Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1918-03-27

prise, and. by their strangeness
and the apparently irresistible ma
ture of their advance, inspired ter
ror. On our own infantry, on the
other hand. their almost equally
! unexpected debut, and their alb
normality. had quite the contrary
effect 1t was a relaxation of ten
sion, and reaction which had its
own particular value The very
grotesqueness of the machines,
their ungainly, indescribable meth
cd of progress. their coloring-sur-
passing in weirdness the sickliest
fancies of the most rabid cubist->
were in reality great moral assets.
They supplied the touch of comic
relief, and excited the mirth of the
British soldiers. always blessed
with keen sense of the ridiculous.
! They acted as an antidote to the
! effect of the Jack Johnsons, Weary
| Willies, Silent Susies, WhiZZ Bangs.
/ Sausages, Rum Jars, Tear Shells.
Gas Shells, and all the other fright
i fulness of the unspeakab1e Boche.
/ They counteracted the WEAKNESS,
the hunger and thirst. the dust, the
mud. and all the squalor and filthy
( OIL WAT AS mas Deen
! related in the accounts published
at the time, it was laughing.
cheering crowd of infantry which
| in many cases followed the tanks
| forward on the 18th of September.
! On the other hand, the new en-
gines underwent their baptism of
fire, and there were failures due to
4, this, which should not recur.
! Some of these results were pro-
! Quoted by the factor of novelty. and
are already discounted. But the
solid material value of the tanks
/ to the infantry remains.
/ Frederick Palmer, the celebrated
American war correspondent with
+ the British army has estimated
] that in the latter stages of the bat
! tie of the Somme the Intervention
! of the tanks-though many ma
| chimes failed from mechanical and
| other defects-sayed some 10000
! British lives, and subsequent esti-
mates of the quality of the assist
ance rendered by them during May.
! 1917. are similar. But the most
! convincing proof of the difference
made by their intervention is ocu-
/ lar, and is afforded by the pattern"
/ of the field of battle over which
a British attack has passed. Where
! tanks have accompanied the ad-
! vance and have been able to ''eat
! up the enemy machine-guns left
+ over by our bombardment, the
/ bodies of our infantry strew No
/ Mans Land irregularly. here and
there. Where tanks have not been
used, in some places the bodies can
+ be seen to be lying in front of the
enemy's machine-gun nests" and
| strong points in swathes like cut
corn; in a series of high-Water
marks showing where the success
/ sive waves of the assault have met,
and been petrified by the death
| dealing spray of the German Max
! inns
And not only have the tanks saw.
! ed life by the moral effect of their
approach and the number of ma
chine-guns put out of action. They
have themselves taken an active
part in killing, on some occasions.
indeed, having played the leading
role in what might be called
/ butchers dream
That the Germans appreciate the
significance of the new develop
ment is clear from the instructions
issued, and the elaborate protective
measures taken by them And in
spite of the ridicule usually poured
on the new weapon by their news
papers-the object of which is
plain-articles do occasionally ap-
pear which sound another note. For
instance, Lieutenant-General Baron
Won Ardenne stated in the Berliner
Tageblatt that:
These powerful armored cars,
which were first used by the. Brit
! ish, are undoubtedly the most Won
derful weapons which modern tao
tics have revealed in warfare -
But the purpose of this account
| is neither to glorify nor to justify
the tanks; its object is merely to
impart a little information which
may be of interest to those afar off
who have not been in a position to
obtain it.
This, the latest engine of war,
has, of course, its limitations. For
instance, tanks alone, in d. their
present state of development, can
not push matters to a decision nor
win a great action. That must still !
be done. as in the past. by the in |
fantry-the Queen of Battles" But |
"Behemoth," clad in his bullet |
proof skin. and urged onward by |
the power of scores of horses, A.!
laughs at entanglements whilst ma
chine-guns are his meat" His |
main object cannot be too often or |