'Tank' rams and takes a factory
Amazing Feats of New British Armoured Motor-Cars.
Annoyed the Germans
The amazing war adventures of the New British heavy armoured cars, or 'tanks' first referred to by Sir Douglas Haig in his bulletin on Friday last, are described by Mr Beach Thomas in his story of the storming of Courcelette and Martinpuich.
Some Juggernauts
The taking of a sugar refinery which was a nest of machine guns by a 'tank' is thus described in a Reuters special message: One of the 'tanks' rumbled up to the entrance coughing bullets as it came, burst open the barricaded door, scattering sandbags like feathers in a chicken fight, and got in among the machine gunners.
Not long afterwards there fell a hush upon which our infantry marched in and took undisputed possession of the place while the ungainly machine - named by the 'Tommies' the 'crème de menthe', and a 'flagship' at that - was clumsily bumping its way out again.
'An Impertinence'
Two points from Mr Beach Thomas's story are as follows: A Bavarian lieutenant colonel surrendered to a tank and was taken inside, and was thus carried through half the fighting. The German officer captured complained that it was 'an impertinence' to use these iron monsters.
Heroes of the Earth
This is Mr Beach Thomas's description of our glorious fighting men: Between them (the Germans) and us lay half a mile of open country well sprayed by 'bullet machines' fixed at a killing height. Today this deadly distance served the defence as little as the barricades. Scotch, Irish and English soldiers all swept across it in more than international form. The wounded, even the twice-wounded, went forward with the hale and met the enemy waiting for them at the first goal line. All Great Britain should feel through every fibre that never in heroic days did men fight more heroically.
Heroes of the Sky
Of the daring British airman he says: The battle in the air has perhaps never been equalled... Village after village just behind the lines was bombed and to complete the work the airman came low enough almost to stroke the backs of the 'tanks', quite low enough to empty their bullet drums at the enemy's infantry.
Published: 2002-01-01
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