TANKS AT FLERS

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXIX, Issue 4762, 22 October 1935, Page 6

TANKS AT FLERS

GERMAN OFFICER’S STORY. A COMPLETE SURPRISE. I ' A paragraph in “The Times,” which recalls the first use of tanks in the war, has a special interest for New Zealanders who took part in the operations about Flers in 1916. A German artillery officer now in London mentions that he was in an observation post in front of Flers when he saw the first tank on the ridge, and he thought it was a . threshing machine. “It did look something like a threshing machine,” he said, “but why it should have arrived there in the middle of a war on a most unhealthy sector at that? Should we turn our batteries on it or wait and see what might happen next? We waited and watched. Then it moved. It actually started to come towards us. But that was not all. Suddenly into view came another. It joined the first one and, side by side, they came on, ugly and ungainly, but terribly businesslike. “Then, without warning, from both of them came streams of bullets. s Next they were on top of us. Those of us who survived will not forget that morning when your tanks first came into action. And to think we thought they might be threshing machines!” Of the 49 tanks which set out; 17 broke down or became bogged. Nine of those which reached the front line got ahead of the infantry and another nine kept pace with them. One got astride the German line at Flers,- raked it with heavy fire and then, ambling along behind it, helped' to capture 300 prisoners.