The Cordova daily times., 1918-08-10
AMERICAN TANK
 MEN READY TO
 CO ID FRONT

WITH THE AMERICAN ARMY IN l ENGLAND. Aug. lO.-Another con 1 signment of American man power that might be labeled Made in England" is ready for shipment to 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 eX- cellent account of itself. The Brit ish coaches of the American crews have expressed their approval of the manner in which their pupils have of the machines, and, unless they are mistaken. the men whose training in England Is just being completed will be given enviable roles. Their ma chimes have the best points of both the British and French tanks and the training 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 stories of mistakes made in the early history of tank warfare. Enlisted men and officers have been told what to do and what not to do; all their admonitions have been based not on theory but on actual experiences gained in the face of German fire.
 loosed always upon the slightest in timation that the tanks are numbering to the front.
 But as a reminder. perhaps, that the enemys fire is seldom effective. is the insignia adopted for the American
 tank corps-two salamanders. crawl ing creatures that worm their way unharmed through the flame and smoke
 It is expected that because of the excellence of the weapon with which 1t will fight and the training 1t has undergone the American contingent
 will prove itself exceptionally eff ticient; for. even as the American en- gineers have been careful to combine in the American tank the best fea. lures of those now used by the Brit ish and the French, so have the in structors of the personnel been scru- pulously careful to inculcate the most | advantageous methods of Offense and defense.
 II Further cause for believing the American tank corps will live up to the estimate of the British instruc. tors is the character of it's personnel
 both men and officers. They are care fully 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, temperamentally adapt able. The training every man has re- ceived has meant either that he is de livered to the commanders at the or Is mercilessly thrown out of the
 service. He is turned over to the
 fighting force as an expert mechanic. man drilled in the operation of both
 machine guns and heavier ordnance,
 a tactician and strategist. and finally
 as man with no evidence of nerves" ."
 British trainers at the little country town where the Americans have been 2 coached have been careful to explain
 to the men, as they weeded out the
 unfit and those not temperamentally
 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 
 roar of the heavy ordnance. the rattle
 of the machine guns, the acrid smell
 of burning powder. and the suffocat- J ing fumes of burning oil and gaso- line. Into this little space. not more than eight feet long and four or five } wide. and with a ceiling so low that man can not stand upright, there is ] crowded the crew.
 l The actual experiences of the Brit ! ish instructors, many of whom were } in the first tanks used in the war, ' have been reproduced in the most min ] ute detail for the instruction of the ! Americans. Little has heep left to the imagination; the practical has been 5 substituted for the theoretical. Huge . shell holes. not dug out with pick