others at intervals. Silence for
a time. Party 81 Huns came 10 NEE;
u- outside the village. Very stout old
gentleman IN front. Thought II was
the Mayor and village big pots to give
H. n civic welcome. Mistaken They
meant TO give warm reception. bu, not
a. We understood the word. Let ny
with machine guns. They tried sill,
boarding tactics. We laughed. our
guns answered theirs, Tank reception
committee dispersed In a cloud Of smoke
and flame no trailing clouds OF glory.
Fat old gentleman only visibl. emh
Of deputation. Stood open mouthed.
Purple With rage Tank bore down.
old gent started TO run. Funnier than
a sack race. Old gent nung himself to
-trtn with many signs Of surrender.
THURSDAY.
Go into The village and PASSED dow,
two irregular rows of wrecked
houses. Hundreds Of Huns came rush
ine up from cellars and from behind
ruins to see us. Some had eyes staring
out Of head, Looked surprised and even
frightened. One Brighter made a rush
at us with a dubbed rife. Made i, ter
rihle swipe al tank. Smashed his r!ne
and made n nasty noise on our roof.
Hurt himself more than he hurt us. or
for a Joy ride after some nice Huns who
took to fisht as we came up.
FRIDAY.
Early ahoat. Usual shower. NJ bullets
and a few shells or the way. Go righi
across a trench. Made the sparks n,
Went along parapst routing out Huns
everywhere. Enemy terrified. Tried to
run, but ouldn keep IL up under our
fire. Threw up the sponge. and surren-
dcred In patches. One cheeky chap said
ne didn't think II was fair 70 fight with
such things. We said that was our af-
fair. and we could stand the racket Ger.
many cared to make over II. Asked one
chap II he thought we o have go,
permission from the Kaiser before using
them. Didn't see the Joke,
SATURDAY.
Bile crash first 60 of. Thought We had
collided with a wandering world. Wealth
cred the storm, Got busy on enemy
trenches. Rare good sport. Enemy
tried a surprise for infantry-Yorkshire-
mcn--advancing to attack. We tried n
surprise, too, and ours came on first.
Huns weren't pleased. Didn't think II
was playing the game according 70
rotsdam rules, We waddled into their
ambush for the attacking troops. Never
saw men 80 frightened, Fled panic
stricken in all directions. Only n few,
chaps stayed behind and tried TO stop us
by machin gun fire, Smashed them to
bits, and left their machine guns to be
picked up by the Y%orkshiremen they
hoped to surprise.
SUNDAY.
Good work of Frightening Huns con-
,inued. Better day. better deed. Fritz
didn't think that. B!ishters opened rifle
fire on M at 200 yards, II went like
water OF "a ducks back. Fritz couldn't
make it out. Kept IN the fire. but got n
bit nervy rs the blessed old thing kept
waddling up to him. Ladled out death
AZ you might vamp out indifferent music
from a hurdy -gurdy. Fritz got hts.
No fight left In him, Prisoners scared
10 death. Some Of them acted az though
they believed that We used our tanks for
making sausages out Of prisoners. W.
had n lot of trouble explaining that once
they surrendered they were safe.
Finished an exciting week. Got plenty
Of fun. but n wants q gooA rest after
q spell with . tank