THE TANK IN WARFARE.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3143, 13 November 1922, Page 8

THE TANK IN WARFARE.

(By Major-General Swinton.) September 15, 19TB, was an epoch. Though the fact has not been generally appreciated, history will show that it was the opening of a new era in the war being waged on the Western front and, in truth, the beginning o9 the end. x On that day the reign of that formidable combination in/ defence which had ruled the battlefield with such effect for nearly two years was doomed. The tank—the master of tho ma-chine-gun and barbed wire, and the champion of the infantry—entered tho lists. ( Conceived and born in secrecy, the new arm had for months no individual identity, being known, in order to conceal its purpose and very existence, as the Heavy Section of the MachineGun Corps, with which it had no connection except in name. For some time, indeed, the nature of the weapon which they were to use was not revealed even to the members of the new mysterious unit. But from the moment when its existence was made known to them, one clear, definite principle as to its uso stood out. It was that the Tank Corps had been created to help and, in truth, to save the infantry (which had hitherto always suffered such appalling loss in the attack), by destroying the things which were its greatest enemy and were eating away tho flower of our manhood like a pestilence—the German machine-guns and barbed wire. My far the greater number of v those who took the tanks into action on the. Soinnie in 1910 were under fire for the first time. As compared with the infantry they fought in comparative safety, for of all the shapes in which death might meet those in the open there was, at least for a long time, only one those in the tanks had to fear—the direct hit of a shell. For them barbed wire had no terrors, while machine-guns were their prey. On the other hand, they were isolated in small parties, enclosed in steel boxes, with a. restricted view, some with no view, be\vildered as to what was happening," dazed with noise, and nearly asphyxiated by the fumes of petrol, oil, and cordite. During action the feelings of many of them, indeed, must have been like those of the tokers ae> described by Rudyard Kipling in ''The Ballad of the Clampherdown,'' who— yelped delight As they rolled in the waist and heard the fight Stamp oer their steel-walled pen." In 1916 the crews wore attempting something entirely new in warfare with untried weapons and without the previous experience of others to guide and encourage them. Moreover, their arm, the value of which had been in many quarters looked upon with scepticism, was suddenly called upon, before it was fully prepared, to assist in a great operation. It was with a knowledge of these facts, a realisation that the eyes of tlw Army were directed on them, that much was expected of them, that in a few hours the fact of their existence and the result of their action on the battlefield would be known all over the world, and in the hope that they would be able to live up to their ideal and carry out the self-imposed duty of saving their unprotected comrades on foot, that the men in the tanks slowly drove forward through the mist and the enemy barrage on the morning of September 15, on their Great Adventure, their modern Crusade. And. in spite of discouragement, ; t was with similar anxieties, hopes, and aspirations, but with increased confidence as they gained experience of their power, that they continued to do this, until the machines with the curious, inglorious, and homely name began to be looked upon by the Army as indispensable for every advance, and grew to be the admitted scourge of the Germans. Not far from Pozieres are the scenes of some of the subsequent groat successes of the corps, achieved as it grew to and after it had reached greater maturity—the astonishing and bloodless victory of Cambrai. when the tanks in ;i few hours and at negligible cost ichieved what the British Army had for over two years in vain at great loss striven to do, and opened the door for the infantry through the German line; tho complete and clean victory m which they assisted the Australian's. ind some Amercians in .Inly. H-IS. at Samel; the triumph of August 8, 1918, at the battle of Amicus, when hey finally and beyond all doubt established their worth. It is nut suggested that this was the inly arm whose function it was to asa'st the other arms. All branches of m army fight for all and prepare the vay for and support the iiil'antrv. But he unit whose birth in the field is beoro our minds was unique in laving been created during the war or the express purpose of fighting for • tliers. And tho first to pay a tribute it honor to the 212 officers and 1107 nen whose deeds are commemorated iy a simple obelisk on Pozieres Ridge nil bo their grateful comrades of the iilantry. The next, if thev knew the ruth, would be the relatives of the nany thousands of infantrv .soldiers ho owe the fact that they are alive o-day to tho men in armor.