RUN OVER BY A TANK.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIX, Issue 148, 22 June 1918, Page 15

RUN OVER BY A TANK.

HOW THE "DIE-HARDS" ESCAPED.

I For somo time there was doubt as to whether enemy tanks had really been in action, writes Mr Hamilton Fyfe in the "Daily Mail." This doubt was set at rest by the arrival nt a certain headquarters of an officer of the T Middlesex Begiment, who had the best reason for knowing they were ln the field. He had been run over by one.

Ills was an extraordinary adventure. He was ln his trench—not a deep trench either —when out of the mist, which was thick in the early morning, as it usually is when the Boche attacks, he saw an Immense tank trundling along. He saw also that it would be useles to get out of his trench and ruu. The tank guns would shoot him down. So he stayed where be was, firing at the slits in the armour-plating -with bis I revolver. 1

"I knew that wasn't any good," this "Old 'Die-Hard" officer said, as he told the story, "but 1 had to do something to cheer myself up. You can't sit still and let a tank run over you. The thing _-as coming straight over our trench. It was impossible to get out of the way." On It came and plunged at them. All ducked their heads instinctively, not hoping to escape, ■ but by a piece of luck they did escape.

The tank did not break the trench i". It passed over, and to their great surprise they found themselves alive. Somehow, the captain guided his handful 0 men back to our lines through the enemy, and they told their astonishing tale.