Evening star., 1917-11-04
COMMANDER OF A TANK TELLS
HOW MACHINES GO TO BATTLE
Through Shell Holes and Over bitches, No
Difficulties of Ground Are Able to
Halt Terrible Engines.

defense. and the tanks smelt blood and
went for them like \ cat after a mouse
had a feeling that some one was firing
directly at me and almost Immediately
found my surmise was correct About
hundred yards away ahead 1 saw a
flash, then felt . crash at the bottom
If the tank. 1t was u shell from an
anti-tanh gun-the tanks mos. formid-
able enemy
"Curkscrewing' or "ziE-zaccinc''
wasn't the word for it during the
Following few minutes. With my eye
on the sights of my gun l kept an aim
on that spot whore those flashes came
from.
found after round was being fred at
ne. and one took effect, hitting the
iaak ON the rear left track The she'll
Vent right through, afterward found
"l!t. hut did no damage beyond putting
the Miad up the crew, particularly
myself
At last / was rewarded. saw a
movement at the gun position and let
loose Il drum of bullets at il. No more
shells were fired at US by that gun. To
put the gun hors de combat was n very
simple matter. A tank can smash any
hing By going over it.
Away to my right was trench from
which saivo Of bullets greeted me.
There was 10 need for me to give an
order The bus right -haud gunners
Got on to that trench in no time and
cnpticd Il few drums of ammunition
INTO it from their machine guns.
The bridge over the river on the old
main road 10 the village l was certain
w"ul1 be . total wreck. but when l got
down 70 it saw that il was almost in
tact. 1t was a strengthening stone
bridge. and about twelve feet wide
and the same length. only one shell
had hit it. and had knocked off a cor
ner Of the side of the bridge This
yelled To The grinning driver. lis q
bit of luck Right over with her
We had scarcely crossed when we
We're all violently flung off our seats by
. tremendous explosion. Tho tank
seemed as though it was soaring up
ward. The bridge had been mined. She
mel. The ground with Il crash. and we
were AL again sent spra wiling. Then
She just Went on forward rs If moth
ing had happened. We all thanked our
lucky stars that the explosion hadn't
come off before we We're actually over:
otheFwise--nuf sed.
The Great Surrender.
could SEE the infantry plodding slowly
through the river. SaIvo after salvo
OF bullets greeted US as we rolled into
the remains OF. the village and Went
down tue shcll-pitted main street
The ilacc suddenly became alive with
screaming bociles. who ran toward the
tank with their hands upiifted Fear
was written large all over their fea-
lures, and man!- of them fell down
shot. The gunner was in clover.
/ could see that the boches were abb
solutely terrified. and out of pity for
them l threw q spanner at the gunner
and gave him the sign to cease fire"
Stopping the tank. | yelled out in Eng
lish that they were al to fall in and
come up one at time in front of the
tank and empty their pockets. Ny
order was understood all right. Per-
soual correspondence. jewelry, water
bottles and gas appliances I let them
keep, but other things i made one of
my men pick up and throw into a shell
hole.
We got back to the rallyins point
after nine hours hard and hot work,
and found that two other tanks OF my
own section were alresdy there. , The
other two tanks had not arrived. and
one tank commander was positive that
he saw poor old Jimmy and his bus
go sky high" He alluded to me.
We had held all the captured posi-
tions and had won the day Just an
other British advance-that's all.