be Carrier Tanks, whese only duty is to "supply," but you never know. While I had been snugly at home, my old company had fallen upon hard times. They had moved up in February to the neighbourhood of Peronne, and their tanks had been placed in position immediately in the rear of the trenches. Then came the great German offensive, and they were swept back to Amiens, losing on the way the majority of their tanks, because the bridges over the Somme were destroyed before the tanks could cross, and all their kit and the famous piano, because all the lorries available were required to transport Battalion Headquarters. In front of Amiens they were used as a reserve Lewis Gun Company. Then they were "lorried" to the Lys front, and for weeks held grimly a section of the line. Now they were back ence again in Blangy, refitting and drawing the new Mk. V. tanks. It was sixteen months since they had left Blangy to detrain in a blizzard at Achietle-Grand and fight in the snow at Bullecourt. There had been a rumour afloat soon after we had arrived in France that in August or September we should turn and rend the enemy. We were inclined to scoff at the thought -the situation was then none too favourable but staffofficers, though mysterious, were decidedly insistent. We did not expect, in consequence, to be employed until this boasted offensive materialised, but on July 19 we received orders to relieve the 1st Tank Supply Company, who were helping the 2nd Tank Brigade to guard the Arras front. So once again I was driving along that stout ally, the highroad from St Pol to Arras. The 2nd Tank Brigade at this period consisted of the 10th, 12th, and 14th Battalions. To each of the battalions was allotted an area of manœuvre, in which it would co-operate with other arms in organised counter-attacks, for the First Army was on the defensive. The old method of stationing tanks behind or in the battle zone had been discarded. The Carrier Company in this scheme of defence was reduced to carrying tank supplies. Each of my sections would attend to the wants of one battalion. In the event of an enemy attack the battalion would dash into the fray, and at the end of the day's work would meet a section of Carrier tanks at a rendezvous and refill without reference to lorries, trains, or other more fallible means of transport. Vimy; Harland's and Westbrook's near the vile and dirty village of Montenescourt, where Brigade Headquarters had been during the Arras battle; and Ritchie's in the famous Winnipeg Camp. We were all contented, and during the daylight safe, but at night we soon learnt that in the past few months the enemy had disoovered how to bomb. We were kept awake, Our one trouble was the Mk. IV. tanks, which for our sins we had inherited. Some of them looked clean: some of them looked dirty. All of them required thorough overhauling and repair, and we worked upon them day and night in case Prince Rupprecht should take it into his head to attack. us. We soon decided to concentrate the company in the centre of the area, and the staffcaptain of the brigade and myself went exploring to find a suitable site for the camp. The Bois de la Haie pleased It was bombed, but so were all woods, and this particular wood was not too conspicuous. We called two sappers into consultation and planned a camp complete with all the most modern improve ments, down to the very latest thing in grease - traps. We began to say farewell to our gentle damsel. But the camp was never built. For on the 28th, when I had returned from my daily round and was calling for tea, buttered toast, and the cake that had come in the parcel, a code message was handed to me. We did not know the code-Carrier companies were often forgotten-but we interpreted the message that we were now in G.H.Q. Reserve and should be ready to entrain at twenty-four hours' notice. The order might mean anything or nothing. I suspected a move to the neighbourhood of Amiens, where two successful little tank actions had already taken place, and sent M'Bean, my reconnaissance officer, to make a corner in Amiens maps. We returned to our repairs with desperate vigour and waited in excitement for further orders. After mess on the 30th I was summoned urgently to Brigade Headquarters and instructed verbally over a glass of excellent port to entrain at Acq early on the 1st. The utmost secrecy was to be observed. The entrainment was to be considered as a practice entrainment. With my doubtful tanks no time was to be lost. Mac plunged into the night with orders for Ryan, who was ten miles from railhead, while my despateh-riders bustled off to Ritchie, Harland, and Westbrook. I was more than doubtful whether the tanks under repair would be ready. Mao reached Ryan in the early hours of the morning, and the section was on the move by 6.45 A.M. Much happened to the tanks on the way, but with the exception of one they made Acq in the course of the afternoon, and the laggard arrived during the night. Ritchie, who was always that we were bound for Pouthorough, covered his tanks lainville, a railhead near Amiens. with branches, and his moving I looked proudly at our box copse caused much excitement. of maps-the battalions were Westbrook and Harland, who still asking for asking for them days each had a tank in hospital, later. Early on the 1st our so inspired their enthusiastic convey of lorries took the road. crews that by dawn on the At 3 P.M. the first train left 1st every tank was more or Acq, and at 5 P.M. the second. less able to entrain. We were All the tanks had managed to not helped by the fact that we scramble on board, although were ordered to entrain "full," none of my drivers had ever that is, with our tanks crammed before driven a tank on to a with petrol, oil, and ammuni- train: that useful accomplishtion. Since before entraining ment was not taught us at it is necessary to push in the Bovington. I watched the sponsons until they are flush second train pull out-the men with the sides of the tank, were cheering-and left in my the order involved unloading ear for the scene of battle. It the sponsons at railhead, was quite like old times. What pushing them in and then part the Carrier tanks would loading the tanks again. We play in the great offensive I wondered bitterly if there had not the remotest idea: were no supplies at our I knew only that I was sorry destination. to leave the milk, the fresh eggs, and the butter. We discovered at railhead CHAPTER XV. THE BATTLE OF AMIENS, The Officers' Club on the hill above Doullens has a reputation, and we could not pass it without discourtesy. It was a good dinner in its way, and we continued our journey in a cheerful, though not hilarious, mood, through novel country, seamed with brand - new trenches and with all camps and houses heavily sandbagged against bombs. At last we came to the railhead at Poulainville, discreetly hidden under the trees at the side of the main road. Tanks were drawn up under any sorap of cover-like frogs sheltering under mushrooms. The staff work was superb. There were so many guides that it was quite two hours before we found our own. Then we waited for the train. It was quite dark, and it began to rain heavily. The first train drew in at 10 P.M. The tanks displayed a more than mulish obstinacy. Every possible defect developed, and we found it difficult to reach the engines and effect the proper repairs on account of the supplies which we had on board. My drivers, too, were inexperienced. For two talions. was the and a half hours we struggled, 17th (Armoured Car) Batcoaxed, and swore in the utter The Brigade darkness (no lights were concentrated behind allowed) and the driving rain, Australian Corps, and preparabefore the tanks were clear of tions were already far advanced the ramp. for a sudden heavy attack. How far the attack would extend north and south of the Somme we did not know, but we had heard that the Canadians were gathering on the right of the Australians, and on our way we had passed their artillery on the road. All the woods were choked with tanks, troops, and guns. The roads at night were blocked with thick traffic. By day the roads were empty, the railheads free -our "back area as quiet as the front of the XIth Corps in the summer of '16. We hoped feverishly that we should have better fortune with the second train, which arrived at 3 A.M. Dawn was breaking, when a wearied R.T.O. told me with ioy politeness that if my tank-the last -was not off the train in ten minutes, the train would pull out with the tank on board. The tank heard the remark. She had resisted our advances for many, many hours, but now she "started up" as though in perfect tune, and glided away down the ramp in the best of spirits. We threw ourselves into the car, limp and soaked. During the night the enemy had been shelling Amiens, four miles from our railhead, with slow deliberation-vast explosions re-echoing among the wretched houses. We drove through the suburbs of the city, silent as a Sunday morning in London. Every third house along our road had been hit by shell or bomb. Then we turned towards Albert, and four miles out came to Querrieu Wood, where we discovered Company Headquarters, unshaven aud bedraggled, sleeping in the mud among the baggage. Only our oook, humming a cheerful little tune, was trying nobly to fry some bacon over a fire of damp sticks. We had become a unit of the 5th Tank Brigade, which oonsisted of the 2nd, 8th, 13th, and We were soon caught up in the complicated machinery of preparation. I attended Brigade conferences without number. Ritchie's section, to my sorrow, was transferred, temporarily, to the 3rd Carrier Company (Roffey's), by way of simplification, and I received in exchange a section of the 5th Carrier Company, equipped with sledges drawn by decrepit tanks, which straggled into the wood on the evening of the 6th. The sledges were so badly designed that the cables by which they were towed were always fraying and breaking. I refused to be responsible for them, and began to collect in their place a job lot of baggage and supply tanks. My sections had no time to make themselves comfortable in Querrieu Wood. On the 3rd, Ritchie, with his six tanks, left me for Roffey and the Cana dians. On the night of the 4th Ryan crossed the Somme and camouflaged among the ruins of Aubigny, moving to an orchard in Hamelet, not two miles behind the line; on the 6th Harland reached Fouilloy, the next village, on the same night; while Westbrook, on the previous night, had joined the 8th Battalion in a small wood near Daours. The majority of our tanks were still giving trouble, for they were ancient overloaded Mark IV.'s. The attack was to be launched at dawn on the 8th. After mess on the 7th I started from the wood with two old tanks, which had just arrived, in a wild endeavour to rush them forward in time. It was dreary and profitless work. Mac managed to reach the fringe of the battle before the tank, which he was leading, finally broke down, while at three in the morning I lost patience with mine and, leaving it to its commander, returned to camp. The night was fine, though misty. We waited nervously for some indication that the enemy knew of the numberless tanks moving forward softly, the thousands of guns which had never yet spoken, the Canadian Divisions hastening to the attack. But the night passed quietly. There was only one brief flurry of gun-fire, when the irrepressible Australians raided to discover if the enemy suspected. At "zero" I was standing outside my tent. There was thick mist in the valley. Through some freak of the VOL. CCVII.-NO. MCCLI. atmosphere I could only just hear the uneven rumble of the guns. It was so cold that I went in to breakfast. Half an hour after "zero" my tank engineer and I set out in my car to catch up with the battle, giving a lift on the way a pleasant young subaltern in the R.H.A. returning from leave, who was desperately eager to find his battery. We left the car stupidly at Fouilloy,-we might have taken it farther forward, -and tramping up the Villers - Brettoneux road, out across country, among invisible guns, through the mist, which did not clear until we reached what had been the German trenches. Apparently we had repeated Cambrai. Companies of prisoners, stout-looking fellows, were marching back in fours. Here and there lay German dead on the rough coarse grass, or in the shallow unconnected trenches. A few hundred yards to our right was the Roman road that runs west from Villers-Brettoneux, Light armoured cars of the 17th Battalion were picking their way through the shellholes. Just short of a large ruined village, Warfusée - Abancourt, straggling along the road, and two miles from our old front line, we found a little group of supply tanks with a couple of waggons. One waggon suddenly had exploded on the trek forward. Nobody had heard the noise of an approaching shell, and we suspected a trip-mine, with which the battlefield was I |