FIGHTING TANKS

Otago Witness, Issue 3327, 19 December 1917, Page 25

FIGHTING TANKS

* GALLANT CREWS. V ONE LANDSHIP TAKES SIXTY PRISONERS. In his despatches relating to the fighting around Ypros early iu August, Mr H. Perry Robinson made special reference to tha good work done by the tanks. Their service, he said, was not general or equal on all parts of the battle front, because In many places there was no need of them, for our infantry swept on unchecked. It is only where a trench is obstinate, o* where a . very strong redoubt resists tha immediate attack of our infantry, that the tanks get their chance. Wherever that chance came the tanks took it in spite of bad ground and sometimes heavy gunfire. Some of the landships- were fighting ana under gunfire for 17 hours at a stretch, and one_ stayed out and made a night of it, having 24 hours' continuous 'work before it got home to breakfast. The ground in places was very difficult, and much too soft tor such elephantine beasts as tanks. In the region of Frezenberg two of the monsters got rnired out on tne front line. The Germans, seeing their plight, counter-at-tacked in force, in hopes of capturing them. With the co-operation of the.infantry the attacks were beaten off, and in due course the machines managed to heave themselves out of the mud, and they got off unscathed. Near St. Julien one tank took 60 prisoners by -itself, and at one of the fortified farms eight officers surrendered under the mere threat of being attacked by a tank unless they were very good. HIDE-AND-SEEK. In the original, capture of St. Julien, which, after having been temporarily given up, is now ours again, the tanks seem to have played a considerable part. One strong point 1 on the west side of the village surrendered entirely to a tank, which then, with brother machines, paraded through the streets and routed small parties of lurking Germans out of the ruins. Another tank had a lively time playing hide-and-seek with the enemy in Pommem Castle and Redoubt, twin strongholds which -stand close together. Machine guns in the castle were making themselves objectionable, and the tank went for them, when the garrison, or the greater part of it, bolted and got into the redoubt. The tank lumbered after them to the redoubt under a hail of machine gun and rifle bullets, but agility ia not a tank's strong feature, e and when it proceeded to flatten the outer redoubt the Germans slipped back to the castle. This game might have gone on for some time, but infantry came up and effectually stopped all bolt holes, and the whole position was cleared out. Pommern Castle and Redoubt, with the square wood adjoining, formed perhaps about the strongest enemy position which we had to reduce that day. At several other places tanks did useful service, among them places with such peaceful namos at Plum Farm and Apple Villa; and, again, near Westhoek. Near another farm, which was a strongly-fortified machine gun position, a tank became stuck, and officers and men had to get out and work under heavy fire to get it going again. THE POLITE TANK.

The strength of a tank has its drawbacks as well as its advantages. In the darkness before the battle one of the leviathans butted into a railway engine on the line and pushed it bodily into a ditch. Having done so, it then hitched on and obediently pulled it back again on to the track. On another occasion one of our heavy motor lorries had fallen into a ditch by tho roadside. A tank came along and waa appealed to for help. The boast was willing, and chains were fastened to the .forepart of tho lorry, when Samson gave a mighty heave, and walked off with half tho lorry dangling behind him while part stayed in the ditch. -One epcak3 thus only half seriously or tanks because tho subject invites irresistibly to nonsense, but, in truth, the service of his Majesty's landships is a very serious branch of the work of tho army. No men, in all the fighting line face greater peril than those who go down to the enemy in these steel boxes, and in every case the officers and men have behaved with the greatest gallantry.