The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-09-28

midnight, via London, Sept: Zo-ln the lull which has resulted after the great battle in which five villages and 5,009 prisoners were taken by the allies, the correspondent of the Asse- ciated Press has had an opportunity to glean many stories from the par ticipants in the struggle. These ster- ies were not only of courage and heroism but of 9 humor and paradox possible only in such complicated and remorseless warfare.
 The most wonderful of all the tales told was perhaps that of one of the tanks or new armored motor cars. which started for Berlin on it's own account. This monstrous land ship, ambling and ,rumbling along, did not wait on the infantry after the taking of Gueudecourt, but plodded over shell holes and across lots looking for its prey lige some prehistoric lizard. In course of time it found a German trehch but as it engaged the occur pants with it's machine gun it ran out of gasoline.
 When the Germans found this strange creature, with it's steel hide impenetrable to bullets, stalled, cur iosity and desire for revenge was fillip to their courage. They went after it with the avidity of prehistoric man, stalking wounded mammoth whose bulk was fast in one of the allies of the cave dwellers. No such game was ever seen on this western front, marked as it has been Nby all kinds of bizarre fighting.
 According to the accounts given by the British officers with veracious sol- emnity, while the tanks machine guns blazed right and left some of the Ger mans managed to creep along the trenches under the forelegs and hinges of the crouching beast. Then they swarmed over it looking for an opening through which to strike at its vitals. They fired their rifles into joints and bombed 1t all over but to no more avail than burglars trying to reach the inside of a battleship turreti with a Jimmy. All the while the tanks machine gins Kept busy at the human targets in reach while it's crew, chosen daredevfls, concluded to stick until they starved or the Ger mans found the proper can opener to get them out.
 Finally, the British infantry in the rear, seeing the tank in distress. re- fused to wait on any generals orders that they should remain at the. ob- jective which they had gained. They were out to save the impounded tank and with a cheer they rushed the Germans and overwelmed them. When theN crew Heard the laughing and shouting in English they opened the door and called out, we are all right if you will only get us some more juice so that the old girl can have a guzzle of her proper drink and we can take the road again."
 So tha infantry formed a line in front of the tank, determined to de- fend her to the last man, while a runner was hurried back for a can of gasoline. The gasoline arrived safely and the beast, having taken a swallow, amlbled back into her pre- serve amid cheers. It left behind 25O dead Germans, according to it's com mander.
 Another tank assisted in the taking of Thiepval There was once a cha teau in Thiepval. The cellar is still there, roofed by the remains of the dwelling, bricks, stone and mortar, in a thick shell of pounded debris which protects it from penetration by even nine and twelve high explos- ives. v
 Here the Germans waited, smoking their mild cigars and drinking soda water which was brought up through shell-proof underground tunnels. while the ruins over their heads were belabored. vainly by the British artil lery. They had the sense of security of an early Kansas settler when he went below and closed his cellar door during g. cyclone.
 Of course. they had machine gun ready to welcome the British infan- try instantly that the British bonn bardment stopped. When that gun began to rattle, Sir Thomas Atkins took cover and considered ways and means of silencing it. His medita- ttons were interrupted by the appear ance of a tank which, with elephan- tine deliberation numbered across trenches and dipping its vertebrae1 ponderosity in and out of the shell holes made a quick finish of the eel lar and it's occupants.
 The taking of Ehiepval and the Collern redoubt, which lies between it and Courcelette, was a wonderful business.
 Thiepval was held by the One Hun dred and Eightieth German regiment, which had been there for a long time. According to prisoners, the defend CTS had forfeited the commanding ridge with an amazing series of ram flied tunnels and dugouts. They had dug into the chalky earth with beay- er-like industry until they were safe under a shellfre which would have turned a fort like Maubeuge or Liege or any other of the pre-war type into the jumbled grave of it's garrison. The men of the One Hundred and Eigh- teenth asked permission to remain in Thiepval, giving their word that it would never be taken from them, and the German army commander con-. sented.
 Not only at this village but all along the ridge upon which hangs the whole Anglo French movement was the same maze of warrens where the Germans lived with all the comforts of home The One Hundred and Eightileth had culgeled its brains to make Thiepval the very last word in this kind of defense. It was this sort of preparation which stopped the British at Konelji. When the British charged after an artillery Lombard hiding places with machine guns and covered the British with deadly spray. Yesterday when the British went after Thiepval and the Sollern redoubt, the Britons, as one, reached