Weekly journal-miner., 1918-08-14
UP ID MINUTE IN THE USE
 0F TANKS
MADE IN ENGLAND MAN POWER READY TO GO TO FRANCE AND OPER- ATE DEADLY WEAPON OF MODERN WARFARE.
By Associated Press.

\ ENni-A-ND, Aug O- - -NlOlllti consignment of American man power that might be labelled Made in Eng land" is ready for shipment 10 the western front. It is the personnel of the first American tank battalion.
 Trained by veterans of the British tank service, and equipped with the most modern of the land warShips, the new force IS expected to give an excellent account of itself. The Brit ish coaches the American crews have expressed their approval of the man ner in which their pupils have adapt ed themselves to the operation of the machines and, unless they are mis- taken. the men whose training in Eng land is just being completed will be given enviable roles. Their machines have the best points of both the Brit ish and French tanks and the train ing of the men has been in the light of experiences already gained by the fighters of France and England
 To every man in the American out fit there have been imparted the stor- ies of mistakes made in the early his tory of tank warfare. Enlisted men and officers have been told what to do and what not to do: all their ad- monitions have been based not on theory but on actual experiences, gained in the face Of German fire, loosed always upon the slightest inti-
 .I, Il, 1,.rr, ha- to the front.
 But as a remnder, perhaps, that the enemy's fire is seldom effective is the insignia adopted for the Ameri- can tank corps-two salamanders, crawling creatures that worm their way unharmed through the flame and smoke.
 It is expected that because of the excellence of the weapon with which it will fight and the training jt has undergone the American contingent will prove itself exceptionally effi~ cient: for. even as the American en- gineers have been careful to combine in the American tank the best feat ures of those now used by the British and the French, so have the instruc- tors of the personnel been scruplous lv careful to inculcate the most ad- vantageous methods of offense and defense
 Further cause for believing the American tank corps will live up to- the estimate of the British instruc- tors is the character of its personnel. both men and officers. They are carefully selected men, picked from the thousands who volunteered when the call for tank men was made. Two base requisites were insisted upon, first, every man must be physically fit, and second, tempermentally adapt able. The training every man has re- ceived has meant either that he IS de- livered to the commanders at the front as a wonderfully efficient unit or isI mercilessly thrown out of the ser vice. He is turned over to the fight ing force as an expert mechanic, al man drilled in the operation of both machine guns and heavier ordnance, a tactician and strategist, and. finally, as man with no evidence of ''ncr-I ves'
 British trainers-at the little country town where the Americans have been coached have been careful to explain to the men as they weeded out the unfit and those not tempermentally suitable, that only the best can be used. There is perhaps no branch of the army service that makes a greater demand on the physical endurance of the man than the tank service, and certainly none calculated to test the nerves more, for within the very small fighting space there is combin- cd the roar of the heavy ordnance, the rattle of the machine guns, the acrid smell of burning powder, and the suffocating fumes of burning oil and gasoline Into this little space, not more than eight feet long, and four or five wide and with a ceiling so low that a man cannot stand up- sright, there is crowded the crew.
 The actual experiences of the Brit lSn lnStruCtOrS, many or WnOn were in the first tanks used in the war, have been reproduced in the most minute detail for the instruction of the Americans. Little has been left to the imagination; the practical has been substituted for the theoretical Huge shell holes, not dug out with pick and shovel, but blasted by mines as though by the German shells, have torn mp the training field; trenches identical with those that mark the battlefields of France and other ob- structions that tanks encounter have been built and it is over these that the Americans have been drilled and drilled until, in the opinion of their instructors, they are prepared 10 take their places on the line
 Practical problems of getting out of tight places have been provided, and in anticipation of some of the 4. .I- [