UP AND AT ’EM IN A TANK.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XXXVII, Issue 7912, 28 July 1917, Page 1 (Supplement)

UP AND AT ’EM IN A TANK.

MY ADVENTURES INSIDE “HUSH HUSH.” By A TANKER. When I wap a kiddie I sometimes.had nightmare through eating green apples. I thought that too much bully beef ajid plum and apple jam were having tlhe same effect on me when I took my first joy-ridle over “No-man’s Land” in “ Hush-Hush.” But “ Hush-Hush” and I now know’ one another better. He’s the best Tank that ever sent the Huns skedaddling into their rabbit holes) and then hiked them all out again. “Hush-Hush” ‘s tho pet of the regiment. In appearance he’s something like a J mighty toad, and don’t the pride of Prussia “toady” to him t-oo! He usually wears a pretty thick overcoat of sticky mud as well. He’s not exactly a cleanly or sweet-smelling animal, but lie never forgets his tricks). PASSED OVER EVERYTHING. Talk of Jona-h in the tummy of the whale! He can’t have Jia-d 1 -a rougher passage than we experience inside “Hush-Hush.” His waddle is worse than the roughest Channel-crossing I’ve ever had. It’s a job not to be “tank” sick. (Some of us were, just at first.) The ground over which -we,, first wallowed and waddled into action was simply honeycombed with shell holes and' mine craters, like. a. miniature Alps. The tummy of “ Hush-Hush” is padded where possible. As we slithered down one side of a hole and crawled' up the other we just clung on to anything handy. If we hadn’t.heen careful -we’d' soon have been standing on . our heads and have had ta open a- peephole to find out where the skjv was. Every now and then there is a sudden jolt and bang. When first this happened I thought we’d come a cropper, but it was only the impact of “HushHusli’s” snout against at tree stump. That tree stump and every other obstacle wo barged into jus*t bowed gracefully t tlie ground while “Hush-Hush” walked over it. “Hush-Husli” ea.ts trees, brick walls, and Huns. He quenches his thirst with petrol—gallons of it. If a house is in the way ho just ambler right through it—an absolute fact!—shakes himself clear of the bricks, and snorts defiance. It’s on such occasions that one is apt to get jumpy. The sudden bumps, crashed, and jerks jumble up one’s nerves. When fighting in the open, however, one feels perfectly safe inside Hush-Hush.” COULDN’T WORK FOR- LAUGHING. We soon came under heavy fire, but tho bullets simply flicked off the tank’s hide like hailstones from a tin roof. Even when a shell burst a) few yards away “Hush-Hush” merely shook himself violently and grunted. Then, walking through the barbed wire in front of the Hun trenches as if it were so much gtnass, lie hiked fyiimself astraddlo the roofs of the dug-outs and began to spit hot lead. Those who were not at once “ pipped” —it was not easy to miss them from, our position—scuttled into dug-outs or flow like mad along traverse trenches. One of our chaps could hardly work his gun for laughing. One big Hun started to run, stopped, turned, and then flopped down on his knees with his arms up. His face was awful. We opened one of the trapdoors and hauled him in—our first prisoner ! As ifJoon as we had pretty well cleaned the trench the infantry came along and “Hush-Hush,” scenting more sport, waddled over the back of the captured trench. Soon after that “Hush-Hush” got indigestion or something and decided to squat for a while. Ho refused to budge, so we spent the night in the shelter of some handy treed.