‘Tanks’ in Ypres battle

In my first dispatch on this battle I reported the good work done by the “Tanks”. It is only where a trench is obstinate or a very strong redoubt resists the attack of our infantry that the “Tanks” get their chance. Some of the landships were fighting and under fire for 17 hours at a stretch, and one stayed out and made a night of it, having 24 hours’ continuous work before it got home to breakfast. The ground in places was much too soft for such elephantine beasts. In the region of Frezenberg two of the monsters got mired out on the front line. The Germans, seeing their plight, counter-attacked in force in hopes of capturing them. With the cooperation of the infantry, the attacks were beaten off, and in due course the machines managed to heave themselves out and got off unscathed. One “Tank” took 60 prisoners by itself. In the original capture of St Julien, the “Tanks” seem to have played a considerable part. One strong point on the west side of the village surrendered to a “Tank,” which then, with its brother machines, paraded through the streets and routed small parties of lurking Germans out of the ruins. In Pommern Castle the machine-guns were making themselves objectionable, and a “Tank” went for them, when the garrison, or the greater part of it, bolted and got into the redoubt. The “Tank” lumbered after them to the redoubt under a hail of machine-gun and rifle bullets, but agility is not the “Tank’s” strong feature, and when it proceeded to flatten out the redoubt the Germans slipped back to the castle. This game might have gone on for some time, but the infantry came up and effectually stopped all the bolt-holes, and the position was cleared out. At several other places the “Tanks” did useful service, among them places with such peaceful names as “Plum Farm” and “Apple Villa”. Near another farm, a strongly-fortified machine-gun position, a “Tank” became stuck, and its officers and men had to get out and work under heavy fire to get it going again.