Middletown transcript., 1916-09-23
MOVED DOWN By
HELL MACHINES
German Line DemoraIIzed b!
British Tank Cars.
TEUTON LOSSES ENORMOUS
Appearance Of the Tank Cars Rain
ing Shells Upon the German
Trenches Was Com
pIete Surprise.

With ceaseless shell fire ffon unpFe-
cedented concentrations Of guns tne
battle ragged furiously all day, with Ihe
British making good their advance
while the Germans were rushing up ie-
serves from other parts of the western
front.
The Generalization Of their infah'
try by the use of the new BrltiSn
armored motor-cars, called Tanks, was
freely confessed by prisoners. "There
was no standing against that sort oI
thing" said one German officer OI
course, we surrendered, those OF us
who were alive. We fred at a tanA
with our rifles. Our machine guns
were turned loose on it. But the DuE
lets were only blue sparks on ths
armor. We thought the British slow
and stupid, despite their courage anu
stubbornness, and they gave US a sur
prise like this"
A column of German prisoners, pass
ing tank" rejoicing in the nickname
of Creme de Menthe" which had re-
turned from battle and was resting
from it's labors, spread out their hanus
and shook their heads and looked at 1t
exclaiming in a chorus (''Mein Gott I'M
Himmel Is 1t under control? 1t won't
break out and begin firing again? VIII
we ever forget our first sight of the
thing as it came at us out OF the morn
ing mist? 1t wasn't war using piece
of machinery like that; it is butchery."
To this British officer replied, mo,
it is quite peaceabe and tame now.
1t has just been fed. AS for it not
being war it is quite in keeping with
The Hague convention, which your gas
attacks at Ypres was not"
A Dramatic Episode.
In such an action as that Of Thurs
day the correspondent, though he has
the freedom of the field and is in
formed of the plan of attack the night
before, and although he disregards
sleep, he finds it difficult to get full re-
port of the results so that he can send
QlSQdICu luS bcblhC u4SAts
But moving about the lines from
headquarters of the different units of
command up to the point where the
wounded and the prisoners are being
brought in in a fresh orgy of struggle,
hearing innumerable accounts as vivid
as the red spots on white bandages
and piecing bits of information to-
gether before sitting down to write his
cable there seems no question but that
Thursday was the most dramatic day
in the history of the British army in
France.
The Germans themselves we're mass
ing at many points, it appears with q
view to making attacks to recover
some high ground they lost. The Brit
ish anticipated the German attack with
their own onslaughts assisted by their
new hell machines, whose secret they
had been keeping up their sleeves for
such an occasion as this.
The account of both the wounded
British soldiers and the prisoners
taken from all parts of the line agree
that the German losses were immense.
AS a rule the forces in the front line
trenches supported patrols in the shell
craters in the Somme battle area in
small numbers with a plentiful sup.
ply of machine guns.
The Germans had massed large num-
bers of men in their front trenches.
These were not only caught by the sur
prise of the sudden blast of the early
morning concert of the British guns
preceding the charge of the British in.
fantry, but were raked by machine-gun
fire from the tank cars. AS the Ger.
mans were in new trenches which they
had built as best they could under the
continued shell fire and as they had no
dugouts and could find no shelter they
were subjected to the murderous en-
flade from the tank cars.