The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-07-27
HERD OF TANKS LYING AT REST
 REQUIRE CARE
Attendants Grooming En- zines of Death Seem in
 Comparison but Pgymies

British Headquarters in France, June 30-0By maiD-Under the shell ter of green ridge of sheH-pocked farm land about 15 miles behind the present front line trenches, one may come upon the encampment of the tanks The parade ground is like a distorted page from Gulliver-Lilli- putian men at play with Brobdigna- gian toys. A dozen of the monsters are lying stretched out ip the warm afternoon sun. being combed and oiled and secured by their industrious attendants, who are like mere med ding pygmies by the side of the great steel steeds. Over at the edge of the parade, where the level ground breaks up into ridges and hillocks two or three of the big iron horses are being pjut through their paces.
 Grunting and putting, creaking and complaining, they move along, not with the easy stride of the story book agents, but with the cumbersome gait of a huge musc1e-bound turtle, house on back. But nothing discomposts them in their grumbling advance. They mount a terrace five feet high with the same clumsy noncha1ance that they negotiate a mole hill, and the steady pace of their caterpillars is unchanged whether climbing up a steep slope or clattering blunderingly along the level.
 The job of a tank man is no sine cure. The interior is not built for comfort. 1t is crowded with ma chinery and guns and armor, and in motion the deck sways and bucks like that of a little torpedo boat in storm. Nor is the roof high enough to prevent danger of receiving a sound humping if one is too tall. Men for tanks are picked for small stature and slender bulk. They must be tough as nails but occupy no un- necessary space. A fat man would stick in the manhole. which is alike entrance and exit; tall man would have to spend his time in a stepping posture which would interfere mot only with his own efficiency but with that of everybody else on board.
 If you would spend a few minutes on board a tank you, must have your steel helmet with you and your gas mask carefully encased in it's water proof bag, ready for emergency Climbing through the manhole re- quires little knack of it's own. Legs first is the approved technique, al- S
 though to the novice there appear good grounds for belieing that the reverse process might be just as sat- isfactory. Legs first, one is in dan- ger of placing a foot or leather cJ-d ankle a ga'n 9. bct er s ca S-n with painful results. But with care tlIlI, I.@iI pe ayOiueu, anu Ianu1lS made just beside the starboard gun.
 Everything Is spic and span, shin ing with abundance of oil, but no su- perfluous luxuries of brass or nickel to take away the grimness Of gray black armer plate which obtrude es everywhere. As in a battleship, the preferential position from the Don't of view of safety is given to the en- zines. They lie just above the floor, stretching in longitudinal position through the center of tIfe craft, while shafts and cranks run under special armor casing at the back to the cam which operate the caterpillars and theb ig push wheel at the rear.
 The painting of the tanks is great pastime tn the tank encampnHent. Modern protective co1oring of battle field weapons offers a wide field for the development of the cubist art, and the decorative appearance of a tank going into battle suggests that some painter who all his life had special ized in barber poles bad suddenly gone amuck with paint brush and color pot