Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-09-28
Stories of Courage and
Heroism Told by Soldiers
During Luu Along Somme

British Front in France. Sept. 27,
via London, Sept. 2S. In the lull
which has occurred after the great
two days battle in which five villages
and 5000 prisoners were taken by
the allies, the correspondent of the
Associated Press has had an oppor-
tunity to CLEAN many stories from the
participants in the struggle. These
stories were not only of courage and
heroism, but of 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 Guedecourt, but plodded over shell
holes and across lots looking for its
prey like some prehistoric lizard. In
course of time 1t found q German
pants with it's machine gun it ran out
of gasoline.
When the Germans found this
strange creature, with its steel hide
impenetrable to bullets, stalled,
curiosity and q desire for revenge was
a FLIP to their courage. They went
after it with the avidity of prehistoric
whose bulk was fast in one of the
alleys of the cave dwellers. No such
game was ever seen on this western
front, marked as it has been by all
kinds of bizarre fighting.
Swarmed Over Tank
According to the accounts given by
the British officers with Veracious
solemnity, while the tanks machine
gun blaZed right and left some of the
Germans managed to creep along the
trenches under the forelegs and hind
legs of the crouching beast. Then they
swarmed over it looking for an open
ing through which to strike at its
vitals. They fired their rifles into
joints and bombed it all over, but to
no more avail than burglars trying to
reach the inside of a battleship turret
with a jimmy. All the while the
tanks machine guns kept busy at the
human targets in reach while its
crew, chosen daredevils, concluded to
stick until they starved or the Ger
mans found the proper can opener to
get them out. Finally the British in
the rear, seeing the tank in distress,
refused to wait on any generals orders
that they should remain at the objec-
tive which they had gained. They
were out to save that impounded tank
md with a cheer they rushed the
Germans and overwhelmed them.
When the crew heard-the laughing
and shouting in English they opened
the door and called out: I'VE 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 the infantry formed a line in
front of the tank determined to de-
fend her to the last man while
runner was hurried back for a can
of gasoline. The gasoline arrived
safely and the beast, having taking
swallow, ambled back into reserve
$50 dead Germans, according to its
commander.
All Comforts of Home
Another tank which did well in this
fight assisted in the taking of Thiep-
val. There was once a chateau in
Thiepval. The cellar is still there,
rooted by the remains of the dwell
thick shell of pounded debris which
protected it from penetration by even
nine and twelve-inch high explosives.
Here the Germans waited, smoking
their mild cigars and drinking soda
water which was brought up through
shellproof underground tunnels while
the ruins over their heads were be-
labored vainly by the British artillery.
They had the sense >of security of an
early Kansas settler when he went
below and closed his cellar door dur
ing a cyclone. OF course they had a
machine gun ready to welcome the
British infantry instantly that the
British bombardment stopped. When
that gun began rafting Mr.. Thomas
Atkins took cover and tried ways of
means of silencing it.
The taking of Thiepval and the
Zollern redoubt, which lies between
it and Courcelette, was wonderful
business. Thiepval was held by the
One Hundred and Eightieth German
regiment which had been there fora
long time. According to prisoners,
the defenders had fortified the COM
manding ridge with an amazing series
of ramified tunnels and dugouts. They
had dug into the chalky earth with
beaver-like industry until they were
safe under a shell fire 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 Hundred
and Eightieth asked permission to re-
main in Thiepval. giving their word
that it would never be taken from
them, and the German army COM
mand consented.
Not only at this village, but all
along the ridge upon which hangs the
whole Anglo French movement was