Читать книгу The Tank Corps - Clough Williams-Ellis - Страница 18

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The morning of the 15th was fine with a thin ground mist, and at six o’clock the thunder of the British artillery rose to a final hurricane. The barrage crept forward, and our Tanks and infantry crossed the parapets.

The Germans seemed to have heard no breath of the nature of the new arm which was to be used against them, and the light haze added greatly to the looming mystery of the approaching Tanks.

Official documents that were later on captured from the enemy revealed something of the deep psychological effect that our Tanks had had on the German infantry. These significant admissions might have done more to convince our own High Command of the great potentialities of the new weapon than they actually did.

One of the best known individual Tank exploits was that of the machine belonging to “C” Company, which helped a New Zealand and an English division in their assault upon Flers.

This was the furthest penetration achieved by any Tank that day.

This machine led its infantry, and these had their first taste of entering a village which they knew bristled with enemy machine-guns without suffering a single casualty.

The adventure had all the exhilaration of surprise, and the men, who had nerved themselves for the usual ordeal of house-to-house fighting, laughed at the astonishing anticlimax presented by their own and the Tanks’ stately progress down an almost empty street.

“All dressed up and no one to fight.”

It was on this occasion that the airmen’s now famous message was sent back, a message whose repetition rather galled the Tank Corps in the days of ill-rewarded effort that still lay between it and its final triumphs:

“A Tank is walking up the High Street of Flers with the British Army cheering behind.”

Of two other Tanks which did particularly well, the first, a male, entered Gueudecourt, where it attacked a German Battery and destroyed a field gun; the other gave great assistance to attacking infantry which was held up by wire and machine-guns. The Tank Commander placed his machine astride the trench and enfiladed it; the Tank then travelled along behind the trench and 300 Germans surrendered and were taken prisoners.

The following is a short summary of the returns of Tanks engaged.

The casualties among Tank personnel were insignificant, though one officer of great promise was lost:

49	Tanks were employed.
32	reached their starting-points.
9	pushed ahead of the infantry and caused considerable loss to the enemy.
9	others did not catch up the infantry but did good work in “clearing up.”
5	became ditched.
9	broke down from mechanical trouble.

Of these last fourteen, some served as useful rallying-points for the infantry after they had become immobile, and several could have been extricated in time to render some service if they had not been knocked out by indirect hits.

Crews who had been obliged to abandon their Tanks either got out their machine-guns and continued fighting or helped the wounded.