TANKS IN FALNDERS

Waipawa Mail, Volume XXXVII, Issue 7923, 25 August 1917, Page 4

TANKS IN FALNDERS

STORIES OF THEIR DOINGS. Mr Pirie Robinson, correspondent of ‘ 1 The Times ’ ’ at British Headquarters (in a communication dated sth August), states that tanks were used in the Flanders battle only for obstinate trenches and strong redoubts which resisted the first infantry attacks. Wherever there was a chance the tanks took it despite bad ground and gunfire. Some landships fought for 17 hours, and one was going for 24 hours before the crew got home for ! breakfast. The ground in places was too soft for such elephantine beasts. At one point two were stuck in the mire in the front line. The Germans attacked in force, hoping to capture them, but our infantry helped to defeat the attacks. In due course the monsters heaved themselves out of the mud and departed unscathed. Another, at St. Julien, took 60 prisoners unaided. Another captured a fortified farm, and eight officers, who surrendered at the mere threat of a tank attack.

A strong point on the west side of St. Julien surrendered to a tank, which then, with brother machines, paraded the streets, routing the lurking Germans. The tank had a lively game of hide and seek with the enemy at Pommern Castle and adjoining strongholds. The German machine guns were objectionable, so the tank went for them. The garrison bolted to the redoubt, and the tank lumbered after them under a hail of machine gun and rifle bullets. Agility is not the tank’s strong feature, and when it proceeded to flatten the redoubt the Germans slipped back to the castle. This might have gone on indefinitely, but the infantry arrived and cleared the position. At other places, with peaceful names, such as Plum Farm and Apple Villa, the tanks were useful. One stuck in the mud, and the officers and men emerged under a heavy fire and got it going again. The strength of a tank is sometimes a drawback. One butted in the darkness into a railway engine, pushing it into a ditch. Then it obediently pulled it back. Another, pulling a heavy lorry from a ditch, gave a mighty heave and walked off with half a lorry dangling behind it. The tanks are always ludicrous, but they have become a serious branch of the army. None face greater peril than the crews of these steel boxes. All behaved with the greatest gallantry. The Germans hate the tanks, and frequently flee before them.