Читать книгу The Tank Corps - Clough Williams-Ellis - Страница 20

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After the battle, such of the Tanks as could go under their own power rallied, and steps were at once taken to salve as many as possible of those which had become incapacitated.

From this point, till all available Tanks had been used up and till the ground became finally impossible in mid-November, Tanks were to be constantly employed in insignificant numbers in a series of small experimental actions.

This method of fighting by twos and threes against special strong points was afterwards discarded, as it proved unsatisfactory. Several of these small actions were nevertheless very successful, and showed in miniature some special purpose which Tanks could serve, or illustrated the importance of some special Tank organisation.

For example, Thiepval showed how Tanks could be used without artillery preparation, and Beaumont-Hamel showed the importance of a good Reconnaissance Branch. These small actions were therefore important, not in themselves, but because they were microcosms. In one or two unsuccessful actions it was rather the state of the ground which spoiled the battle than mistaken tactics.

For as the campaign drew on conditions became worse and worse. By the beginning of October the Army in general, and particularly the Tanks, had a foretaste of the miseries of Flanders. The general conditions of this part of the campaign are admirably described by Colonel Buchan in his History of the War:

“October was one long succession of tempestuous gales and drenching rains.

“To understand the difficulties which untoward weather imposed on the Allied advance, it is necessary to grasp the nature of the fifty square miles of tortured ground which three months’ fighting had given them, and over which lay the communications between their fighting line and the rear.... Not the biggest mining camp or the vastest engineering undertaking had ever produced one tithe of the activity which existed behind each section of the battle line. There were places like Crewe, places like the outskirts of Birmingham, places like Aldershot or Salisbury Plain....

“There were now two No Man’s Lands. One was between the front lines; the other lay between the old enemy front and the front we had won. The second was the bigger problem, for across it must be brought the supplies of a great army....

“The problem was hard enough in fine weather; but let the rain come and soak the churned-up soil, and the whole land became a morass. There was no pavé, as in Flanders, to make a firm causeway. Every road became a water-course, and in the hollows the mud was as deep as a man’s thighs....

“The expected fine weather of October did not come. On the contrary, the month provided a record in wet, spells of drenching rain being varied by dull, misty days, so that the sodden land had no chance of drying. The carrying of the lower spurs—meant as a preliminary step to a general attack—proved an operation so full of difficulties that it occupied all our efforts during the month, and with it all was not completed. The story of these weeks is one of minor operations, local actions with strictly limited objectives undertaken by only a few battalions. In the face of every conceivable difficulty we moved gradually up the intervening slopes.”

Such was the setting of this batch of experimental actions. The first of them took place on September 25, when two small parties of Tanks were employed in two distinct actions; the first with the 3rd Corps, and the second on September 25 and 26 with the 15th Corps near Gueudecourt.

The first was a failure. Only two Tanks had been allotted; one was ditched on the way to the starting-point, and the other machine was caught in the enemy barrage and knocked out.

Very different is the story of the Tanks operating with the 15th Corps at Gird Trench near Gueudecourt, when with the help of a low-flying aeroplane 1500 yards of trench and 370 prisoners were taken by one Tank at a cost to us of five casualties.

The story is told in the Somme Despatch:

“In the early morning a Tank started down the portion of the trench held by the enemy from the north-west, firing its machine-guns and followed by bombers. The enemy could not escape, as we held the trench at its southern end. At the same time an aeroplane flew down the length of the trench, also firing a machine-gun at the enemy holding it. These then waved white handkerchiefs in token of surrender, and when this was reported by the aeroplane the infantry accepted the surrender of the garrison. By 8.30 a.m. the whole trench had been cleared, great numbers of the enemy had been killed, and eight officers and 362 other ranks made prisoners. Our total casualties amounted to five.”

At noon on September 26 an attack was launched by General Gough’s reserve army on Thiepval. Eight Tanks co-operated.

It was the second attack that we had made on Thiepval, of which the Germans had made a most formidable fortress. The ground had been blasted into the familiar alternation of crumbling mounds and water-logged holes, and the shattered houses and splintered trees—particularly a certain row of apple trees—stood up forlornly amid the general desolation.

From the point of view of the Tanks, however, the action was important, because here for the first time Tanks were employed in a surprise attack.

No artillery preparation was used, and

“our men were over the German parapets and into the dug-outs before machine-guns could be got up to repel them.”

A large number of prisoners were taken, and in the Somme Despatch the attack was noted as “highly successful,” and the Tanks as having given “valuable assistance.”

By the middle of October 1916 when Tanks were next in action, the ground was hopelessly sodden, and the story of the month which ensued might, with an alteration of place names, be taken for a narrative of the campaign in Flanders. Than this there is no greater condemnation.

It would be tedious to particularise the five or six minor actions in which Tanks played, or more often endeavoured to play, a part between October 17 and November 18. Excepting in the interesting little action which took place at Beaumont-Hamel, to which we have alluded before, no further light was to be thrown upon the uses and capabilities of the new arm.

The following account of the Beaumont-Hamel fighting was given to the authors by a Tank Officer who was present:

“At the end of September it became clear that the Somme battle was fizzling out. The ratio of ‘cost’ to ‘results’ became more and more unsatisfactory; every advance, too, made the devastated and almost roadless area an ever greater problem.

“It was decided that an attack, if possible a surprise attack, should be launched on the flank of the Somme battle. The position selected was roughly from about Serre to the high ground some half a mile south of the river Ancre. This sector had, of course, been attacked at the beginning of the Somme battle in July, but the attack had been a complete failure, and this front had relapsed into comparative quiet.

“Tanks were collected and again entrained, the new detraining station being Acheux. This was the first of the many flank moves carried out with Tanks in order that a fresh front might be engaged.

“On arrival at Acheux, however, at the beginning of October, very bad weather set in and the preparations for the attack were delayed. Day after day the rain continued, and the ground in the battle zone became steadily worse and worse. It was a trying time for the officers and men of ‘C’ and ‘D’ Companies, as they were not in very good accommodation just outside Acheux, expecting daily to move up to battle. It was not until the beginning of November, however, that a move was made by night via Beausart to Auchonvillers and La Signy Farm. The Tanks having reached these lying-up places, the rain came down even faster than before, and a study of aeroplane photographs of the proposed battle sector showed that all the old shell-holes and many of the old trenches had filled up with water, and that the greater part of the front was in a hopeless condition for that type of Tank (i.e., Mark I.).

“Just before the day of the Battle, November 13, it was decided to send back nearly all the Tanks from La Signy Farm, and some of those from Auchonvillers, only a few being held in readiness in case the infantry advance should give scope for their use further ahead on better ground.

“Three Tanks of ‘A’ Company were due to attack with the main assault on November 13; and one of them succeeded in penetrating into the enemy’s position and advancing for some distance along the enemy’s support line and nearly reaching the Ancre before it became ‘ditched.’

“Further north the attack had met with considerable success, except that the village of Beaumont-Hamel had held out for some hours. Tanks had been called upon to assist, and two of them had advanced along the road to Beaumont-Hamel; just about the time that they reached the village the remainder of the German garrison capitulated. Between Beaumont-Hamel and the river Ancre a considerable body of Germans were holding out in the enemy front and support trenches; although troops of the 63rd Division had reached the outskirts of Beaucourt well in the rear of this body of men, they continued to hold out throughout the day. Tanks were again called upon to deal with this situation. They reached the position the next morning, being led up by a trench mortar officer of the Division concerned. One Tank succeeded in crossing the very large German front trench, but, unfortunately, became stuck soon afterwards; the second Tank came to grief just before it reached the enemy front trench. It appeared that a deadlock had again been reached, and the crews of the Tanks were in a precarious position. On examining the ground about them the Officer Commanding the leading Tank (which incidentally was leading no longer, since it was stuck and all too stationary) noticed that the whole area appeared to be shimmering with white. On opening the front flap of the Tank and obtaining a better view, it was seen that all the German garrison, some 400 in number, appeared to have found something white to wave in token of surrender; those who could not produce anything better were waving lumps of chalk about or bits of board or rifle-stocks which they had rapidly chalked white. The situation was rather an embarrassing one for so small a number as the crew of Two Tanks to deal with; fortunately, however, it was possible by signs, and with the assistance of the infantry, to ‘mop up’ these 400 prisoners before they realised that both the Tanks were stuck and out of action.

“Some of the worst of the ground was now in our line, and an effort was made to get the Tanks through this bad zone in order that they might continue to attack in the neighbourhood of Beaucourt. Efforts were made to prepare a track for the Tanks by means of a considerable digging party, but when the Tanks reached the very broken ground just north of the Ancre, they became one after another firmly stuck; with enormous efforts they were dug out, and succeeded in getting a few yards further, only to stick again. It was heart-breaking work, which would undoubtedly have been rendered far easier if the Tanks had then had the unditching beams which were only introduced some time later.

“Finally, on the evening of the 17th, only one Tank had succeeded in getting through this bad zone and reaching the comparatively good ground beyond. The crew, to whom great credit is due, had already been working continuously for some days and night, and were not only exhausted, but had had no time to carry out any reconnaissance of the position which was to be attacked at dawn the next day. There being, however, only one Tank, made it of greater importance than ever that it should be made the most of. It was decided that it should be used against the very strong position known as the Triangle, which was a redoubt on the high ground, roughly midway between Beaumont-Hamel and Beaucourt. The ground about this redoubt was, unfortunately, also very heavily shelled, and a frontal approach with the infantry was impossible, and it was necessary for the Tank to go in on the flank while the infantry attacked the position frontally. It was realised that the first necessity was that the Tank should reach this redoubt as rapidly as possible, and during the night a route was taped slightly beyond our front line and directing the Tank straight for the Triangle. The weather was now much colder, and the frost rendered the ground less hopelessly outside the capacity of the Tank.

“Just before dawn, however, a fresh difficulty arose, and tried still further the already severely tried expedition. It began to snow, and the white tape which was to guide the Tank was obliterated.”

Captain Hotblack (now Major, D.S.O., M.C.), the Reconnaissance Officer who had done the taping, was the only man who had reconnoitred this piece of ground, and he immediately volunteered to lead the Tank upon which so much depended.

Taking what little cover he could in shell-holes full of ice and water, he walked in front of the Tank past our front line close up to the Triangle. Marvellously enough, not one among the hail of bullets which greeted him and the Tank found its mark. Having succeeded in this arduous enterprise and having guided the machine to its position, he returned to report on the progress of the action. The light was now improving, and the Tank started its “rolling up” movement along the German trenches.

The machine was now so much in the midst of the enemy that the German artillery did not dare to open upon it, and the Tank poured in a devastating fire from its machine-guns not only upon the men in the trenches, but also upon some horse transport behind the enemy lines.

But, meanwhile, the infantry was hung up in another part of the field, and the Tank was urgently needed.

At that time signal communication to the Tanks was very imperfect, and there seemed no way of letting the Tank Commander know of the new development.

Again Major Hotblack came forward and again he crossed the fire-swept zone undeterred. He reached the Tank and piloted it back behind our lines, where a renewed attack was planned.

But before the tired crew could be sent out again, the wind changed and it began to thaw. The ground over which the Tank had passed with difficulty when it was hard became impassable, and the project was abandoned.

It was for this remarkable piece of work that Major Hotblack was awarded his D.S.O.

The incident naturally had far-reaching results. An inspiring deed, especially if it be one demanding skill as well as courage, will influence and “set the tone” of a new unit or a new branch of an old service. It is far more effectual than the most convincing arguments as to the necessity for a high standard of conduct and of competence. Much of the subsequent efficiency of the Reconnaissance Branch of the Tank Corps may be traced to this incident.

Reconnaissance took its proper place, it was recognised as a fighting service, and its work was seen to be a necessary preliminary to every action.

Of the total of about ten Tanks engaged in other small actions which took place at this period, hardly one machine had satisfactory records to look back upon.

On November 18 ended the Tanks’ first short campaign. If it did not close in a blaze of glory, at least it had been sufficiently successful for the authorities to decided not upon doubling but on quadrupling their establishment.